Spank That Donkey

Outlaws, studio version...

 The Slantin Mis Leader covered last nights 'illegal' meeting of certain members of the Staunton Republican Committee last night.  Do you think there are problems in the committee when they can not agree number one when to meet, who are actual committee members, and officers such as the position of Secretary?

What does all of this really stem from?  Anne Taetzsch beating former Clinton White House Fund Raiser turned Republican Stacey Morris for the Chair in March of 2006.  No I am not making that up.  My favorite comment left on STD by Ms. Morris in regard to NLS rebutting the News Leader:

Hum, seems that you had a democrat come to you and your cult leaders defense in the Newsleader....whoops, I believe you even had one blogging for sayre. Do you really expect forgiveness when you guys haven't shut your nasty mouths for two seconds since the election. I would say Andrew is correct the quasi-leaders must go... which you are not, nor is Alex Davis.

June 18, 2007 | Stacey

Who has been further agitating within the group, another former Democrat turned Republican Dr. Andrew Clem.  How Conservative would you say Dr. Clem is?  Note his attitude towards Sayre supporters vs. Sen. Hanger:

All this while, he was helping to build the Republican Party in the Shenandoah Valley - Mountain region, playing a key role in helping the GOP gain a majority in the Virginia state legislature. For this lifetime of hard, devoted work, he is now being attacked -- or dare I say "betrayed"? -- by a small but vocal fringe group who presume to embody the real Republican Party.

Look how magnanimous he was in Sen. Hanger's victory in relation to B4S:

Fortunately, some of those bloggers refrained from the filthy mud-slinging, showing that there is some hope for reconciliation within the Republican Party -- once they express contrition for siding with those who tried to wreck the party, that is. As for the hot-headed zealots, however, they should consider "spending more time with their families."

Another of Taetzsch's protagonists (whoops) antagonists in this drama is Ray Ergenbright who ran the meeting during her election so at least that is not being challenged. Ergenbright,  the former Commissioner of Revenue for the city, lost his 2005 re-election to that position by over 1,000 votes, which paled to the 1,522 vote  'thumping' he got running for Staunton Clerk of Court in 2003.

• Final tally Maggie Ragon, 3,708, Ergenbright 2,685, in November 2005. 
• Final tally Roberts 2,707, Ergenbright 1,185, in November 2003.

Now let me ask you this question in all seriousness... How popular do you think Ergenbright is in Staunton, and furthermore how about his abilities to build a grass roots network?  His only saving grace in the 2005 race was that we did help his campaign...

The real bottom line here has a lot to do with this statement or demands of Taetzsh's opponents via the Mis Leader:

In the meantime, Thursday's group decided to draft a letter to Taetzsch that expressed their continued support for their chair, provided that she recognize Clem as the legitimate secretary, stop county leadership from attending city committee meetings, and follow both the bylaws of the Republican Party and Robert's Rules of Order in conducting meetings.

Emphasis mine in the above quote.  Here you have a group of people supposedly working for the betterment of the Republican Party, but this group has done nothing but cause dissent at each and every meeting (please refer to Ms. Morris and Dr. Clem's attitudes above), actively work to purge the Committee Membership, and seek to exclude members of neighboring Republican Committee's from meetings?

SWAC means Staunton, Waynesboro & Augusta County, exactly how does intentionally excluding neighboring Republican Party members from attending your meetings help build Party unity?  As far as Dr. Clem being Secretary, if the aforementioned persons hadn't consistently insisted on taking the meetings into private sessions (i.e. kicking out the public and neighboring Party Members) he possibly could have been voted in as Secretary, although they still lacked a quorum to do so.

As for the complaints of following the committee's bylaws just the evidence that Dr. Clem is not Secretary because he was voted on in a non public meeting with out a quorum, and the recent Legal decision by RPV to block the latest meeting should speak volumes to the subject.  He loves to pronounce that he is all about following the rules, but yet he  & his crew goes against the RPV by proceeding with this illegal meeting, and inviting the MSM to it!

Who is really trying to wreck the Party Dr. Clem, as per your comments above, "Us Hot-Headed Zealots"?  I think not, your fingerprints Sir are all over this.....  This movement is about ripping away the Staunton Committee from a very effective SWAC GOTV machine when we need it most in the 2008 Presidential election...

These primaries like the Sayre - Hanger show down should happen more often, they are very instructive.... indeed. Spark It Up does an even better job of getting to the point in this issue.

(Billboards R Us)

 One day during the 2005 Kilgore/Bolling/McDonell Campaign, RightsideVA and I came rolling into the combined Augusta County/City of Staunton Pub HQ...  There we were confronted by our RNC supplied paid campaign staff members... They were doing a pretty good job of pushing us locals aside while they put together signs, and trying to figure out exactly what town they were in, so they could organize door-to-door, and Lit Drop routes...

We brought them a couple maps, out of the goodness of our hearts, and kinda looked at them, and asked them when we were going to get some more 4'x8's because we had more locations... 

Signs? Signs don't vote...  Rightside and I look at one another then back at our 'paid' political leader and said in unison, "No Problem, we'll go take them down, smart ass"... At which point we were reassured that the signs, we had been putting up since the primary in June would be OK...

but you know what?  Chunky, I mean the 'paid' political guy lacked tact, but in a sense he was right; the signs didn't vote... they were really just an 'awareness' function....  Much like blogs...

Alot of bloggers act like, or would hope that their blogging wins elections... I don't think so, unless it is a blog that breaks a story, or raises an issue that so throws a candidate off, that they lose momentum, or just can not figure out how to deflect or answer the issue or incident correctly.  Macaca for Allen was an event that happened on the campaign trail, and was properly manipulated by the Lefty bloggers, (along with Wikipedia entries) and was so poorly handled by the Allen Campaign, that leaves little doubt that blogging had an immeasurable effect on the campaign... However, it took a compliant MSM, who own gallons of ink, and plenty of opportunities to insert the word Macaca and racial into the same story for the full effect on the voters.

(She's a Beauty)  Face it, bloggers really reach MSM types, political junkies, other regular bloggers, and what; one half of one percent, of the voting public?  We should not be so vain as to think the public sits on the edge of their computer seats waiting for us to make up their minds of who to vote for.... Seriously.

Blogs Don't Vote!  They are an awareness tool.  Kinda like if Rightside & I went out and put up a bill board that says Jim Webb = 4 years evading the Law & I'll make you Legal.... Will probably get motorists curious about what the heck that means.... but will it get the motorist to the poll?  Will they even see it if we just put up one sign at a busy intersection in a 100 square mile county?  That is the impact of most blogs... vs. the MSM in print or TV.

Seriously, Blogs Don't Vote!

 (surprise, surprise)  Breaking News via email here from Del. Chris Saxman:

Friend, 

 

I signed the Americans for Tax Reform pledge not to raise taxes because I believe government, like any business or family, must function within a budget. We cannot continue to raise taxes for the sake of increasing government revenue and bailing out reckless government spending.  When politicians spend wastefully and are then permitted to tax their way out of budgetary problems, there is no incentive to reduce wasteful spending, or for that matter, not to spend more.  Despite this reality, some have been very critical of me and others who pledged not to raise taxes.

Our Delegate continues:

 Kilo's post today on Jeff Burton had me going through the links, & the crash videos took me back to the good ol' days as a Marine on Okinawa... All of the bars in Kin-ville as we referred to the little town outside Camp Hansen would show video of spectacular crashes... Sporting events, motorcycle racing, stock car, Indy etc... Somehow every night you went out they would have different videos so you weren't watching the same thing... or maybe you'd be distracted by the girls wishing you to buy them a drink.. and didn't notice...

Check out this link from one bad wheel.com,(also below in YouTube) with the music dubbed over it, and imagine sitting around a table full of Marines drinking Red Horse... Which all of us swear had gin in it, because it was so potent... It was kinda strange though, some nights you could drink three or four and feel normally drunk.. some nights two would have you stumbling home... with help needed... (notice how their web site has a reference to the USMC, Iwo Flag raising).

I remember San Miquel made it, and their quality control was so bad, when you bought a case instead of all the bottles having the same amount of beer in them, the levels (looking through the neck) were all different..