Take for example the recent rhetorical thrust over at Maryland Politics Watch.
Just as Ebeneezer Scrooge was haunted in Dicken's novel by "the Ghost of Christmas Past", I'm guessing that on the few occasions Adam Pagnucco gets to sleep -- he's a new parent and doubtless a lot of what he's been doing is best ascribed to sleep=deprivation -- he is haunted by the Ghost of Former Integrity.
In his latest missive, Mr P declares that the editorial staff of the Washington Post, or at least part of it, is out to get him. Well, actually, the Post endorsed his own candidate's main rival for office in the recent Special Elections for District 4's County Council seat.
Yet let's digress for a moment to contrast and compare the dignified silence coming from the camp of former candidate Ben Kramer with the shrill gloating coming from the Navarro camp and the pointless sniping coming from the pages of 'Maryland Politics Watch".
The Washington Post may be ignoring our exposing its use of out-of-state intern Steve Stein to write its Maryland editorials, but Stein is not. The Boy King launched an undercover operation against Maryland Politics Watch that we are now exposing, starting today. (Adam Pagnucco, May 12 2009)
A Post staffer, or someone pretty credibly representing themselves as such, mentions:
It's irrelevant whether staff editorials are written by the editor-in-chief or the night watchman. If they are printed, then they reflect the opinion of the staff and of the paper as a whole. ("Xavier Shepherd")
"Shepherd" goes on to mention what I have definitely experienced:
At first I wondered why your blog posts have so few comments attached to them. Admittedly, the average number of reactions to your postings hovers somewhere just above zero. Now I understand-- as a moderator, you simply don't approve any comments that disagree with you.
There is no doubt in my mind that this is exactly what's been going on.
For example, responding about halfway down this thread I responded:
Adam, what are you talking about.
After the way you tore into her about two weeks ago, how can you possibly
claim to think well of Duchy Trachtenberg.
And BTW, you and everything you've written in the last few weeks gives proof positive to the idea of thinking of Unions as "special interests".
Your disingenuity is rising to new levels here. The whole concept of "union" is by definition "special interest", that special interest being, as you say, putting food on the table.
Whether that's to be seen as a "beneficial" special interest, or a detrimental or a neutral one, leave that to the eye of the beholder. But try to not fly in the face of commonsense and start arguing like the pigs in Orwell's "Animal Farm", or we'll all start referring to you as "Snowflake".
The remarks on Ms Trachtenberg, mentioned above, included such as this: "[...] This was the second bout of erratic behavior from Trachtenberg in less than a week. [...] The meeting’s organizers stood by helpless to stop her. [...]"
It's not just "Xavier Shepherd" who has noticed the fact that MPW has abandoned integrity to the winds. For example, longtime local and political observer Rocky Lopes observes:
[...] The silence in the District since the primary has been deafening. Lots of people have asked me "what's going on? Are they still having an election?" [...]
Well, Mr Lopes, everyone has come to realize that MPW is little more than a PR site that is sacrificing its remaining credibility by relentless refusal to allow expression of actual dissent, while hosting "discussions" among a group of very one-sided -- indeed, monomaniacal -- pundits who every day more increasingly resemble sock-puppets. So nobody bothers discussing much on MPW, and indeed they don't much want to discuss it anywhere online. That doesn't mean it isn't happening.
Why not discuss it online? Why, here's a clue from a wannabee totalitarian who has converted his formerly-respectable blog into nothing more than a press-release site for the Nancy Navarro-Laurent campaign:
Finally, our readers should know that we have been unable to locate any voter registration, property ownership, telephone number or consumer bureau information for anyone named Xavier Shepherd in Maryland, Virginia or the District. The only data on individuals by that name applies to residents of Georgia, California, Michigan, Missouri and New York.
So, not only does this propaganda site stick mostly to trying to steer discussions and only have discussions be about an extremely one-sided and blinkered view, they've got backers with enough money and connections to aggressively cyberstalk critics.
Here's the latest press-release from the Nancy Navarro-Laurent campaign, or at least the part where her campaign manager brags about the massive support from Special Interests:
The numerous Democratic state and county officials were joined by a broad coalition of endorsers, including representatives from diverse constituency groups, the Sierra Club of Montgomery County, local labor unions, and the Montgomery County Business PAC.
The title for this release was "Maryland Democrats Unite Behind Nancy Navarro", and you can read the whole thing at the MPW post entitled: Democrats Unite Against Ficker... Except the Kramers.
Do me a favor, Adam Pagnucco: don't even imply that I support Nancy Navarro. She got elected, fair and square, by an exceptionally narrow margin in an election characterized by extremely low turnout. She's likely to have about exactly one year in office before she is fully embroiled in campaigning to the degree where she cannot effectively represent the people of District 4.
And as for
Mr Robin Ficker: While he may be the most abrasive man in Maryland politics as well as the most feared heckler in mid-Atlantic sports, he and I shared one campaign position which I still hold: the citizens of Montgomery County are being taxed to their limits, especially homeowners.
And Mr Ficker, for what it's worth, uses his own name in his campaign.
Why doesn't Nancy Navarro use her married name? Is she ashamed of the name of her husband, Reginald Laurent, of RHG Group, Inc? (a.k.a. "Regent Hospitality Group, Inc") Is it because you can dig for all of the information you like under the name of Nancy Navarro and all you find is a flood of positive PR from MPW? But what would you find if you searched court records, under "Laurent, Nancy"? Baltimore City Maryland Circuit Court lien 24L08000788, book page 00029/00133, for $19,959.84? What's that all about? Well, you'll never know if you go looking for Nancy Navarro. Nancy Laurent, however...
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