been awhile since i was critical of the media. but rich james has given me the perfect opportunity to dive back in with this column.
http://www.post-trib.com/news/james/1586494,james-522.articlenow before re reading it. understand that rich is still miffed over the county election landslide for mcdermott for dem party chair. in which rich quoted himself as saying mcdermott had no chance at winning. and that he should step aside and let the big boys, clay and rich's buddy van til, duke it out. of course that was before van til, without telling rich tried to make a deal with mcdermott (was denied) and took his ball and went home in his swamp buggy filled with county gasoline, so that he could give it to his son to drive to school. but that is niether here nor there....
also remember, that rich's wife has worked for the dominguez for years and at one point even had a county take home car as well.
understand, the only requirement to get on the board, is, if approved for membership, to sell 10 tickets to a dem fundraiser next month to help the party finally get out of debt, and even have some extra cash on hand to support party candidates again. this is to ensure that all of the board members can show that they actually have people who agree with them and support them being on the board and giving the party input. and i myself have bought two tickets to the fundraiser, to show support for one of the new board members.
but i digress. according to james. the new dem governing board which is made up of 60 democrats county wide, and has been given input into how the party runs itself (unlike the past one man dictatorships that have run the county party for the past 50 years) is somehow undemocratic.
as i said rich cites the fact that to get on board. each member must raise 1000 dollars for the county party. but more important to rich, seems to be where the governing board members hail from. you see rich says he is mad, for one thing because gary doesnt have a great deal of representation (they do have the second highest number of members of any city in the county though).
should that surprise anyone? after all gary didnt support mcdermott very much in the county election (thats clay's backyard) gary is mired in its own debt and is unable to do just about anything worthwhile on its own citizens behalf much less worry about a county political party. and the mayor rudy clay and the sanitary district in which he sat as the titular head of, is mired in a federal investigation for failing to represent its customers, and yet somehow rich thinks garym regardless of how the vote turned out. should continue to run the county party just because of its sheer size. according to rich past records of failure should not indiciate future odds of success i guess.
nor should past records of criminal records either. you see the home of joel markovich's most recent scam to make money off of local government. the home of the stolen city election. the home of the sidewalks for votes scandal. well rich isnt happy that east chicago isnt getting much representation either. oh, and as you may recall, the mayor there, pabey, is currently under investigation for possibly using city workers to work on his private home, which allegedly isnt even in east chicago. never mind that investigation too. rich wants to know why pabey isnt on the board either. im surprised rich didnt ask why bob cantrell, fotios, and troy montgomery arent on the board either.
hammond has too many representatives according to rich. does rich complain that obama's cabinant is made up of an unusually high representation of people who call illinois hime (33%)? of course not. whom should be surprised that the new chairman has un parralleled support in his home city. just rich i guess.
he goes on to say that crown point and munster have too much representation! yeah. its probably a bad idea to allow the two most popular governments (according to the people that live there) in the county on the board. would the public like the idea of having people they actually like, working for their political party? in rich's world that is apparently a bad thing.
he calls dave kusiak (board member) the boards court jester. why? because kusiak had the audacity to run a competitive political race against yet another of james' political buddies last year. now i may have my own political differences with dave. but kusiak is one of the most active members of the lake county community of citizens and does a great number of things to benefit the least among all of us. the man has started his own charitable foundation for god sakes and he and his wife sit on basically every charitable board in northern lake county. like the man or not, his good works deserve respect and any personal shots at him by a credible columnist should certainly be backed up with something more evidentuary than 'he ran against a friend of mine' before anyone lets rich's opinion take away from any of those good works.
and finally james claims that goerge van til. that swamp buggie riding, gas stealing, kid driving county car, surveyor (anyone remember all of the floods that have besieged the county in recent years) the best political strategous in the county) and decries his not being on the board.
first the obvious. if van til were such a political genius. why isnt he the chairman right now? why has he never rose above the ranks of surveyor. why cant he pay for his own vehicles. why cant he pay for his own gas? and why cant anyone in his family get a job outside of county government?
rich, is apparently the only media guy in the state. that is sad that the local dem party is changing its ways. i guess rich prefers the old do whatever you want system, that involved too many county politicians spending more time in federal custody, than in public service. rich may claim he doesnt like people who are friendly to the new chairman getting what he percieves as preferred status in the new party administration...but what really has his goat is that people who have opposed the new party chairman are no longer in charge. i guess rich and his political benefactors who direct what he writes dont think the election should matter much. and im sorry to have to tell you, but that is truly the most undemocratic lesson of all contained within his column.
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