Candidate With Secret Identity
Slings Mud From The Shadows
There are times I think I have heard or seen it all.
Some people have imaginary friends. I get an imaginary opponent.
I’m probably the only elected official with a political opponent using a “secret identity”.
A couple of weeks ago I received phone calls from friends that a three-page letter had been sent to them with lots of the usual accusations and mudslinging. There was the standard high school attack. I would think the lack of material that forces my opponents to use thirty-four year old data, speaks volumes of the life I’ve tried to lead.
Then there was the convoluted argument that if someone else wrote a column they didn’t like in the First Capitol News and I didn’t stop writing this column, that means I “endorsed” what the other person wrote. Based on that same logic, John Sonderegger should quit writing for the Post-Dispatch, because of what Bill McClellan writes, otherwise he is just endorsing everything Bill writes….right? My brain hurts trying to think like these people.
My opponent also revealed in the letter that he was conducting polling, setting up a web site and blog. There in fact had been a survey done months before. There was also a letter sent anonymously to members of my Parish attacking me and saying I somehow wasn’t a good Catholic because of something someone else wrote. It also told people I didn’t go to Church frequently enough. I guess they forgot to ask themselves what Jesus would have done before mailing that one out.
Since the letters are all being mailed first class, thousands of dollars have been spent already, over a year before the election…all in violation of the campaign spending laws of the State of Missouri which require full disclosure and reporting of where that money is coming from.
But now comes the real punch-line. The writer of the letter, the person who wants the trust and support of voters, who spends three pages trashing my name…wants to remain anonymous. My imaginary opponent writes:
“For the time being I will identify myself only as Phoenix.”
That’s right. I have an announced opponent for my reelection in April of 2007 with a code name. I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried.
Two weeks ago, when the Council meeting went on till after midnight, I got some good natured “ribbing” from folks at Borromeo’s fish fry Friday. Most were along the line that the Council had kept them up past their bedtime. That’s the meeting where when we returned from executive session I noticed the clock said it was 12:01 and welcomed everyone back to “day two” of the City Council meeting.
People ask me all the time how I manage to stay calm chairing the meetings when people substitute bricks for the hardballs they normally throw at us. I guess it helps to have a sense of humor and not to take yourself too seriously. A couple of weeks ago I read an article by a local columnist saying I had “gaveled down” two people. One held the opinion that we were somehow like the Ku Klux Klan, the other that our Police acted like Nazis.
Both violated the Council rule against making defamatory remarks, so as President of the Council I had to inform them they were out of order and had to forfeit the remainder of their time. I did so politely and never even picked up the gavel. I haven’t figured out how you “gavel down” two speakers without using a gavel. Someday I’ll have to ask John Sonderegger how he thinks I did that.
Most of the time people just don’t think about what they are saying till it falls out of their mouths. In this case, the references to Nazis and the Klan were meant to stir up fear…fear of the terrible “police state” we are living in.
The ten member “Do The Right Thing Committee” has been beating that drum for several weeks now. Here is how they reached the conclusion people are living in fear of the Police:
I see some things that just don’t look right with petitions circulated in the recall of Councilwoman Dottie Greer. I then ask permission of the City Administrator to turn in a complaint to the Police that I feel a crime has been committed. The Administrator arranges and sits in on the meeting to make sure I am giving no direction to the Police and simply pass on to them the facts. That is the extent of my involvement.
I feel somewhat vindicated that the Police uncovered what they felt was credible evidence of a crime and that the County prosecuting Attorney has now filed felony charges in the case. But I got to endure several weeks of attacks by this group for daring to stand up and question them.
But they terribly overplayed their hand trying to convince average law-abiding citizens that they had anything to fear from local law enforcement. Worse yet, trying to smear the reputation of the men and women of law enforcement by mentioning them in the same breath as Nazis or Klan members.
I had an uncle who helped liberate death camps. I have a life-long Jewish friend, whose family was nearly exterminated at the hands of the Nazis. I have close friends and the godfather of my son, whose families were persecuted by the Klan. I’m offended anyone with any knowledge of history or sense of decency would try to smear the reputations of our Police to try to “shift” the focus away from their own political problems.
There also seems to be no limits to the hypocrisy of this coordinated smear campaign.
It is an amazing coincidence, but my imaginary opponent, “Phoenix”, seems to agree a lot with this group…almost as if they were all one in the same. But if Phoenix isn’t a real person, then that would mean some other person or group, say one with obscene amounts of money to spend on a recall election, could be behind these smear attacks.
Could a group that claims to have a thousand “imaginary” members, or to have collected “imaginary” signatures on petitions, be the people behind my “imaginary” opponent?
You just have to laugh sometimes. Goodnight Phoenix…wherever you are.
