Catoosa Vision

Good Knight, Mr. Scott

In perhaps the first demonstration of sanity in years, the Catoosa Republican Party's top two officials "stepped down," citing differing reasons -- but, both of which are related to party in-fighting, bickering, dissention, whatever...

Here's the link...

Electing Brad Scott as Party Puppet... I mean, Chairman was just insane. (Or perfectly sane, if you buy the widely-held "puppet" theory.)

Here's what I find fascinating though... I dont' believe in coincidences, especially when related events so conveniently align themselves, to wit:

I've been questioning (even to some elected Republicans, and Party officials) how the heck did those questions get placed on the Republican primary ballot without any public discourse? I mean, everyone I've talked to just say "Well, it's Bill, Brad and Don. Yep. That's 'bout it." Don't get me wrong, I have no problems with partisan ballots with partisan questions.

But Dudes! Come on... The questions are written SO POORLY, making them so obviously transparent. Let me go ahead and tell you what's going to happen:

After the primary, the results from the "non-binding" questions will be tallied. Even if only 5 people answer the questions (or make that three people; see above), certain elected officials (Bill Clark) will be making statements about "You Good People have spoken! You want _______," where one or more of the various issues so clumsily questioned will be inserted. These "straw poll" interrogatories will be used as political kindling to fuel the Anti-Anything Attitude Those Who Are In Power maintain.

Some of the issues on the ballot are (excuse me for not having the ballot handy; it's on my desk at the office):

• Sole Commissioner (I mean, why not just go ahead and state the question "Do you think the current five member Board of Commissioners should be reduced to a Sole Commissioner selected by Bill Clark and Co.?")
• Colonnade (Of those who would consider voting to remove funding to the Colonnade need to pay attention to the amount of positive publicity and attention generated by the Colonnade, as well as the myriad PUBLICLY ACCESSIBLE -- read: not private Country Club -- events are held there.)

By the way, about Ann Knight, based on the comments in the article, it appears that she left because of problems within the Party. Good for you, Ann! I respect your integrity and courage to walk away from a fractious party that is quickly becoming a joke among mainstream (i.e. sane, decent) Catoosa Republicans.

*Sigh* OK. I'm going to log off and write more next week. I just had to get this off my chest after reading the Catoosa County News article.

posted by Chris Casey @ 5:19 PM