SPONTANEOUS GUEST EDITORIAL
Among the comments I rec'd yesterday was a very long one from someone I respect greatly and have worked with and against. Before I could publish his long comment, he wrote again and asked me to pull it. This is the last thought in a much longer narrative and I thought it was worth reposting and I do with his permission. Except for cleaning up his grammar a bit, it is verbatim.
With all the interesting things going on in the world (Benghazzi, Quincy Park District Westview Tempest, Illinois Pension Wars), I had no intention of writing today about City Politics or its interesting governing techniques. This one is really not about anything but how a friend treats and friend. The author's outrage on behalf of the Havermale family is very authentic:
Mr. Moore..... If you're reading this..... COUNT THE FREAKING VOTES BEFORE YOU PUT SOMEONES FAMILY NAME IN FRONT OF THE SCRUTINY OF THE MEDIA!!!!! You did the Havermale family (who are very good people) a great injustice by not finding out whether you had the support to put Paul in. You opened their family up to unnecessary ridicule by handling this in a rookie manner. The media wouldn't have touched this issue until you announced his name. You further failed by having an alderman deliver the news to Mr. Havermale that the votes on his nomination weren't there. Even if you're an unskilled politician, you could have been a faithful friend.
posted by UMRBlog @ 07:24
5 comments
5 Comments:
The Havermale as victim meme is tired already.
Was Paul completely forthright with Kyle about his tax problem from the outset?
Let's shake the Magic 8 ball and see.
I understand that the Havermale's are upset, but maybe they should be upset at their son putting their "FAMILY NAME IN FRONT OF THE SCRUTINY OF THE MEDIA". Did Paul think that his negligence was not going to be scrutinized? I don't know all the details, and I'm sure there is A LOT the regular public is not hearing, so I can only make my opinion on what has been released through the media. I think the Mr. Havermale's letter to the paper stating how they took care of their customers was a complete joke. Great, you had wonderful customer service...you still have to pay your taxes! In my opinion (just like a**holes, everybody's got one), I think Paul put Kyle in a terrible situation, and if someone wants to call him a bad friend, maybe he should look in the mirror first.
Jeez Tony, way to get me fired up this morning! Have a great day!
Ferg,
I think the GE writer was more into "why toss the guy's name out there until you count the votes?" and, "once it's clear he can't survive, why didn't you, Kyle, go tell your friend that it just wasn't going to work?" (About this last,I have no knowledge.)
Paul and I have had private conversations--which will stay private--about the whole "crisis management" aspect of this. Neither side is walking in sunshine there.
I can promise you, the Guest is not a member of the Havermale family or even an admirer of Paul's.
Finally, with no effort at all on my part, I knew in January of at least $250K of tax liablity--and I was not a campaign insider, nor interested in oppo research. So, how could Kyle NOT know? How could he not ask for the docs? Bottom line...plenty of negligence to go around here.
TYFCB. You are tops in my book.
0731 Anon,
I'm very proud of you that your vocabulary includes "meme" but can you actually read?
The Guest Writer was talking about political competence and how the lack of it impacted a family. It's a fair topic: political competence. After all we are talking about a politician.
If you have inside info that Kyle did count the noses before pubicly naming Paul, that would be interesting. If you know that Kyle, or his consigliere, asked for the docs and didn't get them, that would be fascinating, but, again, a competence issue.
TYFCB.
I never heard anything about Paul's tax problems until Kyle put him up for DAS. Though I'm sure everyone in the business community knew it. Kyle shows political immaturity, if he thought no one would object. Especially the former admin's that knew the score, and lost their jobs. Gonna be a long four years.
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