Monday, April 7, 2008

"County turns blue" and so am I

Don't get excited, I'm blue as in depressed, not Democratic.
What else can I say? How about, I told you, I told you, I told you.
The Republican Party in Montgomery County has been so splintered for the past few years that the surge in Democrats registering to vote should be of little surprise to anyone, especially Republicans.
I did notice something in Saturday's story about the registration coup. Did you catch it?
Republican stalwart and county Commissioner Bruce L. Castor Jr. was doing the talking for the party.
I don't know about you, but I would certainly hitch my Republican wagon to Castor.
Now, if we can only get Bob Kerns sitting in the county GOP Chairman's seat we might just stand a chance of taking back the majority.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bob has a lock on the Chairman's seat, there is no one out there that can beat him at this point in time. He has a taste for this job and has gone after it and almost clinched it several times. (Actually he is the Republican Al Gore) It is now his turn to get the job done, just give him a little support and see what he does for the party. It can't get any worse than it is now. His opponent is just more of the same old stuff we have gotten use to over the last few years. It is now time to kiss his ring and wish him well, go get um Bob!

Anonymous said...

Stan:

Why do you support Bob Kerns? We are curious?

Anonymous said...

Stan,

You've got no shot of getting the majority back. It have been trending this way for close to 2 decades.

The Montco Republican has been a soft Republican as long as I can remember.

If you are a Dem you are Dem for a reason. A Republican registration covered a lot of people who were Republican in name only.

LP went for Kerry 4 years ago. There is no way the percentages would allow that to occur. The last 4 presidentals before that I think went for the Dems in LP.

As long as you keep running Bruce Castor as a poster boy, it will get worse.

Castor has been outmanuvered and outwitted by Matthews pretty well. This is a real-life version of Survivor and Castor didn't think he needed to make allies.

Being a County Commissioner is like being a Doctor. It doesn't matter what your grade is in school. The guy with the lowest GPA still gets the title.

I also think you are making too little of Matthews' and Castor's eyes being on state-wide offices.

They are direct rivals in the GOP. Only one can survive. Matthews haas done it in a way that will allow him more credibility in a general election.

The more Castor whines the smaller he looks. The more you print his whines, the less credibility he has in the general population.


Today, credibility may has a bigger weight in an election than the money of a machine.

Anonymous said...

Stan...Ms. Gibbons really enjoys her work when the shoe is on the other foot...and wy not, I've watched her covering our conventions for many years - it must have been tough. Stand tall, the Republicans will come out the winners - there are quite a few that are now in the process of turning the tide by registering Dem. so that they are sure of their position in the Court House. Now, the Closet Dem. (Rep. registered Dem.) will show their colors in two years. We shall return when the NEW LEADERSHIP is in place.

tlees2 said...

Stan,

I think the GOP's local problems are compounded by the fact that people are fed up with Bush and Iraq. Add the lousy economy which rightly or wrongly people tend to blame on the party that runs the White House and you have the "perfect storm" for making Montgomery County blue.

Anonymous said...

This is the culmination of Ken Davis's sorry reign.

It will come to an end on May 8.

Good riddance.

Anonymous said...

When they passed out the brass ones Mr. Castor was first in line. I still believe that he will be the king of the hill in the future. Stan, keep holding your head high, let the Dems enjoy a few weeks of ecstasy,let them eat each others lunch. November is the target of surprise. Casey is kissing up to keep his job in Washington. The Clintons shoved it to his dad by not allowing him speak about abortion at the national convention,big deal. I wonder how many idiots vote for someone because of another's endorsement? It's so nice to have a mute button on my TV.

Please sign me HAPPY.

Anonymous said...

Stan, I like Mr. Castor. Your paper today did not tell us too much about Mr. Kerns. I guess there's nothing the voting public can do to elect this guy since he's appointed by the committee people. Then, they will vote for whoever buys them a sandwich or a free drink. I believe in your past blogs someone wrote that Mr. Kerns has numerous solicitorships in Montgomery County. There are numerous committee people sitting as solicitors and board members in surrounding townships and boroughs
that he represents, how can anyone compete with that?
Thanks for lending me your ear, this is a first for me.

Mary First

Anonymous said...

No need to get depressed, Stan. A lot of the so-called increase is simply the One-Day Democrats. They will be back in the GOP fold by November. Some people just couldn't stand missing all the fun of making their vote count because the GOP panicked and settled on their lone candidate too soon. So now all the One-Day Democrats can do is try to influence the Democratic party, whether it is to support one candidate or the other, OR to nominate a perceived weakling whom they hope will lose to McCain. They'll probably cancel each other out.

Thanks to Rush Limbaugh, elections will never be the same.

Anonymous said...

Republicans who think that the Democratic party will not unite after the dust clears have no idea about why people switched parties. Wheter it's Hillary or Barack, there are such HUGE differences between the Republican and Democratic candidates, that Dems who are truly Dems, will vote Democratic. I can't imagine how Republicans think they will be able to promote McCain as a candidate who is unlike George Bush. The Republicans I know that have switched to Dem ( and this is months ago) did so becasue of their disgust over the Iraq War....an issue that isn't going away any time soon. The contest between Barack & Hillary has just been a diversion from the war. It will be back to business and getting the R's out of the white house after the PA primary. Republicans will continue to say that this war is good and just while Dems get angrier about why we entered the war and how long we've stayed in this war. I'm still wondering when John McCain will figure out Iran is Shiite and not Sunni. As for the county, I think you'll see some more Dems squeak in there. I don't know why eveybody fights it so much...seems like everything is working out just fine so far...except maybe for Bruce Castor. Maybe if people spent less time freaking out about the opposing party and just focused on the work in front of them, we could get some good work done together. Most of the people who work for the county are hard workers and decent people. Why all this animosity over who belongs to which party? Judge people on the work they do and not which party they prefer. If we did that more, we might be able to see the value in having both parties working side-by-side on a county level where it doesn't really matter what your personal views are. I have a feeling that in most businesses, you have people with differing opinions and yet, they still get their work done side-by-side....Amazing how that works for the average working person, yet it seems too difficult for own government... I think it's called tolerance.

Anonymous said...

Mr. Huskey; The way I see it,come November will it really matter how you are registered when you step behind the big black curtain?

You are not holding to any party in the general election.

So for all the hoopla on who's holding the most registered voters is mute.

I still believe it's the foot soldiers who do the work,the EGO sits at the top.

I also belive crystal ball's belong over the hock shop doors..

I love it.

Anonymous said...

Joe,

You think Castor was out manuevered? Wait and see. Hint: Castor just hand-picked the Montco GOP Chairman by painting the opposing candidate as "the Matthews guy." Castor will come out on the top of this heap.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous April 8, 2008 7:33 PM

Minority Commissioner Castor is picking the head of the minority party.

Anonymous said...

Amen to Joe the Nerd. The more Castor keeps whining (and the more the Times Herald keeps printing his incessant whining), the more he will drive voters away. Castor reminds me of a prepubescent boy who brought his football to a pick-up game. He wants to be quarterback, but doesn't have the skill. Instead of working to improve his skills, he whines and cries.

Like most American politicians of this era, Castor promotes the "broken windows theory" of crime prevention, if police officers focus on minor crime "offenders", it will reduce major crime. Through experience we have learned that broken windows practices clog jails with minor offenders who would be better off kept in the community; increase taxes (per the Pew Report on the States, taxpayer expenses for incarceration are up 60% while educational spending is down 5%); has no effect on violent crime (the police are so busy with loitering Mexicans, adolescent males fantasizing school attacks, and setting up speed traps, etc. that they are "too busy" to fight violent offenses, such as robbery and assault); and promotes racial profiling. Broken windows gives power hungry officers the right to harass juvenile, Mexican and Black people on the street. When the police treat decent people (and their children) like garbage, the community beomes alienated and anti-snitching culture becomes the norm.

If Mr. Castor wants to proceed in politics, he will have to learn to stop whining, share his football, and run an intelligent operation that protects and respects all persons.

Anonymous said...

Castor whining?

Hardly. It's called effective opposition when you expose the games the Democrats are playing with the people's money.

As for learning to get along with people? He gets along with people just fine. As long as he doesn't start getting along with Democrats the way Jim Matthews does

As for his record in the DA's office? People whose throats were slashed are hardly broken window crimes.

Lastly, as for his future, he doesn't need to learn to get along with Democrats. He just needs to wait until Matthews turns on the Democrats the way he turns on everyone else in his life.

It will happen eventually.

Anonymous said...

Are you saying it is the Republican way to backstab people? If so, I'm proud I'm a Democrat.

Anonymous said...

I'm glad you are now proud of being a Dem. anonymous.... it took only a few remarks regarding the Rep. & Dem. go-around to make you at last make that statement...I for one have always been proud of my affiliation with the Republican Party... Disagreements between parties & party members are good - the air is much cleaner when you go to vote the next time. See you Tuesday!

Anonymous said...

B jackson
Heres one for you. A newly elected republican judge had a convicted felon campaigning for her- this woman is not only a convicted felon, who cant vote, but is on trial for drug posession and DUI right now, and the judge was her lawyer- NICE-nothing like justice in Montgomery county!