Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Editorial: Keithocracy-gate

For everyone who reads Truth Caucus, you already know what Keith Gates said at the CRNC National Board Meeting in Denver, or at least what Truth Caucus quoted Keith as saying. Here is the quote as seen on TC, from Saturday:
“In Louisiana, we don’t have a democracy, we have a Keithocracy. If someone votes against my wishes, I’m going to fire them. I’m going to defederate their club.”

This was actually a paraphrase of what Louisiana's Chairman Gates said. He was talking about delegates, appointed by a state chairman, voting for candidates at a CRNC National Convention. The way it was reported on Truth Caucus, Chairman Gates sounds like a pompous jackass, who would get rid of someone who votes against him at a state meeting. Now that the entire video of Gates' remarks is up on YouTube (posted below), it is clear that this was a blatant attempt to mislead and cast Gates in a bad light. He may have been on the losing side of the argument, and he may have come across still as a bit pompous in his tone, but to completely misquote him was wrong. There should at the least be a retraction or correction to resolve the matter. We win on ideas, not pointless personal attacks.

Finally, the full video, up (for now) at YouTube:



And people wonder why we cannot get anything accomplished?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

A few things:

Arbitration is a horrible idea and it needs to be repealed by the next class. Keith Gates may have been on the losing side of the debate but he was on the right side of the debate. The risk is huge. If someone actually appeals an election somewhere down the road, that could paralyze us for an entire two year election cycle.

Second you can't blame Truth for what was said on his blog. He goes by sources and his source - someone who clearly had an agenda - was clearly feeding him a bad quote as well as taking Keith out of context.

Cut the Crap said...

Obviously, you are going to get bad information, but why not say something to let everyone know that you were wrong? With regards to the amendment, though, I am still split. I think it is a good provision to have, but the language is rather loose.