Stiverson Snubbed by Kapital Editorial

Dear Mr. Stiverson,
I couldn't help notice that the Kapital's editorial this evening didn't mention the fact that you found Joyce Thomann's opinions so abhorrent that you were compelled to return her generous contribution. It mentioned Messrs Cordle and Bowling, but not a jot about you. Maybe you weren't offended enough? I am sure you called the Kapital "news" room immediately after you were snubbed by the editorial board. How dare they over look the fact that you were offended and outraged!

I'm telling you, if you really want to do something meaningful, hold a press conference and announce you are changing parties! It worked out well for Arlen Specter, didn't it? Don't you worry, though, Mr. Stiverson. I'll make sure Ward 6 voters know just how loyal you are to your own political career. The First Amendment be damned! Annapolis will soon learn that what really matters around here is the amount of attention Greg Stiverson gets from the press!

Hmmmm. I am trying to think of other ways to curry favor with the liberals and the press. Hey, I know! Why don't you get one of those clever "Tecleo para el Web site en espanol" buttons like Scott Bowling has on his website homepage? I'm sure that's why they picked him over you to feature in their editorial.

Yours Truly,
Mike Netherland

The Wheat and The Chaff

If no other good can come from the Thomann affair let it be that it has opened the eyes of conservatives in and around Annapolis as to who in the Republican Party are most likely to throw you overboard when the going gets a little rough.

Joyce Thomann has been able to accomplish in one e-mail what I have trying to accomplish for a decade of letters, e-mail messages and message groups and finally, blogs. That is we now have made the bold distinction between Conservatives and those who registered Republican. We also now have seen what happens to a Republican group, whose disloyalty to its own president will forever be an ugly stain and its only lasting legacy. Perhaps Republicans in this and other counties in Maryland will remember the Thomann affair and decide for themselves whether they have what it takes to remain a Republican.

"Republicans" like Annapolis Ward 6 candidate Greg Stiverson; one of two city council candidates to make a public show of returning the Thomann's generous campaign contribution. I left this comment last night on his blog post where he makes a spectacle out of his outraged tender sensibilities:

"Dear Mr. Stiverson,
Yes, Bra-vo! How courageous of you to do exactly what the liberal Democrats and their cheerleaders in the Press and in the blogs wanted you to do. I wonder what other tricks they can get you to do. Oh, and you are a Republican? This blog post is the first mention of that fact on your site. You must be so proud to be a Republican to hide it from visitors to your campaign website. Visitors who until Joyce Thomann took to the keyboard, never heard of you, let alone your party affiliation.

Did returning the campaign donation and publicly trashing a loyal member of your beloved Republican Party and patriotic American help you to recover from the bouts of vehemence and abhorrence? It must have been horrible for you.

Hey! I know what will make you feel better: Change your party affiliation! Why not go all the way and show Ward 6 voters how vehemently you really disagreed with Thomann's opinions! It would be a simple change; from R to a D, right? And you won't have to change your website a bit!!"

That, of course, was rejected by site moderators this morning. Click here to leave a nice comment for our whithering Ward 6 friend.

Also in the Chaff division of the Annapolis City Council race is Scott Bowling of Ward 3. Mr. Bowling's comments in handing back Thomann's check were brimming with glorious outrage:

"I forcefully reject this view enunciated by Ms. Thomann, and find the use of this inflammatory rhetoric unacceptable, useless and destructive."

Mr. Bowling is a former Democrat and recent resident of Ward 3 (according to his Website). At least he admits he is a Republican. What kills me about Mr. Bowling's campaign web site is that the home page prominently features a link to a Spanish-language version.

Tecleo para el Web site en espanol

Note to Mr. Bowling: To become a naturalized citizen of this county, I believe it is still a requirement that one must learn the English language. Of course, citizenry is not a requirement in order to make a generous campaign contribution (as long as the contribution does not exceed the legal limit and not made on behalf of a foreign government).

Another proud Republican and candidate for Mayor of Annapolis is Dave Cordle; we have to take the Democrats' word for it that he is a Republican because it is nowhere to be found on his campign web site. So far all I have is a Democrat's word that he "expressed his disapproval" to Thomann. So I will give him the benefit of the doubt. But, with this track record, my money is on the Democrat.

RWAAC - Guest Post

What’s the deal with being a Republican these hot, hazy days of summer? Scandal by a Governor who seemed to have a bright future, using inappropriate analogies to discredit our President and not walking in the Annapolis Fourth of July Parade because, because why?

I have known Joyce Thomann for the past ten years. Yes, the Joyce Thomann who recently made careless remarks comparing our President to someone we all truly abhor. I will be the first to admit that I would have never used that analogy. But I have also been the President of the Republican Women of Anne Arundel County (RWAAC) from 1999 to 2001, and understand the reality of wearing many hats and the huge responsibility that comes with each hat. That does not excuse Joyce’s analogy, her using the RWAAC website for its distribution or the RWAAC Board for not addressing it before it became a source of ridicule and scorn for this organization.

The reality is that the Republican Women of Anne Arundel County is a notable, activist organization promoting the ideals we hope will better our family, community, state and country. We volunteer in public schools with large populations of at-risk students. We donate school supplies to students who would otherwise start school without the necessary items they need. We donate to and maintain the house where victims of domestic abuse are cared for with their children and remain safe. We support our troops who serve our country and keep our freedoms secure and who serve in harms’ way. We do all this to make our community stronger and still hear from some who we have helped state, “I didn’t know Republicans would do that.”

Joyce, and now RWAAC, is the target of all the ills that are affecting our Party. We need to blame someone and her statements are giving us an easy bull’s eye.

Under Joyce’s leadership as President of RWAAC, a PAC was implemented to help more Republicans get elected to office. Joyce’s activism led RWAAC to initiate Thursday Action Briefings or TABs. All the Republican Clubs in our county as well as the Republican City and County Central Committees invited legislators to share their insights with community groups on Thursdays during the Legislative Session. Joyce mostly carried the water for TABs, but always gave everyone credit for their support. She is a generous, kind woman who let her emotions and fears carry her away. Are we all so perfect that we cannot forgive this misstep?

I am a proud Republican and an especially proud American and I will be marching in the Annapolis City Fourth of July Parade and I will be representing my club, the Republican Women of Anne Arundel County. If you don’t agree with Joyce’s statement, well I don’t either, but that is no reason to ignore the freedoms we have that allow us when we make a mistake, we can take responsibility for our error, pull ourselves back up and move forward on a better, brighter path.

God Bless America!

Marianne Pelura
Past President of the Republican Women of Anne Arundel County

RWAAC: Thomann Must Resign

UGH! I have on some authority that the Board of Directors of the RWAAC will ask Joyce Thomann to resign as president of that august body. The Board is also reportedly pulling out of the Fourth of July parade in Annapolis "out of fear Thomann's comments would bring harm to RWAAC members."

From the RWAAC web page, I believe the following to be the members of the Board of Directors:

• First Vice President Carolyn Middleton
• Second Vice President Carol Ann Lee
• Third Vice President Jan Holland
• Treasurer Patricia Root
• Assistant Treasurer Mary A. Fink
• Recording Secretary Barbara G. Reynolds
• Asst Rec. Secretary Marti Fridrich
• Corresponding Sec. Sylvia Pailthorp

My comments are directed at these fine ladies. I believe you to be shallow and devoid of substance if you persist in this masquerade of offense and concern for your membership. It just boggles the mind why you would rise to take such cheap bait. Think of the hurt, the real hurt (not the fake hurt you are throwing around) you are causing the Thomanns. I don't know any of you. The face and voice of the RWAAC, for me anyway, was Joyce Thomann. She loved your organization as much as she loved the GOP. Now you have have just flushed that love down the toilet.

And for what? I ask again. (Chuck, will you read to the Board the letter I sent to them?) What do you think you have gained other than scorn? You always had the scorn of the liberals and the DWAAC or whatever the Democratic Women are calling themselves. And you always will. But now, you have my scorn, and that of other principled Republicans in the county.

You are the kind of Republicans that make conservatives sick to their stomachs and have led the Republican Party to defeat after defeat, handing over the country to a bunch of socialists. I doubt very seriously that the membership of RWACC would want anything more to do with you.

Now if any of you has the guts to respond (you can use the e-mail thing), I will post your comments as is.

To Joyce I offer to set up a blog for you and help you maintain it. You can write whatever comes to mind. You can even use it to promote the RWAAC-Os who have unceremoniously dumped you. I wouldn't be surprised if she did continue to promote her beloved RWAAC. How rich the reward...

GOP: Defend Joyce Thomann!

Well, just as sure as night follows day, the Republicans of Anne Arundel County can't seem to find the spine to defend one of their own against a predictable smear campaign by the liberal sharks of the blogoshpere.

For my readers who may not be familiar with the latest attack, it involves one of the hardest working, most eloquent, knowledgeable, warmest and patriotic couple ever to grace the MD GOP: Joyce and Chuck Thomann. Yes. Joyce Thomann. She is known to most Republicans in MD as the author of the "Dear Friends" calls to political action. Firing off thousands of e-mail messages a year, exhorting the faithful and the patriotic to defeat this or that misguided legislation, support this or that wonderful Republican candidate.

For the past ten years or maybe more, she has lent her passion and influence to the Republican Women of Anne Arundel County (RWAAC), promoting their events and giving that otherwise obscure and apparently illiterate group a voice. Each of her Dear Friends letters was featured in the RWAAC website, until recently. Just before flying to her 96-year-old mother's side in Colorado she fired off what I hope won't be her last message.

On the eve of the take over of yet another American industry by the socialists, she implored her friends to rally against what she saw as a "Blitzkrieg" by the Obama administration by conducting a blitzkrieg of our own of phone calls and letters and e-mail.

Well, this was just too rich for liberal blogger and delegate candidate Judd Legum. How could he pass up an opportunity to grab the spotlight for 15 seconds? Calling on all members of the GOP to denounce Joyce picking up on a posting by Paul Foer, another liberal blogger and recent weekly columnist for the Annapolis Kapital.

I, and a few others, jumped to Joyce's defense on Inside Charm City, which picked up both postings and on Legum's blog. I warned Republicans that I would be HIGHLY disappointed" in those who failed to defend Joyce and I would work to "ruin" the political career's of those who folded.

The next day, the very LAST group I expected to give in to this pressure, were the illiterati of the RWAAC. My letter to them:

Ladies,
I'd like to ask you a few questions regarding this statement recently published on your web site:

"Urgent message from RWAAC Board of Directors: The article put on our web site by Joyce Thomann was done solely by her. Our Board of Directors never saw the article and would never have approved it. We are not in support of Mrs. Thomann's personal thoughts ot opinions."

What, aside from earning your organization the contempt and revulsion one reserves for the spineless and disloyal of God's creatures, did you hope to accomplish by publishing such tripe?

Do you know what blogs are? Have you read any of them? This is how one of Md's leading Republican bloggers put it: "The RWAAC Just Threw Joyce Thomann Under the Bus!"

I haven't even looked at the liberal blogs...yet. How wonderful for the RWAAC which will now become the darling of the liberal media. Was this your goal? Seriously. Is there not a single Republican in this county with a spine or principles or common sense?

My advice to you is to pack it up. Today. Don't wait another second. Sell what you can now before word gets out that you threw Joyce Thomann under the bus. And word will get out. I will spend the entire weekend making sure words gets out.

By the way, I will be posting this on my blog and I will post your reply just to be fair. If I were you...I wouldn't reply.

So far there is no reply from the Board. That evening the letter hit the Political Notes section of the Kapital. No longer confined to the blogoshphere. GOP Women Compare Obama to Hitler! Liberal bloggers up in arms, e-mail campaign underway. If I were you ladies, I would get ready for the Kaptial's story on how the RWAAC suddenly does not agree with the most influential member of the group's "personal thoughts o[r] opinions."

To all Republicans reading this: Grab your spine and stand up in defense of our wonderful friend. Saying nothing or folding like a cheap suit (a la the RWAAC) will get us no where. If you are contacted by a blogger or by the Annapolis Press Release, please have something intelligent to say. Like:

"I happen to agree that the socialists in Washington are employing blitzkrieg-like tactics against the American people and economy. And I happen to agree that we need to fight fire with fire and launch our own blitzkrieg in defense of the American way of life."

Or something like that. Write to the RWAAC at info@rwaac.com and support Joyce while admonishing the gutless wonders on the board of directors.