I was watching with interest a video Jaime Abeytia put up on his blog and was struck by a comment made on the post. If Jaime doesn't think his blogging is valuable, he should think again - here I am writing a post inspired by his work. Go see his work HERE.
The video is of Pastor Tom Brown addressing MABA (a racial separatist group where a law degree is required for admission) in place of his wife... who is the actual candidate. Now, nobody believes his wife wanted to run for office - we all know it's pastor Tom Brown who wanted to run, but sent his wife instead.
The video is quite revealing. It's obvious that Brown sees himself as the candidate. I think this guy thinks he can fool the flock anywhere the flock will give him an audience. I think he's wrong, but we'll see - election day exposes fools and geniuses and you never really know where you're going to end up until the votes are counted (put me in the "fool" category).
After watching the video I went to read the comments and noted one particular one from my friend Tim Collins. You might remember Collins was the write-in candidate who got himself on the ballot by collecting signatures. His effort to collect signatures was the only attempt at campaigning anyone in the race made. Fat Dummy (Besco) and Congressman Reyes sat around and did nothing and were rewarded with plenty of votes. Meanwhile, the guy who showed the most promise as someone who can actually get things done (collect signatures and do such a quality job of it that he got on the ballot - something that groups of well funded El Pasoans have failed to do over the years) got next to zero votes. If you wonder why El Paso is last in everything, just remember that we rewarded Reyes' flat out laziness with another trip to Washington to make $200 grand to sit around and do nothing... which is the theme here - he does nothing and we are might happy to pay him to do it.
Where was I? - oh Tim Collins. So Tim kind of pokes at Jaime by mentioning the fact that Congressman Reyes sent his proxy, Vince Perez to speak in his place during campaign forums. And Tim has a point - where was Jaime's disdain for proxies when Reyes was giving the middle finger to voters by sending his assistant to speak to them? I know the answer - if you're a democrat in this town you don't tug on Superman's cape and in this case Congressman Reyes is Superman.
(quick side note - do not confuse Reyes as "Superman" and Chente "Portly" Gente who is "Supperman" - they are two different kinds of local superheroes)
Jaime has had no problem standing up to a myriad of local democrat figureheads, but knows better than to mess with Reyes. I wouldn't say it's a "double standard" on Jaime's part, just a means of survival. Just imagine, as I do, that you're the type of guy that prides himself on not letting anyone tell you what to do, but make a special exception when the wife demands the garbage be removed immediately. There are just certain things you do for you own health and safety.
I guess the bigger story here is why nobody really gave a damn back when Reyes was sending his press secretary to campaign for him (there's a thin line between Perez's duties on the tax payer's dime and those that are campaign related - If I were either Vince or Silver I'd just get a guy who doesn't draw a government paycheck to do what Vince does and avoid any questions that might be raised by some asshole blogger). Because pastor Tom Brown is something we all fear (religious leaders bringing their religious views into the hall built on laws), we tend to take notice. However, the use of a proxy is still wrong and should be treated equally by the press... and asshole bloggers alike.
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