Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Rich Endorsed as "best incumbent" in 10th district race

Too Conservative reports that the "Conservative 4th District Chairman Endorses Rich".

I'll repeat the endorsement letter here, under the assumption that Jim Rich would like it to get wide circulation:

Jim:

I wholeheartedly support you in your re-election bid as Chairman of the 10th Congressional District Republican Committee. Your District needs a stable, experienced, and steady hand to guide the Republican Party. The only candidate standing for election to that office which fits that criteria is you. Your support for the GOP has been unwavering.

In times of turmoil and change, both within the Party and the nation, we need to have consistent leaders who have been through the battles. We need leaders who have earned their experience the hard way–by working for it. While this may be a new concept for some, leadership still demands experience. You have it in droves.

Whenever our Party needs you, we always know you will be standing at the intersection of competency and reason.

You have the political maturity and steadfast judgment to weather any situation our Party may experience. Since joining the RPV State Central Committee in 2001– first as a state central member and later as a District Chairman–I have gained excellent insight from your words of wisdom. Our party needs your experience and wisdom to maintain a seat at the table as we chart our way through the political future.

Best wishes to you in your re-election as Chairman of the 10th District Republican Committee.

Sincerely,

Wayne J. Ozmore, Jr., Chairman


In other words,Vote for Rich, because he's the incumbent.

Let's look more closely: Here are the things that this endorser thinks are the greatest strengths of Rich for the job:
  1. He's Stable
  2. He's Experienced
  3. He's Steady (synonym: stable!)
  4. He's Unwavering (synonym: stable!)
  5. He's Consistent (synonym: stable!)
  6. He's Experienced
  7. He's competent
  8. He has reason
  9. He's mature
  10. He's steadfast
  11. did I mention he's experienced
  12. He has Wisdom

You think somewhere he could have found the time to say Rich was a good leader who attracted new members and turned out the votes. Maybe he ran out of paper.

This sentence takes the cake though, for saying a lot of words that are, in the end, meaningless:

Our party needs your experience and wisdom to maintain a seat at the table as we chart our way through the political future.

Apparently, there is this table, see, and our party only has one seat at this table, and if we don't re-elect Rich we will lose the only seat at the table we have. For some reason, it is at this table, where Republicans only have one seat now, that our way through the political future is being charted. If Rich is gone, someone will be charting out way through that future, but it won't be us, because we will have lost our seat at the table.

Because Rich apparently is really good at staying in the seat at the table, with his steadfastness, experience, and stability. No chair-rocker, Rich knows how to keep all four legs firmly in the intersection of reason and wisdom, at the table of the future where our path is charted.

6 comments:

Charles said...

Here's the response to comment 1, as I left it over at TC:

Wayne (assuming that is really you, hard to tell on this blog),

You don’t know me, I don’t know you. You are a district chairman, and TC says you are a conservative.

I can’t fathom why you choos to make personal attacks on a man you don’t know.

I found your endorsement to be lacking for a true reason to vote for Jim Rich. I don’t believe that being an incumbent is itself a good thing, it’s what you did, and how people followed, that show a good leader from a poor leader.

And while Rich may have many redeeming qualities, I see little of that in your endorsement. I didn’t WRITE the endorsement, I’m just examining it factually, and making my opinion on the endorsement known.

I said NOTHING about you, either as a chair, or as a person. I said NOTHING about Rich, as the incumbent, or as a person.

So I am at a loss to understand why you chose to respond in such a personal, vindictive manner. Do you have any idea what I have or have not done for the PWC party in the last two years?

Examining the CONTENT of your response:

Jim can bring the resources to bear to get things moving back in the right direction.

So, you think things are moving in the wrong direction. And Jim Rich is, as you point out, the leader.

Why has the district not gotten those “resources” brought to bear before now?

Politics has its ebbs and flows, leadership does not.

So we can expect the same leadership from Jim Rich in the future as we have seen in the past, when things were going in the wrong direction?

Seems to me that instead of the senseless backbiting…

I don’t think I’m being senseless at all. It is important to point out the vapid content of your endorsement so people will understand what it means. I think it is critically important that the 10th district pick a chair that has real vision for the future, so I will do what i can to cut through the rhetoric.

As for your comment about “couches”, and “rowboat legs”, it is true that at this time I can hardly walk, because of a muscle problem in my left leg that has left me in pain pretty much every day for the last two months.

If there was a real leader in Herring’s area, you wouldn’t have to beg people from surrounding areas to do the work. I’ll be busy trying to unseat MY democrat senator, Charles Colgan. And MY district and county chairs will lead the way.

But he didn’t.

—Charles

Charles said...

Here's my response to #2:

A little impatient, I think -- your comments are only 10 minutes apart. I was busy answering comment #1 over at TC's blog since you left it there as well and he gets a lot more readers than I do.

I do appreciate your willingness to discuss the issues here.

So tell me: what are the three things Jim Rich will do in the next year to turn his ship around, and what in his record of the past 4 years leads you to believe he is capable of implementing those three things?

Charles said...

Oh, and another thing about comment #2.

I'm not a leader. I'm a member of the PWCRC, I show up to meetings, I do lit-drops, an occasional door-to-door survey, poll watching, that sort of thing.

In 2005, I (and my wife, bless her heart) sat behind the poll workers at our precinct for 6 hours checking names off lists.

But I'm sure you realise that leaders are elected by the non-leaders.

as to your observation that leaders create plans to improve things, I agree, which is why I asked what three things Rich has planned to improve things.

James Young said...

Did you also know he fought in Vietnam?

Oh, wait, that was John Kerry.

Charles said...

After the challenge from Wayne, I presumed he'd be back to argue with my answer. When he didn't appear, I tried to e-mail him using the address given on the Virginia Republican Party web site, but it bounced.

And I couldn't find the 4th district web page.

I still hope he'll come back, as somewhere beneath the personal attacks and challenges maybe I can get him to articulate exactly why it is that Jim Rich is the man for the job, other than that he's the man IN the job.

Charles said...

Jim ... Good one. :->