You never know what you can find associated with the Governor and his people when you go looking at what they have put up on Facebook. Things like the logo here show up in their Facebook profiles.
*ahem*
On Thursday night, I blogged about Tom John’s firing of Dave Miller, a Marion County GOP township chairman that was quoted in the Howey Report as complaining about John’s strong-arming of delegates and demand for a pro-Costas loyalty oath for appointed delegates.
Readers will note that all of these reports have since been corroborated by recent editions of Indiana Legislative Insight and the Howey report.
After further inquiry, rumor has it (and Hoosierpundit sources have also told me) that Tom John’s efforts to pack the GOP state convention and rig the vote for Jon Costas, the Governor’s man, are much more extensive than previously indicated.
According to Hoosierpundit sources, Tom John held a meeting of the Marion County township chairs about a week and a half ago. The meeting was called on very short notice, so not all of the townships were able to attend; those that were not present were apparently notified of the meeting’s happenings via other means.
Present at this meeting, sources say, were…
I name names, and go into much further detail, at the rest of this post over at Hoosierpundit.
“those that were not present were apparently notified of the meeting’s happenings via other means.”
A severed horse’s head in their bed?
[Sorry Scott that graphic just made that music start playing....]
What, you mean like this? (not for the faint of heart…that is if you can’t stand the site of a fake hollywood severed horse’s head from the early 70’s)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=kTbLx19GpDk
Actually, that’s a real horse’s head.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Godfather#Filming
The actor was not giving a reaction of sufficient shock or terror to satisfy Francis Ford Coppola when a fake head was being used, so Coppola obtained a real one and put it into the scene without telling the actor that it was real.
Needless to say, the director was satisfied with the reaction.
I just read the full details on the other blog, and I’m still trying to get the sand out of my eyes. That is unbelievable!! What do you suppose the “consequences” will be for the chosen delegates who do not cast a vote for Costas?
Maybe a Jill Long Thompson administration wouldn’t be so bad afterall.
I asked, but my sources didn’t know. I’m guessing that it would vary depending on the county or the delegate.
And I wouldn’t go so far as to say that a JLT administration would be better.
I imagine what little the Governor can influence it would be in economic development. Those counties whose Chairs don’t drink the koolaid will be ignored by IEDC etc. Those who do will have shiny new businesses opening within the next four years.
This does not surprise me at all with the way Tom John runs things.
Perhaps this is really all about Tom John? Is there so much hate for Tom John that you would all face down the Governor and send him a message? Is that what this is?
Well, it’s about getting the best candidate for attorney general.
And that candidate would be one that has experience (Zoeller by far), a strong conservative and Republican background (certainly Zoeller), and is independent of various other interests (be those the Governor or the big Indy law firms, one of which Tom John works for; again, Zoeller far and away).
Tom John has not endeared himself to as many people as you would think–what with his lack of support for Greg Ballard, and various other city council candidates–in essence Tom has been making his bed for quite awhile and I think he’s beginning to get sleepy…
J****, Scott!
I know You and Others believe Zoeller is the best candidates, but putting transcrpts of GOP party meetings on the blogs? Have you no shame?
It seems to me in some circles, advancing Greg Zoeller is more important than hving a party that can elect Repulicans in the fall.
But he put in his time! HE DESRVE IT!!!
If Tom John and Costas’ campaign manager were not apparently threatening and strong-arming people in these meetings, sources would have probably never told me what appears to have transpired in them.
When someone engages in these sort of tactics, people don’t like it. And when people don’t like it, they talk about it. And when they talk about it, word gets around. It’s their own damned fault.
The only people that are harming the party and damaging it for November are the people that are engaging in strong-arm tactics, that are making threats to party officers and elected officials, and are firing people that don’t agree with them. And those people are uniformly behind the Governor and Jon Costas.
That may be your opinion, but if I had an employee who chose to handle a disagreement by spouting of to the media and publishing internal work product, I would have fired him just like Tom John did.
And that still does not forgive you for doing what you are doing. Speak positive of Zoeller instead of working wedges into the party. You may feel others are, but if so, that does not forgive you for doing so yourself.
Shame on you, Scott.
shame on nothing linda–take off the county party’s blinders and wake up, Marion county GOP is not a regime. It is not a totalitarian dictatorship. It is not a monarchy. It is (supposed to be) a democracy-strong arming votes is wrong, pure and simple. When bad deeds are done it is the responsibility of those who hold that process dear to safeguard it by passing along the warning.
Example: If there is an identity fraud-type e-mail going around would you expect someone to keep mum about it? What about animals-take meerkats-when there is trouble they COMMUNICATE and pass the word so that the group on the whole can be safe.
Same scenario-This is OUR convention and I for one will not allow it to be rigged by those who would control our political future. I like and fully support Mitch, but this is just plain wrong.
I mean think of it this way-what happens if this was to stay wrapped up? what happens at the next convetion? bribery? extortion? The second law of thermodynamics states that (in short) objects that are left to themselves WILL deteriorate. That pretty much applies to this situation. If we don’t stand up for what is good today, then tomorrow we’ll be defending another Lake county….
Let me just say that I reject the argument that this discourse, and that putting the truth out there, will somehow giving us a candidate that can’t win in the fall. That presumes a determination about electability — that Costas is better than Zoeller — whose supporting reasoning is questionable at the very least and whose ultimate conclusions I do not agree with in the slightest.
“That may be your opinion, but if I had an employee who chose to handle a disagreement by spouting of to the media and publishing internal work product, I would have fired him just like Tom John did.”
But Dave Miller is not an employee, is he? The comparison is specious and absurd. He is a party volunteer, a loyal Republican who has been in that position for years and has even been a convention candidate for a statewide office.
What you seem to be so willing to ignore in all of this, in your haste to defend the arbitrary and despotic sacking of a party loyalist, is that Dave Miller was not even in the United States to attend the meeting where Brian Howey claims that he complained about strong-arming.
There was no such meeting and, if there was, Dave Miller was in Costa Rica and would not have attended it. What you are doing is apologizing not merely for thuggery, but for utterly and totally unjustified thuggery at that.
It is you, not I, that should have shame. Dave Miller has been fired for something that he did not even do, and you are not just defending the unjustified purging of party volunteers, but are saying that it is okay to do so on complete whims and without any truth behind why it was done.
Shame on you, Linda.
“And that still does not forgive you for doing what you are doing. Speak positive of Zoeller instead of working wedges into the party. You may feel others are, but if so, that does not forgive you for doing so yourself.”
I have spoken positively of Zoeller and will continue to do so, but I am also going to call out threats, strong-arming, disgusting tactics like loyalty oaths, and unjustified firings when they happen. Those tactics rest entirely on one side alone, and they should not be engaging in them.
It is they who are harming the party by what they are doing. Simply pointing out the truth is not going to cause any more damage than they are inflicting upon the party by threatening county chairs and elected officials, firing loyal party volunteers for no reason, or demanding loyalty oaths from convention delegates.
The people who should have shame are in the Governor’s campaign, state party, the Governor’s office, the Marion County GOP, and the campaign of the (unbelievably ignorant) Jon Costas.
It is my understanding that Tom Johns did not have the decency to speak to David Miller about anything David was supposed to have said or not said. In a stunningly cowardly manner, he left the message on Miller’s Voice Mail while David was out of the country trying to recover from his daughter’s recent death in February. Miller had no knowledge of anything he was quoted as saying. Sound like a democracy to you?
How do we know Miller didn’t say what he said? It seems as if Howey had sources that he said it. But if he was wrong, why haven’t you guys all called for Howey to offer a retraction? You haven’t; he hasn’t. It is more advantageous for folks like you to bash the Governor, Costas, and the GOP than actually search for the truth.
And what of Miller being a volunteer? So if you have a volunteer who is in a position, and instead of agreeing to disagree, goes to the media to eviscerate the organization he volunteers for? You can’t remove him from that position? That is patently ridiculous!
If there are all these Zoeller supporters who are upset that they are not delegates, why didn’t they run on the ballot like everyone else?
This is all sour grapes. Simply put, you shouldn’t air GOP dirty laundry like you are. You may think it helps Greg Zoeller in the short term, but this is doing nothing but hurting our party.
Cindy pretty much says it all.
“How do we know Miller didn’t say what he said?”
I guess “innocent until proven guilty” is a foreign concept to supporters of Jon Costas.
“It seems as if Howey had sources that he said it. But if he was wrong, why haven’t you guys all called for Howey to offer a retraction? You haven’t; he hasn’t.”
Sorry, but I’m not in the business of defending Brian Howey, who made a very big mistake and Tom John punished an innocent man for it.
Sure, Howey is in the wrong, but Tom John’s unjustified reprisal against Dave Miller for something that Dave Miller didn’t say and wasn’t even in the country to say is beyond the pale and more wrong still.
“It is more advantageous for folks like you to bash the Governor, Costas, and the GOP than actually search for the truth.”
Sorry, but from where I am standing you don’t seem too concerned with acknowledging the truth.
“And what of Miller being a volunteer? So if you have a volunteer who is in a position, and instead of agreeing to disagree, goes to the media to eviscerate the organization he volunteers for? You can’t remove him from that position? That is patently ridiculous!”
No, what is patently rediculous is firing a long-time volunteer, an innocent man that did not say what he was quoted as saying, was not in the country to say it, and did not “go to the media.”
“If there are all these Zoeller supporters who are upset that they are not delegates, why didn’t they run on the ballot like everyone else?”
I can’t speak for other Zoeller supporters, but I’m a delegate. And from what I am seeing and hearing, there are a lot of delegates that are becoming Greg Zoeller supporters because of tactics like this.
“This is all sour grapes. Simply put, you shouldn’t air GOP dirty laundry like you are. You may think it helps Greg Zoeller in the short term, but this is doing nothing but hurting our party.”
Sour grapes?
Sour grapes is you whining about Costas’ supporters and backers getting caught behaving like goons.
And pardon me for pointing out what is going on. I guess that I should just stay silent and say nothing while the Governor, his staff, his campaign, state party, the Marion County GOP, and the Costas campaign use threats, intimidation, reprisal firings, and loyalty oaths to turn our convention into a meaningless rubber stamp.
If the people behind Jon Costas didn’t want their dirty laundry aired, then they shouldn’t have been playing dirty in the first place.
The only people that are hurting the party are the people that are using threats, intimidation, reprisal firings, and loyalty oaths. They’ve already done the damage. Pointing out what they are doing is not making it any worse.
I’m more apt to believe the reporter than someone who is partisan (Zoeller or Costas). If they were in the business of publishing unattributable inuendo, then they would be The Hoosierpundit. You folks believe what you want to believe, write what you want to write, leaving the rest of us to clean up the remnant of the GOP you leave behind.
Funny, then, that most of my “unattributable inuendo (sic)” turns out more often than not to be corroborated by those reporters you’d rather believe, eh?
We’ll see if Howey publishes a retraction; it wouldn’t be the first time (he has had to do it twice in the past two or so weeks already).
Spirited competition will strengthen our candidates. A rigged convention or a convention victory obtained by thuggery will not. I’m all for the former, and am firmly opposed to the latter and will call such nonsense out when it happens.
Linda – Clean up the GOP. From my vantage point, it starts in Marion County and then go from there. Speaking positively, this is crap.
If anyone deserves the blame for tearing apart the GOP, it’s Mitch Daniels. Who gives either one, the Gov or the Marion County Chairman, the right to push all the other counties around. Indianapolis has always been seen as a large county with a lot of votes, but now we have the Marion County Chairman and the Governor crossing the line. These delegates have been attending many more conventions than Mitch ever has. I think he and his staff have underestimated the intelligence and willpower of our delegates. It’s too bad he couldn’t have enough faith in the delegates and let them pick the candidate themselves. Either guy would have brought something to the ticket. But when Mitch got so involved and had his people get so involved in Costas’ campaign, it didn’t come across well. Unfortunately for Costas it automatically gave Zoeller’s supporters another reason to support his campaign. And now, the Governor is starting to lose support as well. When I heard The Governor was going to endorse Costas, I called his campaign office and encouraged them to rethink this move until after the convention for the sake of the party. I encouraged them to have faith in the delegates and to let the chips fall where they may. I was told by the staff answering the phone, that Mitch makes all these decisions himself. The staff had not planned this. Mitch personally did. Was he that arrogant to think with his own endorsement, the race would be over? Zoeller would need just 1 or 2 votes in each county to counteract the planted appointees in Indianapolis and unless Mitch personally walks into the booth with each county chairman and their delegates, an endorsement from them may not add up to a vote. I’ve seen it before. The convention is hard to predict. Unfortunately for Costas & Zoeller their candidacy is caught up in the middle of this. I’m glad we know the truth about what is happening in some of these GOP meetings. I am disappointed that I have seen a side of the Governor that has shocked me. My family and I liked him so much. But the irony is, the very office of the defender of the Governor, the Indiana AG, has clearly put Mitch on the defense. It will be interesting to see what role he plays at the actual convention. Will he let his endorsement speak for itself, or will Jon be attached to Mitch’s hip and not given a chance to sell his own candidacy. For the Governor’s sake, I hope he steps back a bit and out of respect to both AG candidates and to the Delegates themselves, let the convention play out on its own. That would definitely be the first step in restoring any weakness in our party.
I’m sure sorry you’re angry at the Governor. But as Chris Faulkner suggested in his post tonite, grow up.
The Governor is the chief executive and the highest politician in the state, of course he wants to have a hand in choosing the AG that will work with his staff. I won’t cast anymore shots at Zoeller or his relative ability to work closely with the Governor, cause I don’t really know what he and the current AG have accomplished.
I know that the Governor would like Jon Costas.
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