Comments on Advance Indiana™: Businessweek Takes In Depth Look At The Madoff Of The Midwest

"Now they pretend they never had much to do w...

2011-08-02T15:02:28.107-05:00

"Now they pretend they never had much to do with him at all."

They pretend about a lot of things they and I campaigned for, and never followed through on, such as accountability and transparency. Their track record on those two qualities is abysmal, with one notable exception, Mrs. Scales. Personally, I liked the then-candidates I ran with, but this critique is professionally oriented.

The voters will decide soon if the GOP and Democratic incumbents will retain their seats. I just don't see any issues they can credibly use to defend their positions.

It would be nice if any one of them could tell their political patrons "Hey thanks for your support during the campaign, now I am going to act and legislate according to my own creed" instead of feeding the troughs of the donors with sweetheart deals, but that's utopian thinking. Too bad!

Yeah, Michael, I remember when I caught a bunch of...

2011-08-02T14:42:01.082-05:00

Yeah, Michael, I remember when I caught a bunch of flack for criticizing the council Republicans for hosting their caucus to elect their leadership in Durham's offices atop the Chase Tower and accepting his free food, drink and favors. Why would I object to them meeting at the offices of such a respected business leader in the community who contributed so much to the party they asked. Now they pretend they never had much to do with him at all.

I'll never forget his being in the return room...

2011-08-02T14:17:25.846-05:00

I'll never forget his being in the return room, the night of the '07 Municipal election at the Murat. The then-county chair of the MC GOP party almost chased me, a candidate representing their party away in favor of this guy. Shortly after the election, he hosted a nice party in one of his office buildings, complete with elephant cookies. I knew right then that I was better off not having won.

Yeah, it sucked to lose, but I think it's a lot better to have lost and never held an office I didnt want but felt compelled to run for, than be in the shoes of a lot of incumbents, the morning after this election cycle.

Yeah, It's a perfect demonstration of just how...

2011-07-30T18:50:52.445-05:00

Yeah, It's a perfect demonstration of just how shallow of character many of our politicians are when it comes to choosing friends. As long as you seem to have a deep pocket to finance their campaigns, they could care less where you're getting the money. Notice that as soon as Tim Durham fell Ersal Ozdemir's prominence among these same politicians rose significantly. Are they asking the right questions about him that they should have been asking about Durham? Do they really know much about him and his background before immigrating from Turkey? Do they care? Or as long as he is forking over larger campaign contributions than just about anyone else in the business community, will they will gladly cozy up to him and reward his business with our tax dollars?

Doesn't realizing that Tim Durham is known as ...

2011-07-30T18:15:39.405-05:00

Doesn't realizing that Tim Durham is known as a Hoosier, just make you want to gag?

And, yep, it quotes our very own Gary R. Welsh! (...

2011-07-30T16:48:37.940-05:00

And, yep, it quotes our very own Gary R. Welsh!

(It's also a good read just to see who's mentioned by name: Brizzi, Daniels, SerVaas, Mellencamp....)