72nd Election Recap: Validation & Valediction

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKm65xLpwIM

Over at the otherwise dreadfully tedious Red County blog, our Friend Allan Bartlett opines on last night’s impressive Norby victory over Ackerwoman in the 72nd Special Election Primary. He almost gets it completely right.

He correctly points out that Norby’s 17% margin of victory over the Ackerman, Inc slime-peddlers is a bad sign for all of the establishment Repuglicans who happily climbed onto the carpetbagging, truth challenged bandwagon, believing  (erroneously) that money would trump experience and actual political accomplishment.

But tucked into Allan’s post is this admonition to Ackerman, Inc.:

We’ll give you a few days to lick your wounds and get over the bitterness that you and Dick are probably feeling towards Chris right now, but it’s time to finally end this ugly chapter in OC political history and endorse Chris for the runoff.  It’s the right thing to do.

Nice sentiment, perhaps, but a not at all necessaryof gesture of Republican solidarity. In the first place, if they believed half of the trash they peddled against Norby to the voters the Ackermans (if they had any integrity, oops!) would want Norby locked up “e-mmediately” as their flunky Dick Jones would say. But, neither Norby nor the people of the 72nd need anything from the OC Repuglican apparatchicks. On the contrary, Norby’s victory proves that one can win, and win convincingly (although being outspent 2-1) over forces that have treated OC government like their own little plantation.

At the end of his post Allan rightfully chastises all of the Republican elected drones who circled their wagons of self-interest around the Ackermans after hearing Dick’s do-re-mi siren song (with the emphasis on “dough” and “me”). Good for Allan. His was the the only voice on that blog that wasn’t making a full-time job of avoiding Ackerwoman’s deceitful residency and her contemptible smears.

Ah well, victory, as Allan trenchantly observes, is the best admonition to those who are more interested in money and power than they are doing what’s right. If all those folks who endorsed Linda Ackerman because of her “inevitability” (despite the fact that she didn’t live in the district, and completely misrepresented her business experience) think that this craven behavior will be soon forgotton, they may be in for a rude surprise.

And now, the task of this Grover Cleveland, having been completed, and satisfactorily so, we pass on the name to a new (and no doubt improved) Grover. Adios Amigos! And lets hope the times are really are a-changin.’

Ackerman Defended, FFFF Attacked (Again) By Ackerman Spokeshole

Dick Ackerman would never lie to me. He has lots of honor. Just like me.
The search for Eternal Truth may have just been steamrollered by Ackerman, Inc.

Yesterday our old playmate Matthew J. Cunningham of the irrepressible boot lick Red County Blog took us to task for passing along the “false” information about his hero Dick Ackerman illegally lobbying for the OC Fair sale. You can read it here, but be forewarned about a likely gag-reflex response. It seems that Cunningham is on a noble mission to promote the Truth, the Whole truth, and Nothing But The Truth. How does he know that Dick’s behavior wasn’t lobbying? Because Dick said so! Quod erat demonstrandum!

I don't remember
I don't remember and you can't make me

Yeah sure, anything you say, J.

Ackerman has already admitted to “helping” draft the legislation, legislation that somehow managed to jump into AB 22 all by itself? Did Dick go to Sacto? Did Dick make calls to his former colleagues? Naw. That would be illegal lobbying.

Interestingly, our Friend Vern Nelson over at the Orange Juice blog has reported a conversation he had with Assemblyman Jim Silva who opposed the sale. Silva affably relates that there was lots of pressure on him to vote in favor of the sale legislation. Any guesses as to who one of the pressure-appliers was? Not Ackerman, surely – that would be illegal lobbying!

Well, maybe we’ll find out soon all about what Ackerman did or didn’t do; and Cunningham’s lofty life-long goal of pursuing the Truth will bear fruit – although no thanks to him. See, the County Counsel has asked the State AG to look into the whole issue of open meeting law violation, public procurement (Ackerman’s “services”) violation, and manifest conflict-of-interest charges against Ackerman’s employers. Who knows, maybe Dick will be able to explain what he did, or didn’t do under oath.

We also note in passing, that according to Scott Moxley at the OC Weekly, Ackerman’s law firm has passed the OC Fair “Foundation” hot potato on to Jones Day, the same scumsuckers  Ackerman used to try (unsuccessfully) to intimidate us.

Your Honor, can I borrow that wooden hammer thingy?
Your Honor, can I borrow that wooden hammer thingy?

The Ethical Ackermans of Irvine

Heh heh. A backroom deal? You came to the right place!
Heh heh. A backroom deal? You came to the right place!

Our pals over at the OC Weekly have finally got on board the OC Fair story. Scott Moxley has described a letter from County Counsel Nick Chrisos to a State AG rep about the obvious conspiracy by Fair Board members to create their own insider cabal to push for the sale of the Fair – to themselves.

The lawyer hired to shepherd this little back room deal through the legislature was none other than the husband of the Ethically Exuberant Ackerwoman – Dick Ackerman. In his article Moxley forgets to mention that good ol’ Dick hadn’t even been out of the Legislature for more than a few months himself and so seems to have violated state law by lobbying the Legislature,  a characterization of which Ackerman is already trying to slime away from.

Like husband, like wife. Linda, Dick’s supposed better half, is running as a candidate in an Assembly district that she doesn’t live in, pushing a resume that is patently fraudulent. And worse yet, Dick claims to “speak for his wife.” What a team. And they want us to think that she is the ethical choice!

You want ethics? We got lots of ethics all over the place...
You want ethics? We got lots of ethics all over the place...

But back to the OC Fair deal. Now that at least one government entity has finally gotten involved, it’s going to be really hard for Ackerman, Inc. to wriggle off this hook. And consider this: since the County Counsel has got involved, its a real good bet that at least one County Supervisor other than Chris Norby has Ackerman in his/her sights.

Martin Wisckol Passes Along Final Valentine To Ackerwoman

They would never lie to me!
They would never lie to me!

The other day the Register’s number two press agent for the Repug Machine, Martin Wisckol wrote what he no doubt hoped would pass as a species of objective reporting, here. Yet somehow it fails the smell test, as might have been predicted.

Notice how Wisckol equates Norby’s pointing out that Ackerwoman is a carpetbagger (true!) with her campaign’s libelous misuse of court transcripts in a case that was dismissed by an appellate court! Martin unhelpfully points out how Ackerwoman did live in the 72nd District for a long time – a long time ago; as if anybody thought that was germane to the fact that SHE LIVES IN IRVINE NOW!

Notice too, how Wisckol passes directly along, without a shred of skepticism that Ackerwoman is some sort of “well versed” authority on water issues (of course he diligently omits reference to her MWD vote last spring to raise commodity costs to local water retailers by 20%). Typical. We remember how he swallowed whole her lie about being a businesswoman, here, and then actually tried to explain away his apparent credulity as some sort of reporter’s strategy.

Wisckol permits a delicious quote from Ackerwoman about all the hordes of ethically upstanding Repuglican electeds who have endorsed her (including her own husband – say, Dick, how’s that Fair thing working out?) without any mention of Norby’s endorsements – by Tom McClintock, for instance – a real conservative who’s worth all of the Ackerwoman’s RINOs put together – and then some.

We could go on and on, but why bother.

Fortunately, we’ve only got one day to go. And hopefully after tomorrow Martin and Frank can go have their Friday drinkies with the head ‘Pugs at Gulfstream without having to worry about writing any more press releases.

Of course if there’s a crashing defeat for Ackerwoman they may not even be invited anymore.

OC Fair Follies: The Deafening Sound of Silence

An e-mail from our long-time Friend Joe Sipowicz was discovered in this afternoon’s mailbag. Seems Joe is a little put out at being called “gutless” by blogger Matthew J. Cunningham for criticizing the latter “off topic.” Here’s Joe’s letter. I added the graphics!

Colonic extraction was deemed necessary...
Colonic extraction was deemed necessary to save the patient

Several OC blogs (including this one) have raised this issue of the role played by former State Senator Dick Ackerman in the possible sale of the OC Fairgrounds. Last summer he was hired by a group of Fair Board members meeting on the sly to get the necessary language into the State budget bill that would enable the sale to go through.

That activity was illegal. State law prohibits ex-legislators from lobbying for a full year before they can start their lucrative lobbying revenue stream; and Ackerman only checked out of the legislature last November. And the Board members in question seem to have put this deal together secretly – an intentional violation of the Brown Act.

Now to the point of this little essay. Let’s review how many references to the Ackerman activity and the possible Fair Board violation of open meeting laws have been made on the Red County blog. In round numbers. The roundest of all: 0. That’s right. None. Zero.

Why is this interesting? Because the editor at that site, Matt Cunningham loves to visit this site to call people “gutless” and “cowardly,” and has repeatedly criticized this blog for not holding Norby to the same standards it uses to attack the comical Linda Ackerman, and  meanwhile basks in his own self-assigned integrity, courage, and honor. He has at least twice accused the FFFF administrator Tony Bushala of breaking the law, without a shred of evidence; just the sort of thing he loves to attack his opponents for doing, and would in fact, ban them from his blog if they pulled the same stunt.

And yet when Dick Ackerman himself has already admitted to a newspaper that he worked on the Fair deal, Red County’s own Cunningham remains silent, even as he advertises the motives of a current concessionaire who is questioning the whole slimy insider deal in a lengthy post.

If he knows what's good for him, he'll keep his mouth shut...
If he knows what's good for him, he'll keep his mouth shut. And next time he'd better get the tires...

Okay, fine. You don’t attack the head of your gang if you want to stay in it, and clearly he does. And Cunningham has made looking the other way into a full time profession, whether it be defending the Pedo-priest protectors, ex-Sheriff Mike Carona, or any of the other ethically challenged institutional shot-callers he looks up to.

But is it asking too much for this individual to just keep his self-righteousness to himself?

One For The Road…

Our very close pals at Friends For North Orange County are planning a farewell card for Linda Ackerwoman. Because you Friends are just so darn friendly we offer you a sneak preview of a mailer that’s landing in 10,000 non-absentee Republican and DTS mailboxes manana.

Here's the front. Fake charity to benfit Linda's friends.
Here's the front. Fake charity to benfit Linda's friends.
And the back. You mean she really lives in irvine? Shocking!
And the back. You mean she really lives in irvine? Shocking!

More Posts on the OC Fair and Ackerman’s Role Therein

Over at the Orange Juice blog, the ever-ebullient Vern Nelson has posted an overview of the big pow-wow held the other day in Costa Mesa that was organized to clarify the whole proposed sale deal. Apparently the two masterminds of the meeting – Assemblymen Van Tran and Jose Solorio – have as much grasp of the issue as a pair of two-week old jack o’ lanterns.

Tran and Solorio know the score
Tran and Solorio know the score

Vern, to his credit, keeps the issue of Dick Ackerman’s lobbying for the secret Fair Board cabal in front of the public. Ex-legislators are supposed to refrain from lobbying for a full year after their departure from office, but apparently Dick was up in Sacto this summer pushing to get the necessary enabling language in the budget bill.

What is that obnoxious odor?
What is that obnoxious odor?

Now the Fair Board members involved in the deal are trying to nicely characterize his efforts as “consulting,” even as they pretend not to know how much money was spent on Ackerman’s questionable services. Well, the distinction between a consultant glad-handing votes and a lobbyist is lost on us. It’s probably a moot point since nobody in law enforcement seems to want to enforce it. Ah! Another one of those unenforceable laws dispensed with!  God it’s great being a Repuglican!

Anti-Norby TV Ad Hits New Low

cash

Ed Roski is friends with many famous dead Americans

Although we haven’t seen it, Martin Wisckol at the Register has posted a youtube clip of a cable TV run ad that basically paints Norby as some sort of anti-feminist monster. The thing is so hyperventilated that it’s hard to believe anybody would take it seriously. It starts out with an image of Mike Duvall that morphs into Norby. Only problem is by now voters have a pretty good idea that it was Dick Ackerman who selected and groomed Duvall in the first place, and even that Norby supported his opponent.

Wisckol claims the ad has been paid for by an independent expenditure of as yet unknown origin.

A strong whiff of Ed Roski Jr. is emanating from this garbage. Since the Alliance for California’s Tumors has stopped its work, Roski has undoubtedly discovered a new conduit for his torrent of slime. But this crap is bound to backfire just like all the other Ackerman slime seems to have done.

Oh well. Only six days left.