POLITICAL POTPOURRI
WHO KNOWS?
I was having a discussion with three of the smartest political pundits in Indiana recently and asked them who was going to win the Presidential, Gubernatorial and 7th Congressional District primaries. All three said they weren’t sure and that anything could happen. I’ve always maintained that truly intelligent people will always tell you what they don’t know. One thing we all did agree on is that it’s the new voters who will make the difference. According to the Secretary of State’s office there are more than 200,000 new voters and about 50,000 of them have already voted. The question is where do the new voters go after voting for President? Do they stick around long enough to vote for the other candidates or do they bolt? If they do decide to stay I think they may have the biggest impact on the 7th Congressional District and favor Dr. Woody Myers since he’s had the biggest media presence of the major candidates.
“MILLER” LITE GOV?
With all the attention on the two major parties I have to take a second to talk about the Libertarians. They are having their nominating convention this weekend and there’s word they may nominate Brad Klopfenstein, executive director of the Indiana Licensed Beverage Association and occasional fill-in host on my morning radio show, as their candidate for Lt. Governor.
IS THE HONEYMOON ALMOST OVER?
Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard and City-County Council Republicans may be getting ready for the first real fight of their new relationship. My sources tell me that a lot of Republicans aren’t crazy about the Mayor’s plan to expand the search for a new fire chief outside of IFD. Stay tuned.
A WALKING WORK OF ART
Special thanks to the folks at the Indianapolis Museum of Art for having me participate in Saturday’s Procession Art Parade. I was “The Lone Blogger.” I marched in the parade down Virgina Avenue to Fountain Square. It was a lot of fun and the crowd was great. I also found out a lot more people read this thing than I originally thought. Once I get the photos, I’ll post them. Thanks again, IMA.
April 27th, 2008 at 8:50 am
i’ve actually been tuning in to your radio show of late and finding it a lot more entertaining than liberal bashing greg garrison.
April 27th, 2008 at 9:11 am
We don’t liberal bash. We just have fun and inform the public. No political party has a monopoly on the truth or stupidity.
April 27th, 2008 at 11:04 am
The firefighters union is romancing the CCC trying to persuade them to shoot down the change in the ordinance to look outside for a fire chief. The union doesn’t want politics taken out of IFD because they will loose control of the chief’s office.
County consolidation is going to happen and all county personnel should be allowed a chance to interview for fire chief is they have the skills to lead the largest fire department in Indiana.
If the mayor isn’t allowed to go outside the department he will get nothing more than a political hack union yes man with only very few exceptions.
April 27th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
I prefer your style. I wholeheartedly agree that neither party has a lock of intellegence or stupidity, they are interlocking, eeoc idiots.
April 27th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
Ballard’s office has been taking over by a few leaders he appointed to his transition team. Ballard was very accomodating and attempted to bring all in–even those who did not support him, the johnny come latelys and those who sabotaged his campaign–this was admirable, however, these leaders planned from the beginning to remove ‘all’ effective Ballard supporters and protectors from the transition team, divert resumes and bios so as to never receive consideration by the new administration, and to create as many ‘obvious’ conflicts of interests and political faux pauxs so as to make Ballard appear as a lying, backstabbing hypocrit.
It’s working!
Ballard needs to contact all his ‘original supporters’ prior to the favorable polls, brainstorm as they’ve done before and get his ship back in shape—else he’ll not only be a one-termer, but he will be misearable for the next 3 1/3 years and possibly the rest of his life. His legacy could become an embarrassment to his family name and grassroots activism.
Ballard needs to unappointment several people and get rid of the spies and diverters working in his cabinet. He should consult with his original supporters–ALL of them, black, white, old, young, conservative, fringes and bloggers, before he makes appointments in the future…those supporters won’t blow smoke up his ass, but will tell him the truth and keep him honest.
April 27th, 2008 at 4:52 pm
…but wasn’t appointing Darla Y Williams as an environmental hearing officer a brilliant and slick political move by Ballard? She was such a “true believer”!
April 27th, 2008 at 5:07 pm
How are the house repairs going, Wilson???
April 27th, 2008 at 5:12 pm
“I was having a discussion with three of the smartest political pundits in Indiana recently…”
.
.
Now,…..I have this vision of you talking to your three reflections in a three piece mirror. All talking at once, of course.
.
;)
April 27th, 2008 at 6:46 pm
Abdul, “smartest political pundits” is a oxymoron.
April 27th, 2008 at 6:46 pm
I mean “AN” oxymoron.
April 27th, 2008 at 7:28 pm
Amazing. Jim Shella asks Andre point-blank to explain his stance against political influence peddlers despite the fact he’s taking their money… And he completely sidesteps the question!
April 27th, 2008 at 7:32 pm
Hey Wilson how much is that dump going to cost you before the authorities are satisfied? Ten K? Twenty? Thirty? Got the ten grand to make the repairs?
Maybe Carson will float the loan or at least co-sign for you.
I can see the bulldozer now, pushing the walls in, rats scrambling for cover, dust and the smelly funk contaminating the neighborhood, roaches moving next door, you standing on the curb with a suitcase by your side, pitbull on a leash, camera in hand and bus token jiggling in your pocket. Not a pretty site.
Don’t worry the city will clean up your mess. Again the taxpayers will bail you out as they did Julia Carson.
April 27th, 2008 at 7:52 pm
Oh no! Andre closes by saying he ‘feels our pain’ (just like Bart did once upon a time).
April 27th, 2008 at 8:08 pm
Sexist Andre was the weakest link. Ba-bye!
April 27th, 2008 at 8:29 pm
At the close of the debate Andre took credit for ‘two amendments’ that the House passed. Dogged if I can locate them. I find one instance of his minor wordsmithing of the work of Tom Lantos and Henry J. Hyde, where a period was appended to the end of a sentence and four words were added. That’s it.
April 27th, 2008 at 8:52 pm
Well, sexist Andre said he can talk to ANYONE, so time to call his office and have them ANSWER THE QUESTION.
April 27th, 2008 at 10:01 pm
I watched the debate. Clearly Andre is the least-qualified candidate. If you cna’t see it after that debate, you just arne’t paying attention. The others are all exceptional and we’d be blessed to have any of them represent us.
As for Ballard/CCC members fighting: disqualify the public safety personnel from participating in that IFD debate. Then let’s hear what the remainder of the council has to say. I just dn’t care what they hahve to say if they get their salary from IFD or IMPD.
They should have the decency to refrain from the debate. But they won’t. Hell Lincoln Plowman is the Majority Leader. From King Ro to Lincon in the ML’s spot. Please tell me how we’ve improved.
April 28th, 2008 at 6:52 am
You must bring business and common sense to government.
I you were the owner of a company and looking for a department head that would supervise hundreds of people, would you want to be limited on your search for that person? I don’t think most people would want people telling the that they have to pick a person from this certain party.
See, this is what I have said is wrong with our government in all branches. They do not use the same principles in their jobs as we do in everyday life. We should be able to hire anyone for any job in Indianapolis from anyplace in the U.S. They should be the best for the job.