endorsements

when i heard that the indy star was endorsing julia carson—giving her one of the most unenthusiastic endorsements i've read—i knew i needed to check in on what gary welsh had to say at advance indiana. gary has been frothing at the mouth about his hatred of julia for weeks on end, and i knew that the star's endorsement would have sent him off the deep end if he hadn't actually gone over the edge some time ago.

gary wastes no time attacking the star ed board:

Defying all logic, the Indianapolis Star editorial board proved to its readers just how incompetent and unreliable it has been on the subject of the 7th District congressional race.

and he quickly makes the argument personal:

You're a real riot Alice. As he has all too well demonstrated in his comments on this blog, editorial board member RiShawn Biddle can't keep his facts straight from something that happened 15 days ago, let alone 15 years ago. Hell, Bill Clinton said he "smoked [pot] but didn't inhale", and he still got elected president. And George W. Bush didn't remember a 24-year-old DUI arrest until he was reminded of it the weekend before he was elected president.

This is only a conclusion which could be reached by a group of completely out-of-touch eggheads who think they know better than the rest of us but don't have the collective common sense of an impulsive teenager. The Star speaks a totally different language than its readers. The newspaper and its readers are like two ships passing in the night. The newspaper's profits and readership will continue to plummet and deservedly so.

i like the moral equivalence between clinton and dickerson... because apparently smoking a joint is just as bad as biting your teenage daughter or trying to gouge your wife's eyes out.

rishawn, however, has grown tired of gary's nonsense, and hits back on expresso:

Today, we look at the congressional races, including the nastiness in the 7th district involving incumbent Julia Carson and Republican Eric Dickerson. As expected, some are already unhappy with the decision we made on this race. Yours truly would note the response of one commentator -- who called us "out of touch eggheads." But given his unreasonable statements of late -- including a continued insinuation of an event involving one of the candidates that didn't happen -- doing so would give his comments more creedence than they deserve. Nor will the endorsement in the 5th district, home to Dan Burton, will be any better received.

bodyslam! rishawn calls out gary for being full of crap and spreading false information even after it's been repeatedly debunked... right there on gary's blog.

the particular incident rishawn is referring to (though hardly the only one of its kind) came to a head last week. gary's favorite piece of misinformation about julia is that she "personally" gave a copy of the police report detailing eric dickerson's arrest to the star ed board. this is not even remotely true, and eventually rishawn commented to point out its falsehood. after all, rishawn is on the star ed board and was present at the meeting in question, so if anyone knows what happened, he would.

an hour later, gary responded, and i want to quote his comment in full:

RiShawn, you need to go back and read Schneider's story. She reported the Star got the police report from a Carson volunteer. It was not until later that she discovered there was still a file in the prosecutor's office.

with this, gary has already demonstrated his original assertion to be false: at first he claims that julia herself handed over the police report. but when challenged, he goes back and says that "a carson volunteer" did it. so he's already basically proven himself wrong, but does that stop him from arguing? hell no!

rishawn patiently tried to explain, even reposting the entire star article in the comments. i won't repost the article, but his own comment is enlightening:

Again, that's not so. As Schneider clearly mentions in her story, posted below this message, she actually got the report from the Marion County Prosecutor. It also clearly states that a Carson volunteer obtained the copy -- and didn't give it to the Star.

Sorry Gary, but the record speaks for itself. Have a nice day.

you might think that would be enough, but if so, you haven't been reading advance indiana in the past few months. naturally, gary kept on arguing, and rishawn kept trying to explain reality to gary before finally giving up.

a valiant effort, rishawn, but when gary has made up his mind about something, no matter how removed from reality that might be, there is no reasoning with him.¶