This Is Why People Are Turned Off of Politics
Jer Bear, who I think is a wonderful writer and wit and one of my favorite bloggers, tears my friend Mark Haugen--yes, that Mark Haugen from Sen. John Thune's staff-- a new one in today's Don't Worry About the Government.
I don't want to repeat what Jer Bear wrote about Mark, you can read it yourself. I will say this: I think it is over the line.
Mark Haugen and I don't agree on very much politically. (We do agree on one important thing, however: Prince is great.) Mark works for a guy that I didn't want to see elected. I didn't much like how the 2004 Thune Senate race was conducted. I hope Sen. Thune is defeated in 2010.
But Mark Haugen ALWAYS treated me fairly when I was a columnist for the Tea-Harrisburg Champion. He took an enormous chance with the paper and turned it into a roaring success in terms of journalism, design, circulation, and profitability. The Champion reflected the issues, hopes, and dreams of northern Lincoln County and made people feel a part of a community. He is a good father and husband. He has been a good friend to me. He has ALWAYS been honest with me. I don't give a damn that he works for Thune and he's a Republican. That doesn't make him an ogre.
Joe Scarborough last night on MSNBC said that during the wake of Katrina, we need to put aside our partisanship for a few weeks and just think about what happened to our country and what we are going to do to make things better. Maybe we need a similar respite here in South Dakota.
Maybe I've gotten soft in my old age. But what I have been through and what my family has been through his past year changes your perspective. I have had so many good wishes and good thoughts from people in the past several months. And you know what, my Republicans friends and readers have been extremely suportive of me and my family. So, yeah, I'm soft and think people are people no matter what their political affiliation.
So, let's all cool the rhetoric of personal attack. Politics has to be more than name calling. The public is sick of it and it turns them off of the process.
Todd Epp
As Erin notes in the comments, the "Mark Haugen" involved in the referenced litigation is not the Mark of Thune fame but the Mark of Dan Nelson Auto fame who sued for unpaid wages. They are two different people. So, this was all the more needless.
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Ironically, in his blog post, Scarborough also states "I was offended when Bill and his audience demanded that all deaths, all suffering, all looting be placed on the head of George W. Bush." Isn't that exactly what Dubya just said he took responsibility for?
Please don't quote Scarborough any more. He's barely a half-step above the Nameless One in terms of bona-fide objectivity.
Metabank was worried about immediate judgements against them in small claims, and filed accordingly. These former employees have had to take more time off from their new jobs to fight this out in circuit court, and Metabank has again stuck the knife a little deeper into the former employees.
The former DNA employees just continue to get hammered by Metabank, even going so far, as to unfairly prejudice them, with the small claims issue. Metabank has frozen the 401K accounts, the deferred bonus accounts for the master mechanics are currently untouchable,and the medical bills for these former employees are mounting due to DNA's non-payment of health insurance premiums.
Some of these shop employees, knew that the customers in many cases, didn't have the money to pay for their repairs, and paid for the necessary parts with their personal credit cards, and will probably never get reimbursed.
They were the hardest working group, but the lowest paid, and have faced the most financial hardships. They tried their best to keep the piece of crap cars on the road for the sake of the customers.
Here are a couple of choice quotes from the Bird's blog, available via archive.org.
-"Tom Daschle kills babies."
-Tom Daschle is "a pathetic, spineless jellyfish. A man with no sense of moral, family values."
And, even after the election was over, and he had time for some "thoughtful" relection, he printed a piece in the November 8th issue, reporting that Tom Daschle voted "75 times... for genocide and murder."
And you have the gall to attck Jeremy for being too nasty? To defend this jerk against Jeremy?
I know that you're no longer a Democrat, but it seems like you go out of your way to protect your own reputation with the people like Belfridge and Haugen and look for opportunities to attack the bloggers on the left.
You'd have a lot more credibility if you took on the things that Haugen printed both before, and after, the election.