Democrats redefine 'Clean Campaign'

Tim O’Brien has been calling for a “clean campaign” repeatedly in the press. For those who have not followed the latest news from the New Britain Herald, check out these articles – they are worth your time:

Political Smears against the Mayor Trace to the State Capitol
Attacks on his wife raise ire of Salvio
OUR VIEW: Anonymity cheapens our public discourse
House member calls for probe in Web comments
O’Brien fires broadside at GOP
Stewart responds to attacks
Dems point finger at Republicans, media
Gerratana suspended
DeFronzo critical of coverage

As this messy ordeal progresses a few things become clear. Tim O’Brien is not a leader. He is either unaware or unwilling to deal with the behavior of those he associates with and keeps around him. At worst he knew of the attacks and is a hypocrite who claims to want a clean campaign while allowing mud to be thrown by proxy. At best he is merely incompetent and lacks the ability manage the people around him effectively and with integrity. It is unclear which would be worse to have in office.

It is also very interesting that in the article “O’Brien fires Broadside” he is quoted as stating “the Republicans have shown that they consider the sowing of fear, hatred, bigotry, divisiveness and character assassination to be legitimate political tools to gain and hold power” in response to being asked to call for a formal investigation of the misuse of state computers. I’m not sure how attempting to identify someone who is making personal character attacks is “sowing ‘fear’, ‘hatred’, and ‘bigotry’.”

In a later statement, O’Brien asks the Mayor to expose who is “The Bizy Bee” (see our blogroll), since apparently it is the task of the Mayor to patrol internet blogs. Perhaps O’Brien is unclear on the difference between the Herald reporting on malicious comments made using their website as a medium and originating from a state owned computer, and the right to free speech that “The Bizy Bee” enjoys; I only hope someone in his campaign can explain it to him. If you notice, the Herald has not reported on the opinion pieces posted by John McNamara on his own blog, nor have they called for the commenters on Frank Smith’s blog to be identified – they respect the first amendment.

All in all, the Democratic Party appears to be in a sorry state recently. Their own leadership attempts to quell scandal after scandal, and even the Democratic voters don’t like the ticket proposed by the Democrat Town Committee, choosing instead to place Peter Denuzze on the ballot for Town Clerk in the recent primary (Herald Article Here) rather than Alderwoman Suzanne Bielinski.

It seems more and more likely that the voters of New Britain are realizing that the current leadership in the Democratic Party are out of touch and out of date. With luck they will see that Team Stewart can provide results with a bipartisan committee built on the simple ideal that we all have to work together to make this City thrive.