Well the jury has come in... the American Civil Liberties Union jury that is... according to this morning's Standard-Examiner. Scott Schwebke apparently received the ACLU's 4/25/08 press release, and dutifully provides a short write-up, concerning the alleged shenanigans of Boss Godfrey and his Godfreyite lemmings during the 2007 municipal elections. We incorporate our favorite Ace Reporter's lead paragraphs below:
OGDEN — Errors by poll workers and inappropriate actions by supporters of Mayor Matthew Godfrey marred last year’s Ogden mayoral election, the ACLU said in a report released Friday.Godfrey, of course, considers it all to be a big joke:
The ACLU concluded that, while no laws were broken, the spirit of the election was violated by inappropriate actions, including unnecessary voter challenges and poll worker errors.
Godfrey dismissed the report as ridiculous. “It’s laughable. The credibility of the report is lacking.”Not only does Boss Godfrey get a good laugh at the lumpencitizens' expense, he turns the tables and dons the role of "the poor persecuted victim":
Godfrey said the family member the ACLU referred to is his brother. He said there is no allegation his brother did anything wrong, only that his mere presence made voters uncomfortable.Nothing new here. When things go wrong, it's standard practice for Godfrey to clumsily claim to be the true victim. Godfrey plays the part of "Poor Pitiful Pearl" ad nauseum. So we'll move on. Needless to say, the ACLU views the matter quite differently.
“I find it amazing that they can say my family members don’t have the right to be at the polls,” Godfrey said.
He also criticized another complaint in the report that alleged his posters and other election materials were present at polling locations and visible to voters.
“It’s a total fabrication,” he said. “It’s obvious to everyone at those locations that it’s untrue. It’s ridiculous to make such a claim.”
Godfrey seemed unconcerned during an interview that his actions or those of individuals associated with his campaign created even the appearance of impropriety, the ACLU said.
“Instead, he dismissed most of the complaints we brought to his attention as merely responses from people who bore him a grudge,” it said.
Read Ace Reporter Schwebke's morning story here, wherein Mr. Schwebke provides a good fact summary.
For those detail-oriented readers among us, we recommend reading the ACLU's full 17-page report, straight from the Utah ACLU website.
And no. The ACLU will be filing neither a lawsuit nor a criminal complaint. As is usual in the course of mayoral misconduct, Boss Godfrey and his faithful supporters apparently operated in the "gray area" of the law, and thus none of them will suffer the indignity of a courthouse frog-march. Hopefully this report will draw some attention in the state legislature, however.
We're short of time for our own tedious analysis, and therefore suggest that our readers make the digestion of the ACLU report part of their day's activities. Who knows? Perhaps this material will provoke a flurry of WCF reader commentary.
Next!
17 comments:
Godfrey's comment on the ACLU election report was enough to turn my stomach. "It's laughable. The credibility of the report is lacking."
This mirrors his comments on the WSU geological report on property his buddy, Chris Peterson, wanted to buy. "It's a farce."
Apparently, anytime experts contradict the way Matt wants to see the world, he denigrates it as a joke. That's his one-on-one style as well, making it pointless to try to discuss anything with him.
"It's a Farce!"
I see a man who has just gotten off without a penalty because the store he shoplifted from only prosecutes felonies, and he stole something worth $49.99.
"It's laughable," he says. "It's not stealing if the item I stole doesn't result in prosecution. You're saying my family members have no right to be in the store, blocking the security cameras? These are just security guards that hold a grudge against me."
Everyone knows the precious character of this young Übermensch is beyond reproach.
What we're seeing here is the Richard Nixon Syndrome: there is no such thing, he believes, as legitimate criticism of him or his policies. All opposition is illegitimate by definition, and so must be driven by base or irrational motives... i.e. by "people who have a grudge against me." You are either for him and his policies, or you're on his enemies list. Short of during election campaigns, he makes not even a pretense of listening to those who think differently.
Want to hear the same whining attitudes about those who dare to oppose? Listen to nearly any portion of the Nixon oval office recordings in which he is discussing political opponents.
Truly effective politicians and administrators understand that it only hurts them to define the entire "not on my team" universe as "the enemy." Truly effective politicians and administrators know how to expand their influence by finding ways to work with those who oppose them, finding ways to make their administrations more inclusive. Reagan was good at it. Tip O'Neal was a master at it.
Usually, sooner or later, that kind of arrogant infallibility ends up bringing its possessor down. Once again, think Nixon.
A Mayor who actually was good at his job, would have take the ACLU report, noted that none of the problems were reported to be the policy of him or his campaign, and then recognized that "clearly, at some polling places, things were not done as well as they could have been done. I'm going to make sure, the next time I campaign for office, that those working for me understand the polling place laws very well, and I'm going to work with the County Clerk to do everything the City can to make sure poll workers are better trained next time round. Nothing illegal happened, the ACLU report says, but that is not a high enough standard to set for elections in MY city. Ogden residents and voters deserve a higher standard than that, and I will do all I can to make sure that whatever problems there were don't happen again."
Instead, we got "it's a joke. It has no credibility. They're all a bunch of naysayers with a grudge against me." And so on.
It's kind of sad, in a way. A Mayor Godfrey who actually understood public administration and who was good at it, would have served Ogden better than he is, and probably would have ended up getting more of what he wanted to do done than he will.
My two cents:
Another great article from Schwebke.
urm, you philosopher, I got agree with you again.
Godfrey’s arrogance will be his demise.
Matthew Godfrey SUCKS!
Godfrey's comments regarding a voter's loss of their constitutional right to vote reflects his true character better than anything any one could possibly say about the man.
I did think it amusing that the headline "Misplaced Revenge" appeared next to the article on the shenanigans of our very own Übermensch.
Monotreme:
I object to the wholesale, popular use of uber as an adjective modifier, meaning super or extra; I am fluent in German and it means over or superior: uberboss, Lying Little Matty Gondola Godfrey.
THE SKI IS BEAUTIFUL BLUE
Jason:
It's a Friedrich Nietzsche reference. I didn't coin the term.
a solitary, reflective, exceedingly strong-willed, sage-like, laughing and dancing voice of self-mastery who, accompanied by a proud, sharp-eyed eagle and a wise snake, envisioned a mode of psychologically healthier being beyond the common human condition. Nietzsche refers to this higher mode of being as “superhuman” (übermenschlich)...
-- http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/nietzsche/
Godfrey's reaction was so predictable.
I have to agree with Jason that obermensch doesn’t really fit Godfrey except for the strong-willed, and I have some other adjectives that fit him better than that: bull-headed, myopic, single-minded, tunnel-vision, etc. As far as the super goes, it should proceed other nouns and adjectives like liar, deceiver, dictator, bully, unethical, depraved, demented, delusional, he’s a defected deficit, a jackass, a snake and unscrupulous. I’ve often heard him called a weasel,
I thought electioneering was against the law, like a misdemeanor. That is exactly what Jo Packham did sitting at the end of the election judges’ table with Godfrey’s brochure plainly visible on her lap and asking people what their name was! I had one voter tell me that he thought that she was an election judge. ALL THOSE VOTES IN THE MAYORAL RACE SHOULD HAVE BEEN DISQUALIFIED AT THE DEE EVENT CENTER!!
When people say that they don’t understand how he was re-elected, I just tell them that I strongly doubt that he was. He is Mayor because he doesn’t play by the rules and then I tell them what happened at the Dee Event Center. I am really disappointed that the ACLU didn’t have the courage to file charges against him because his poll watchers were guilty of electioneering and intimidation. Also the judges at Taylor gave voters PENCILS with which to fill the “provisional ballots.” When a voter protested and said that the instructions read to be completed in INK, they were told that they didn’t have any pens and a pencil would be OK. Well, those ballots were not counted! That definitely could have changed the At-large Council Seat A race as well as the mayoral race.
I will NEVER believe that Godfrey was elected mayor!
Jason: fluency in foreign languages is always to be admired. But you'd better be discreet; around these parts people assume such fluency came in the course of an LDS mission!
UTA isn't the only one to whom the Mayor did not reveal his plans for the quarter cent tax revenue. His proposal has not come to the Council, but then that's no surprise. I do believe this should be a joint decision. I did not know until Scott Schwebke called me for a comment. I also told him that an environmental study in conjunction with the transit alternative study would be a good use of the quarter cent tax because we need to address the congestion on Harrison Blvd. especially during "rush hour." Scott said that he thought that was a good idea, but wasn't sure he could include it in this article. My husband who has a unique sense of humor, says he doesn't understand why it's called "rush hour" traffic when the cars don't move! He's a jewel and a good relief from the hassles of City business.
Communication is a great tool by which many things are accomplished. Listening is an important part of communicating. As the Mayor said to me recently, "This out to be interesting." I just hope the cost of not communicating on the transit issue isn't too high for Ogden.
Dorrene:
Please see Dan's post under the main Trolley Bus thread above concerning the trolley buses not fitting what the transportation tax money can be used for.
Such buses... and Hizzonah wants big ones, seating seventy... can be useful where there is a large number of people regularly traversing city streets. Such as along the main street in Park City. Very narrow, much narrower than 25th St. here, very little parking [no slant in] steep slope and for much of the year, the sidewalks have a lot of people on them. That is not the situation in downtown Ogden, nor is it likely to be any time soon.
Not sure who these two Toonerville Trolley Buses are to serve. Every fifteen minutes now, the 603 bus leaves the train station on week days and in minutes carries people to the two bus stops on lower twenty-fifth street. From one of them, the Junction is two blocks away. Two blocks.
Nothing I've seen suggests there is going to be a lot of traffic from the train station to the Salomon Center anytime soon. If the Mayor has a traffic study in hand suggesting otherwise, he hasn't shown anyone. And there is only one business now opened in the River Project area for the Trolley Buses to serve. I know the business is owned by an FOM, but still...
At some point, and we all hope this comes true, business and street traffic in downtown Ogden may make sense of a downtown shuttle bus. But certainly not now, certainly not at the expense of funding real urban transit options. Certainly not for a some time to come.
I would love to have been listening in when Mr. Schwebke called the UTA person about Hizzonah's latest brainstorm. "He wants to buy what from us?" Still chuckling.
Moroni:
*Not fluent, familiar with; that was a phrasing gaffe, although I can assure you it was not committed under the influence or liquor, cheap beer or other strong drink.
I spreche ein bischien Deutsch und habe viele jaren Deutsch gelernt.
That post was probably a result of my bitterness engendered by personal enmity and self-loathing: boohoo for me!
And I offer my apologies to Monotreme as well; your sourcing befits a learned doctor of such high intellectual caliber, although you've never attended a crime conference, you dolt!
I was referring to the neauseating trend in the mainstream media, especially sports reporting: ubercool, uberhip, uberQB, uberpopular, uberstrong and, in the case of the onion-reeking, gondola-loving, gigantic-foreheaded, God-vision-receiving mayor we ELECTED TO THREE TERMS, Lying Little Matty Gondola Godfrey, uberdouche.
THE SKI IS BEAUTIFUL BLUE
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