Outing Tom Berkhouse

Sometime ago I was accused of outing Mary Smith on this blog when Mary really outed herself.  See the blog post here.  Only one person ever came forward to tell me they knew who Mary Smith really was after that post – and that was after repeated challenges.  Never the less lots of people who have no idea who Mary Smith is to this day came out to bash me and accused me of outing Mary.Here is an example of what some people wrote after that infamous incident.

I do want to say that I strongly disagree with David Keelan’s decision to expose the true identity of a commenter he doesn’t like, and one with whom I disagree (and am frustrated by) regularly. Regardless of how you feel about her, David’s decision sets an ugly precedent. Commenter’s can be held to different standards depending on their views and the threat of tracing identities through IP address (which are available for all to see by looking at the Site Meter reports — see bottom of the page) looms over all. Such things help stifle diverse debate and might prevent many worthy commenter’s from participating.

Ian “Hayduke” Kennedy October 26, 2006

Ian is entitled to his opinion and clearly indicated he had set a higher standard.

Now someone on Ian’s blog is trying to out a frequent commenter and critic of Ian’s thought process and positions.  To date Ian is silent on the developments even though the post is 2 weeks old.  See Hayduke’s blog in which he comes out favoring Big Box retail stores (although I am not clear on whether he favors them on the Crescent).

The frequent critic is Tom Berkhouse.  The people trying to out Berkhouse are treating Tom as if he did something terrible like threatened a county employee for trying to shut off his water for non-payment or something when in fact all Tom does is forcefully and at times very forcefully expresses a strong difference of opinion with Ian.  At times Tom will criticise Ian for what Tom perceives to be a twisting of the facts in order to reach a desired conclusion.  Tom is often (not always) rather enjoyable to read and makes good points but often (if not always) fails to elicit a reaction from Ian.  So in fairness to Ian perhaps Ian is just simply ignoring all commenter’s.  Perhaps Ian is too busy with his new job which is perfectly understandable.  I have a full time job too, a family, and I just started an MBA program (which is going great so far)  so I understand finding time to stay up on the local scene and one’s blog isn’t easy.

Fiscal Discipline in DC

This morning I was reminiscing and licking my wounds once again over GOP local losses in the last election.  I began to wonder had I read anything about how deeply cut to the bone the grassroots GOP was last November.  I don’t think I have.  But I wondered if Howard County was cut that deeply surely other counties across the country were too.

Remember the Red and Blue map that shows by county how red and blue the country is?  I wonder how many shades of red we lost almost one year ago.

Then I got angry that the GOP leadership in Congress appointed the same clowns who ran amok on spending to the leadership positions again.  If I had a chance to ask the GOP presidential primary candidates a question it would be this.  What are you going to do to clear the party of numb skulls like those so the GOP can once again claim the mantle of fiscal responsibility.

Then I read this…  Bush raps Democrats on spending bills and thought to myself.  Isn’t it a little to late GW?  Granted Pelosi and Reid make it easier but even with those two in charge of the House and Senate not even GW is going to look fiscally conservative.

We need more than rhetoric.  We need action.  A lot of Republicans I speak to are just fed up and figure we can’t do any worse than the Democrats at this point.  While I agree with the sentiment and that our leadership has a lot to be desired we at the local level need to spur change.  We need to take control of the party.  Every GOP leader in DC is still sitting their asses into nice cushy warm chairs while thousands of dedicated, hard working, scandal free Republicans got tossed from office or lost a race because of those DC jerks.

Mr. President, I like you.  I don’t agree with everything you do.  And I do give you credit for allowing the GOP congress to run amok with my money.  If you think this is your chance to show your conservative fiscal credentials I have to say you are wrong.  You and the current GOP leadership have no credibility so don’t try to convince me.  It is too late.

To my GOP brothers and sisters.  A lot of people are telling me that the best thing that can happen to the GOP is to coalecese around an unpopular democratic presidential candidate – preferably Hilary.  Yeah, that would be nice.  Do you know what.  Forget Hilary for now.  What is necessary is to get our house in order first.  Get rid of the current leadership that put us here in the first place.  With these folks in charge we won’t be able to take back our party nor claim the mantle of fiscal conservatism.  On top of that the GOP candidate for President will not be able to fully claim the mantle of fiscal conservatism if these men remain in power.  Give the next Republican President a chance to act as a fiscal conservative by giving him leaders who will help him and not hinder him.

Minority Leader: Mitch McConnell (Kentucky)

Assistant Minority Leader (Minority Whip): Trent Lott (Mississippi)

Counselor to the Minority Leader: Robert Bennett (Utah)

Republican Conference Chairman: Jon Kyl (Arizona)

Republican Policy Committee Chairman: Kay Bailey Hutchison (Texas)

Republican Conference Vice Chair: John Cornyn (Texas)

Republican Campaign Committee Chair: John Ensign (Nevada)

Minority Leader: John Boehner (Ohio 8th)

Minority Whip: Roy Blunt (Missouri 7th)

Chief Deputy Minority Whip: Eric Cantor (Virginia 7th)