Deadbeats
By Mitch Berg
It’s parade season.
Politicians love parades.
Parades love…well, entrants. Because entrants have to pay fees to be included in the parade. Which pays for the parade itself.
It’s sure be a low blow if people tried to squeedge into parades without paying, wouldn’t it?
Andy “Triple A” Aplikowski notes:
Oh look, Democrats don’t pay their fair share. Looks like Democrat El ‘Gas Tax’ Tinklenberg didn’t pay his dues to properly be in the Stillwater Parade.
Wow – I witnessed the same kind of ‘cheating’ at the Stillwater Lumberjack Days Parade. I wrote a letter to the editor, but of course NONE of the major papers would print it. Here it is:
I found it very interesting that DFL endorsed El Tinklenberg has already cheated the 6th District of Minnesota, the same district he is running to represent.
On Sunday, July 26th, at 12:45pm, Tinklenberg and about 6 of his followers walked the length of the Lumberjack Days Parade route, proudly showing off their campaign shirts “Tinklenberg for Congress”, while the candidate shook hands and spoke to hundreds of people lined up on sidewalks. The trouble is, the parade started at 1pm! All other candidates (including the person he is running against, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann), paid their $350 registration fee to Lumberjack Days for their exposure time.
In the meantime, Steve Sarvi (or, as leftybloggers universally call him, “Veteran Steve Sarvi”) running against career Marine veteran John Kline (or, as leftyblogger call him, “Kline”) seems to have a similar view on economizing, according to Janet at the Scholars:
At yesterday’s parade in Lonsdale, we checked the parade registrant list. Sarvi was not listed as a participant, yet he “doubled up” to walk with a local MN House representative. Is this the first time that Sarvi has ducked the parade registration fees while showing up to walk the parade route with several of his supporters, all wearing campaign T-shirts with his name on it? Probably not.
Stiffing local parade organizers over registration fees indicates irresponsibility on the part of a candidate. It raises the question: How many times this season has Mr. Sarvi just bummed a ride from some other candidate? Do we want to even consider someone who mooches like this to represent us in Congress?
No word yet on whether Ashwin Madia (or, as leftyblogger refer to him but never, ever to John Kline “Marine Veteran Ashwin Madia”) has been paying his parade fees.
Anyone?
August 13th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
I saw his supporters at the Long Lake Parade this past weekend. Pretty sure his entry fee was paid.
(Nasty looking group of supporters though)
August 13th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
I REALLY wonder what Precious Peev thinks.
Probably something about Iraq, “Rethuglicans, Mitch’s blog “Blot in the Snark“, three fingers, and some other nonsense about which he habitually babbles on and on.
I’m not really too worried about this issue… sure, it’s an indicator of cheapskatery, but hardly something that would be top of my list of concerns.
Hey, maybe it is a sign of how these politicians intend to restrict government spending!
Naah. Probably not.
August 13th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
And “strategery!”
August 13th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
Al Franken was going to march in the Aquatennial Grand Day parade, but he couldn’t get the Boy’s and Girl’s Club of Minneapolis to underwrite the fee.
August 13th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
Geez, Mitch, you’re such a nit-picker. So the DFL candidate stiffed the little people for the fee. Get used to it – progressives are above petty concerns like carrying worker’s comp or paying income taxes – especially on money kept in the freezer.
If you asked the man to pony up, I’m pretty sure his response would echo John Kerry’s “Do you know who I am?”
Nothing to see here – SOP for this crowd – gyp the ordinary people that are trying to do something nice in the name of some higher calling or more noble purpose.
.
August 13th, 2008 at 5:09 pm
Gosh Badda, good to know you care. BTW – if you’re (neo-kooks) are so sensitive to being called hypocrites, maybe it’s your conduct that’s the issue, rather than the name. But then again, given that you are permenently stuck in amber in behaving like a high-schooler – maybe you really ARE so hypersensitive to names that you actually get all hot and bothered – pretty clearly, name calling is all you can do – over and over and over and over and over again, so I guess I shouldn’t give you that much credit.
Mitch, “Career Marine John Kline” – perhaps you’ll also reference career Marine Erik Shinseki whom Bush chased out, or career soldier Collin Powell, whom Bush destroyed the civilian public career of.
Perhaps we should talk about career soldier Anthony Taguba, or career soldier Alberto Sanchez, or maybe career soldier Dwight Eisenhower, and thier respective commentary on the honesty of the rabid conservatives of this world, like Career Marine John Kline.
Maybe instead, we should have a meaningful discussion about whether the stategery John supported for 3.5 years in Iraq is a good strategery for Afghanistan, whether the Presidency is an OJT position where you get to throw away lives by having a half-assed occupation plan, including hundreds of thousands of civilian lives, and that being a conrgressman isn’t either, you don’t get to claim credit for a strategery change forced upon you AFTER failing to hold the administration accountable for it’s conduct for 3.5 years, and AFTER failing to hold the administration accountable for lying about the quality and nature of intelligence it attempted (successfully) to foist off on the American people.
Because, I mean, if we’re going to talk about strategery, that particular misunderestimation of the nukyaler capability of Iraq IS in fact, in part the responsibility of Career Marine John Kline for having blindley followed along. but then again, I guess that makes him no worse than the rest of you blindly-following neo-kooks who passively trust the government as long as it’s YOUR bo-bo’s in charge.
August 13th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
Sorry, I believe it’s Ricardo Sanchez.. Gen Ricardo Sanchez — had Alberto Gonzalez on my mind, you remember him, the wonderful inept Attorney General/bo-bo of Bush’s who drafted memos authorizing torture?
Maybe Career Marine John Kline can speak to whether he considers water-boarding torture, or denying someone food for days at a time torture, or putting them in boxes where movement is restricted (or restricting movement in other ways) all intended to induce pain, torture.
I know, perhaps he can have a parade of interrogation techniques he approved by standing behind Alberto Gonzalez and Bush – and accused Democrats (and others) of aiding and abetting the enemy by questioning.
You see, I take some small offense at being called a traitor by a US Congressman simply because I dissent- perhaps he should have a parade detailing the Constitutional liberties he swore to uphold, but has wilfully and gleefully pissed on while in Congress, including of course, failing to hold the President to account when SCOTUS has, time and again, repudiated Bush’s conduct.
That would be a nice parade – or maybe we should just have a parade of all of the members of the military who might just happen to disagree with John about the fact that dissent isn’t treason. I think you’d find that such a parade would have hundreds of thousands of veterans, career and otherwise – and we’d even be glad to pay a fee.
August 13th, 2008 at 6:51 pm
Peev’s been huffing underarm deodorant again.
Wonder what Comrade Peevinski’s problem with being called a traitor is.
August 13th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
Wonder what Comrade Peevinski’s problem with being called a traitor is.
when he was in the service they nicknamed him “Walt” but nobody would tell him why. Since then he’s always been thinskinned.
August 13th, 2008 at 10:34 pm
Speaking of freeloading liberals…
I mean why go through the trouble to create, promote & support his own blog & try to maintain readership with is inane rants? He can just leach off of Mitch’s hard work to get attention.
I guess it’s a common theme among his ilk.
August 14th, 2008 at 10:17 am
whether the Presidency is an OJT position
And peev’s gonna vote for Obama…
and that being a conrgressman isn’t either
And peev’s gonna vote for Franken…
There’s a term for this mindset.
August 14th, 2008 at 10:25 am
Precious Peev, what are you talking about? Are you addressing me, or have you (once again) neglected to properly format your comments to make it clear who you are talk to and what comments and topics from the original post you are covering?