Over the course of the past six weeks we've followed, with growing amusement, the series of highly politically-partisan Brad Dee guest commentaries appearing in the Sunday edition of the Standard-Examiner. Brad Dee is of course state representative Brad Dee, assistant majority whip of the Utah House of Representatives. These articles, written by an obvious Weber County up-and-comer in GOP legislative leadership, have represented quite a propaganda coup for the Weber County Republican Party; and we'd wondered, frankly, how long the Std-Ex editors and local Democrats would let the dominant party in Weber County politics get away with all the one-sided free column space.
Last Sunday, Rep. Dee contributed this guest commentary, praising the teamwork of the Weber County legislative delegation, and reeling off a few examples of legislative teamwork, but neglecting to mention either of its two Democratic Party members.
And while it's also true that several GOP team members were also left out of Rep. Dee's article, Weber County Democratic Party Chair LaFray Kelley has nevertheless taken umbrage at these perceived omissions, and has now contributed her own responsive guest commentary to this morning's Std-Ex editorial page, from which we incorporate Ms. Kelly's opening paragraph:
Brad Dee’s Feb. 17 installment of his legislative report removed any doubt about what this series really is: free political advertising for the Republican Party. His column on “teamwork” praising the work of “our Weber County legislative team” comes across as a little self-serving when you realize he blatantly left out the names of the two Democratic members of that team: Neal Hansen and LaWanna Shurtliff.Ms. Kelley then takes advantage of a little more free column space, goes on to highlight the accomplishments of these two legislators, and then caroms off into a discussion of other more general political issues, and a call for "balance." All in all it's an interesting read; and you can find the full article here.
We love a good political scrap, and it appears the 2008 Weber County election front burner is heating up.
And what say our gentle readers about all this? Is it just your blogmaster, or are there others among us who perceive signs of life from the formerly moribund Weber County Democratic Party?
8 comments:
I think the Weber County Democrats ought to hurry up and have a convention before the only phone booth in the county big enough to hold the three of them is taken away.
Otherwise they will have to hold their meetings in one of the last remaining VW bugs.
viktor:
Haven't been to any WCDem conventions lately, have you Vik....
We hold our conventions in the Eccles Convention Center, Vik. This year's is on April 26. If you promise to be well behaved, and not run around trying to convince people that Hillary Clinton's alien lover from Mars murdered Vince Foster to cover up Bill Clinton's plan to turn the US government over to the UN so the Tri-Lateral Commission's black helicopters could descend in the night to take away Granpa's deer rifle, we can probably get you a visitor's pass. But I have to warn you, Vik: Democrats are definitely part of what Sec. of Defense Rumsfield and his ilk used to like to dismiss as "the reality based community." Think you can handle that and behave yourself?
the more i read of all your posts back and forth on the merits of one party versus the other party the more proud i am to be labeled a gdi.
i personally am a social liberal and a fiscal conservative. i guess i have a foot in each camp but would probably be shunned by both parties for being to moderate from their point of view.
all the polarity of issues by the two parties into black and white terms when the world is actually more gray than any other shade is truly confounding to me.
seems to me that both party seems to value the loyal vote along the party lines by their members over holding their members responsible to actually representing the voters or show integrity in office and not lining their pockets while in office.
these are not the values that made this country great or what most of us expect of our political representative.
when or if either party ever cleans up their act then i might consider joining one but at this point in time i don't want to tarnish my reputation by association with either one.
i hope someday common sense and ethical values comes back into political fashion.
Does anyone else out there recall that LaFray (Jenkins) Kelley and Gage Froerer were both Weber High Class of 1970? What divergent political paths they have taken. Gage has craved elected office his entire life (he was a student body officer), apparently on the theory that a pretty face entitles him. LaFray is smart and sensible and may have just the right credibility to thrive as chair of the Weber County Democrats. In fact, she'd be good in the state legislature; wouldn't it be great if she could displace her Jenkins kin already there? She's right on, of course, to challenge Brad Dee on his vapid screeds. You go, girl!
Well Curmudgeon you are a typical twister of the facts. You practice the age old art of mixing a whole lot of truth with just a little bit of fiction to completely pervert and twist the ultimate message.
For instance, you take all the standard and well known truths like
"Bill Clinton's plan to turn the US government over to the UN so the Tri-Lateral Commission's black helicopters could descend in the night to take away Granpa's deer rifle" and then you try to completely twist the meaning by interjecting the complete lie -
"Hillary Clinton's alien lover from Mars murdered Vince Foster to cover it all up"
Well, you and me, the corner grocer, the man at the post office, the judge in the court house, the teacher in the class room, and every one in between knows damn well that Hillary Clinton's lover was not an alien from mars but an actor on a day time soap opera.
Have you no shame sir?
Disgusted:
You wrote: i personally am a social liberal and a fiscal conservative. i guess i have a foot in each camp but would probably be shunned by both parties for being to moderate from their point of view.
Difficult to know where to begin on the false assumptions in that post. First, you assume that all fiscal conservatives are Republican. Wrong. Let me remind you that the last and only president in recent memory to balance the budget and create a surplus, a third of which he proposed be used to pay down national debt, was a Democrat. Let me suggest you google the term "Blue Dog Democrats."
Of course, your assumption that Republicans are fiscal conservatives is belied by every budget submitted by G. Bush since taking office, and every budget passed without serious demur by Republican controlled Houses and Senates. Sen Stevens of Alaska, who put 225 million or so in via earmark for the infamous "bridge to nowhere" in Alaska was not a Democrat. And his pals in the majority in both houses included it in the budget with few objections.The net effect of all that has been to double the national debt in Bush's seven years in office... not counting this year's deficit, lately projected north of 400 billion. And not counting supplemental appropriations for the war.
Second is your assumption that the Democratic Party drives out moderates. Wrong. Could not be more wrong about that. [I'll let Sen. Buttars answer for his party.] There is, for example, me. Social liberal and fiscal conservative. [Now where did I hear that before?] Happily within the Dem. party in five states over time. Sometimes in a minority --- I was more liberal than the run of the mill Louisiana Democrat. Sometimes in a majority [among NY and Wisconsin Dems]. But the notion that moderates are unwelcome in the Dem party is just flat untrue. They are a powerful faction within, and probably the dominant faction. You'll have to inquire of Republicans about moderates in their party. I can't answer for them.
If you're happy as an independent, fine. Stay one because you prefer it. But not because you think fiscal conservatives are unwelcome in the Democratic party, or that we run moderates out on a rail. Both assumptions flat wrong.
"i personally am a social liberal and a fiscal conservative. i guess i have a foot in each camp but would probably be shunned by both parties for being to moderate from their point of view."
You sound like a Libertarian to me, disgusted.
Take "The World's Smallest Political Quiz," to find out. You too, Curm.
curm
you missed the main points of my comment once again. let me suggest you go back and read the second paragraph of my post.
if you want to attack those comments go for it.
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