Look Who's Calling Someone an Amateur Hack

Gil "The Shill" Spencer defense of GOP corruption, cronyism and misdeeds has not only extended itself to tax delinquents like Tom McGarrigle, but also to going after Democratic campaign staffers.

First, Spencer twists the revelations (from his own paper) about McGarrigle's past failures to pay taxes into an attack on Democrats. Spencer: Democrats desperate attempt is laughable. While Spencer accepts McGarrigle's weak explanation with praise, Spencer accuses the Democrats of accusing McGarrigle of corruption when the ACTUAL complaint from Democrats is that McGarrigle was fiscally irresponsible in managing his own businesses.

Clearly, Spencer thinks McGarrigle's eventual repayment with penalties absolves him of the original willful decision to avoid taxes. In particular, over $15,000 was in school taxes. Did McGarrigle think it was okay to put his business over Springfield's kids. McGarrigle "claims" it was to keep paying his employees, but I don't hear anything about McGarrigle taking a pay cut himself or getting a business loan to cover the $15,000. What is not clear about this story is whether McGarrigle volunteered to pay his taxes or just got caught red-handed.

Spencer then decides to follow the wishes of Pete Peterson and go after Landau staffer: George Matysik. It seems that the GOP is so desperate, they have to send their attack dog after campaign staffers.

When called about the story before it ran, Landau campaign spokesman George Matysik indicated to the Daily Times he had not seen the tax documents in question. But he did offer this:
“We’ll have to take some time to review the documents, but considering Mr. McGarrigle’s platform of fiscal responsibility, this does not bode well.”

It appears however, when Mr. Matysik suggested to us he had not seen the documents, he was not telling the truth.

For it was Mr. Matysik himself who sought out and asked for the public records. He signed for copies of them Oct. 1
The documents then made their way to a third party, who provided them to the Daily Times.
Now using a “cut-out” to provide negative information about opponents to the press is an old political trick.[Yeah: Spencer you should know as you are the biggest "cut-out" in Delaware County using your column as an extension of the Delco GOP.]

The simple truth of the matter is that Matysik signed out this and many other documents from the court house. The McGarrigle tax documents, like many others, were sent off to appropriate tax/legal experts (not Matysik) to examine. When questioned about the story, Matysik had not reviewed the documents himself and said so, clearly. He also asked the further questions be directly addressed to Landau himself. This seems to have mystified Spencer, who is used to GOP candidates that don't/can't speak for themselves and need their puppet-masters to speak for them.

Matysik has a whole wall lined with information requests he had to extract like pulled teeth from the GOP run Delco courthouse. He has actually gone through and counted the GOP staffers in key departments and documented his findings. It's called research, Gil. But, you of all people have the audacity to call him "amateur hack"? Get real. There's only one "hack" around here Gil, and a "professional" hack at that. Just look in the mirror.

Gil, ends with: "In the meantime, if the Landau campaign needs to be led by his nose to pay dirt let me suggest...."

Gil, how about YOU "investigate" and "let me suggest": tell us what friends or family members of yours work at the GOP courthouse. Are you beholden to the Delco GOP for any reason that the your readers ought to know about to evaluate your biases? Are you going after George because his investigations of courthouse employees might reveal connections too close to home?

BTW, does Peterson write your columns for you or just send you an outline?

So Much GOP Dishonesty and Corruption. So Little Time.

For those of you wondering... Yes, I'm still here. It's been a busy week for me with helping candidates in Delco and Montgomery County, Haverford Township Day, and recovering from a a cold.

A quick recap:
1) Democratic candidates are kicking ass all over the region as voters have wised up the GOP tactics, poor administration, cronyism, etc. Even Republicans are complaining that the current GOP politicians don't represent them and are more interested in playing GOP politics that helping the voters.

2) Haverford Township Day: The Dems were out in force. Local progressive, Larry Chrzan, made a great showing over Jimmy McGarrity. There was a ton of people wearing (very stylish) "Chrzan for Change" t-shirts. The ghost-town-like Haverford Republican table seems to have more Chrzan supporters than Republicans. In the afternoon, Candidates Larry Abel and Brian Kennedy were also meeting voters and handing out the Haverford Dem newsletter.
I watched as numerous people pushed aside Republican literature, but took our Democratic newsletter. The only thing the GOP was able to 'move' was FREE, cold bottled water from the GOP Council candidates. The think the kids with the Chrzan t-shirts drank a lot them. I guess the GOP candidates took a break from handing out Kool-aid.

3) Thomas McGarrigle is in HOT water over recent disclosures about his past problems paying is school and state taxes. A story that juicy deserves (and will get) its own blog entry. The story got HOTTER with a HEATED exchange with Rocco Polidoro as well.

4) Nether Providence Republican Committee Chairman, Michael Maddren, started up a "LandauFactCheck" site. The site is a single web page of the same tired GOP distortions about Landau that Pete Peterson, Andy Reilly, Michael Puppio and their minions have been spreading to distract voters about the GOP record. This will get its own blog posting as well.

5) John Innelli: John must have done well on some internal GOP polls this week because Pete Peterson put out a hit piece on John. In it he repeated the distortions about John's work for Darby Township. Peterson tries to act like John was the recipient of some political largess. The REAL facts: John acted as a assistant solicitor, worked at 1/5 his normal fee (so, practically pro-bono work), and the work amounted to a few thousand dollars per year and well below amounts required by Darby for any kind of bidding process. As for Paul Brown being in the loop.. she's in her own loop.

6) Gil "The Shill" Spencer does a standard hatchet piece on Landau. Yawn. Sometime I wonder if Spencer has a set of hatchet pieces pre-written years in advance and then just copies/pastes the name of the Democratic candidate. Spencer also tries to minimize Landau's complaints by comparing the corruption in Philly with Delco:
"But, practically speaking, when you look at say the Democratic machine in Philadelphia and you then you look at the Republican machine in Delaware County, one is not just as bad as the other. One is worse. And we all know which one."
I think the differences are that Philly machine is what the Delco GOP machine has tried to emulate and that Philly has more news organization to investigate and uncover corruption. Clearly, the quality of Republican Editorial comment is worse in Delco. (Yea Us!)
Spencer ends with: To win, Landau needs a better argument, better ideas, or a whole lot more real GOP corruption (not just this "appearance of" stuff) to expose before Election Day. I wonder if Spencer can name his closest friend/relative that works at the GOP controlled courthouse? And what percentage of GOP employment above the 54% registration level would be considered too high?

The Republicans are clearly worried. Considering the record they are running away from, they should be.

Delco GOP Ventriloquists Speak without their Dummy Candidates

Aspiring GOP Ventriloquists, Michael Puppio and Pete Peterson were busy working overtime trying to defend Delco GOP hiring practices. They didn't even get a chance to do their routine where they drink a glass of water while their Candidates say: "The GOP Council is doing a great job. So will we. Yea us!". I hear they are planning to install a pull string on the back of each candidate to make them say something different each time.

In today's Delco Times, David Landau vows that a Democratic majority would institute performance audits to eliminate GOP patronage and no-show jobs, and return money saved to taxpayers. Landau also questioned if the revenue from the Harrah's casino was making its way back to the taxpayers.

Responding to Landau's previous attacks on the suspicious GOP hiring practices at the courthouse:
County Councilman Michael Puppio said "The management of county employees is the responsibility of supervisors and department heads. Performance is continually monitored to provide our residents with the most efficient service possible."

I suspect that "performance" may refer to "performance helping the GOP win elections or raising/contributing money" and making sure that when GOP party bosses call, they get quick service. Of course, I have little reason to suspect anything else considering the non-random distribution of GOP jobs.

The Delco Times asked Puppio directly, if there were any no-show jobs at the county courthouse. Puppio smugly responded: "Do you see any no-show employees walking around these empty desks? ... I didn't think so!"
[disclaimer: Puppio's actual quote was "Absolutely not.", but that isn't as funny as my pretend quote. I wonder if Puppio considers coming in to collect a paycheck as a yes-show job.]

Puppio also likes to repeat the mantra that the GOP hasn't raised taxes in three years (which was right after three of current Council got elected 4 years ago). Puppio conveniently ignores that we are already overpaying taxes, so holding the line on tax increases is not that hard.

Landau, O'Keefe and Innelli plan to reduce taxes by eliminating the waste that Puppio is unable to see (or admit).

Pete Peterson, campaign manager for The Three Stooges, was quick to confuse the issue on hiring practices by misstating Landau's history in Nether Providence. The GOP like to misrepresent a BID contract process that the 3D-3R used to select a Democrat for a job in the late nineties. Though Landau was NOT on the Nether Providence board at the time, the Delco GOP tells the story like Landau controlled the board and the GOP had no say. I think Peterson has confused himself with how GOP municipal boards are controlled by non-elected party bosses. An easy mistake to make, if you've never seen it done fairly.

Readers are asked to look at the statements made by the two GOP P's in a pod, and see if they can find ONE new proposal or plan for GOP candidates or a single explanation how departments are "randomly" filled with all Republicans. What readers will find is an attitude of "All is well.. Stay the course... And keeping the same high taxes."

Voters looking for change, now have a choice.