Mayor Meeker’s Campaign Manager and the Deaniacs

Your friend, Perry Woods, Mayor Meeker’s campaign manager, needs a sense of humor. Otherwise, he’s going to start taking politics too seriously and miss that most people are watching the antics of the people he’s trying to elect – and politicians in general – with something between amusement and disbelief.

Anytime a politician starts a letter – as your friend Perry started in his comment on your blog – with “Respectfully, Gary…” – you know the next thing you are going to get is a shiv under the ribs. And you did. (Heck, Gary, I’ve called you a lot of things over the years but I’ve never called you ‘rude’).

According to Mr. Perry what Mayor Meeker, and Councilmen Stephenson and Crowder really want for the Planning Commission is ‘balance.’ That’s absurd on its face. It’s just political double talk. Translate it into English and what ‘We want balance’ really means is ‘We want our buddies’ on the Planning Commission.

As you point out ‘The Deaniacs’ or ‘Progressives’ (as they call themselves) didn’t win this round. But they aren’t going to take that little setback lying down. They’re of the ‘let’s get angry, then let’s get even’ school of politics.

Stay tuned for Chapter 2.

Schools and Roads

Here’s a really amazing thing.

The two Republicans on the City council voted to (or at least to take a step toward) spending more money on schools – and three liberal Democrats (Charles Meeker, Russell Stephenson, and Thomas Crowder) voted against it. Jessie Taliaferro and Joyce Kekas also voted for it and Councilman James West voted no.

Now, let’s examine what Council members Taliaferro, Kekas, Isley and Craven voted to do: they voted to consider taking money from Interlocal Funds (money that is now dedicated to being spent for things like Downtown Convention Centers and Hotels) and to use it to build schools, or roads, instead.

Gary is worried the ‘Deaniacs’ will now go after Taliaferro and Kekas as ‘DINOS’ (Democrats in Name Only). If they do, that’s the best thing that could happen to Taliaferro and Kekas. Can you imagine anything better – politically – than being attacked by a bunch of radicals for voting to spend more on schools?

If it wasn’t for Taliaferro and Kekas next time the Republicans would be running for Mayor and City Council as the ‘education’ candidates and the Democrats would be defending using taxpayers’ money to build a hotel downtown instead of a school.