Into The Breach

[Ron Ogletree]

As a FCTP member well into my second year, I volunteered to assist in whatever way I could at the event last night. What I saw last night is exemplified by the battle going on inside of the Republican Party since the advent of the Tea party movement. We see the grass roots Tea Partiers vs. those who just want to co-opt the energy of what was started with Rick Santelli’s rant in February of 2009. The most insidious part of this attempt to co-opt the movement is an all out attempt for the establishment bureaucrats to crush this movement of “We The People” to make our government, and those who are supposed to serve for us, accountable for their legislative record in that regard.

We got it a long time ago and we stood in the breach while others laughed and scorned us for being so naïve to demand that politicians recognize the government worked for us and not the other way around. Through all the snickers, jeers and outright lies about who we are and what we stand for, we became the most feared citizen action group on November 2, 2010. Now both sides of the political aisle, from the local political machines all the way up to Mordor [1] on the Potomac, know the Tea Party movement is something to be reckoned with an axe or flowers and is on full display in Wisconsin. So here goes.

First I’ll comment on Mr. Lee who showed himself very well in the lion’s den for someone in his party today. Especially when trying to convince anyone that the Democrat (not democratic) Party has shown its utter arrogance to lead us down the road to serfdom. How can anyone be conservative and support the utter bile coming out of Washington D.C. for the past two years? No way, no how, with any honesty. He made a major error when addressing this group by promising not to raise taxes but in the same breath saying he would support a one cent sales tax for education. I’m sorry Mr. Lee, but throwing money at a societal problem has proven itself to be the worst move to make in an attempt to fix it. That is the main reason we are where we are with the sorry state of the average student coming out of our schools. Most graduates aspiring to move beyond High School require, require remedial education just to make it to the basic classes of a simple Associates of Arts degree at our local junior colleges. Wisconsin’s new administration has it right, no matter how much champions of your party like Richard Trumpka profess to convince us otherwise. If you are truly conservative you are either asking for your head to be on a pike with regards to your own party or you took a left turn when you should have made a right.  Nancy Pelosi, et al, proved their is no place for individualism or original thought left or tollerated within the Democrat Party, period.

I have to admit, Mr. Mullaney talked a good game with a laundry list of platitudes and obviously focus group tested ideas and “plans” of what he “intended” to implement. But, we have been here before and this is not our first tango. One of his most outrageous talking points was his assertion that he did not and would not seek the endorsement of the city’s various public employee unions. The simple fact is that he doesn’t need to because he played the lead part in the negotiations of the current contracts we are grappling with in our unsustainable spending. He is part of the reason we are where we are, but he says he was not involved in policy decisions. Mr. Mullaney, city contracts are a legal issue, not a policy issue but they are extremely political in nature. He fell upon excusing himself all too many times of his position as counsel but would not answer questions or take any credit about his involvement in policy when he was Chief of Staff. I suppose Rahm Emanuel had no involvement in the first two years of the Obama Administration either.

Mr. Mullaney purposely cherry picked data from the current Tax Collector’s office spending to make a technically correct statement when focusing on an obscure fine point within the larger budget and spending picture. The history is plain to see in the bottom line that the budget was reduced. This is all public record and taking a splinter out of a 8 foot 2x4 does nothing to identify the structure of the whole piece. We have seen this time and time again from weasel public servants and is in part, one of the reasons for the advent of the Tea Party. More evidence of trying to sell us the pie when the pie pan has nothing in it.

Given many opportunities to revise and extend his stance on raising taxes, Mr. Mullaney never took the opportunity to also include fees in that promise, as Mr. Hogan did every time. One of the biggest increases small businesses and citizens of the city faced in the last eight years was new and additional fees outside the aspect of regular levied taxes. In the past we saw increases in the local sales tax, the first was to provide for the highway and drainage funding that got rid of the toll booths on our bridges and the road to nowhere at the time, called Butler Blvd. To his credit, Tommy Hazzouri saw the cash cow this would be in that all the citizens would be paying for what a relative small fraction had been. By the way, aren’t part of our property taxes supposed to be for infrastructure such as drainage? Then the Delaney parting jewel was to get approval for another sales tax increase for, roads and drainage. So my view is that we are now paying triple from the original responsibility of infrastructure spending because politicians can’t control themselves to live within their means to prioritize to need instead of political payoffs. Mr. Hogan’s record as Tax Collector is just the opposite of the typical politician.

Mr. Mullaney refused to say he would remove set asides for public building contracts such as a 1% promissory to buy local art to adorn the new public structure. For those who support the arts, that is fine and dandy that they keep funding their passions, out of their own pocket. I support motorsports but nobody sees me with my hand out asking the tax payers of this or any other city to be flipping the bill for an activity in which I participate, both professionally and as a hobby. If their art is worthwhile on the public market, then yahoo for them, but we, as taxpayers, are finished with subsidizing any activity of private citizens because some feel they have some sort of special talent that we need to pay for with our taxes. It’s called free market and either you have it or you don’t. If you don’t, do like countless others who work full time to support themselves and their families and use their spare room or garage to dabble in their talent.

Then came the used car salesman approach to attempting to explain why we all need muffler bearings or sky hooks (hint:  they don't exist). I am referring to the convoluted explanation Mr. Mullaney gave which has been written about in detail for some time of the ongoing soap opera of the old shipyards [2][3][4], not to mention the embarrassing cruise ship terminal saga at Mayport. Mr. Hogan is entirely correct in his assessment of the business side of our incredibly underutilized resource of a sea port and addressed those in a business like sense.  Not the circular firing squad finger pointing explanation given by a seasoned lawyer trying to convince a jury. Sorry Mr. Mullaney, that whole episode is in both camps of your involvement of the last two administrations, legal and policy. He made a big point of being fiscally conservative. If he had to quantify his stance on conservatism, then I suppose he cannot do the same for social issues when speaking to a conservative leaning group of patriots.

 

Mr. Mullaney defended the nearly 40 attorney staff (Times Union says 40) by pointing out that other cities in Florida have far more and one instance used Miami and its nearly 100 attorney staff.  Another slight of hand comparrison, sir.  Nevermind the fact the population of Dade County is 2.96, and change, times that of Duval County, your office is more overbloated than your worst case example cited to defend your case.

The final straw for me was Mr. Mullaney’s courtroom hit and run remarks about the credibility and character of Mr. Hogan. Mike Hogan wears his character and credibility on his sleeve for all to see. To his credit, he finished on a very high road of refusing to get into any attacks by simply saying he has never gone there and would not do so even under attack. He lets his FULL record speak for itself and this Tea Partier endorses Mike Hogan to bring a new era of responsive government to our city which has not been the case for the last two administrations. We already have a slick talking lawyer administrator in D.C. whose party’s legislative edicts have taken this country down a road to ruin in a near financial collapse.

So for many Tea Partiers, I can say; Been there, done that and we can’t afford Slick Rick any longer.

 

P.S.  

[1]  http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Mordor

[2]  http://wwww.jacksonville.com/news/metro/2010-05-18/story/investors-...

[3]  http://jacksonville.com/interact/blog/jaxpolitics/2009-06-13/the_gh...

[4]  http://jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/091207/met_198799990.shtml