Camps and Saboteurs

Sometime Tuesday, Chairwoman of the City of Tonawanda Democratic Committee and of the EC Town Chairs Association Gayle Syposs wrote this on her Facebook wall,

How the hell do I get dragged into a blog again. No one talked to me

Good question, I thought! So, at the risk of dragging her into yet another blog, let’s examine why she became the target of one especially irresponsible local website: no names, no links.

So, is she also the former City of Tonawanda Chairwoman, or is that just clumsily written? Chairwoman of what, the city? Is there even a “Hillary Clinton camp” from which she has defected?

So, there you have it. That comment has, incidentally, since been deleted.

A simple email or phone call likely would have sussed out the truth. I’m friends with Syposs on Facebook, and I did a quick scan of her posts going back several days, and the most recent mention of Sanders was critical of him and supportive of Clinton, so God knows where the author of that site got his information. As for Zellner’s reliance on Syposs, I have to imagine that he relies on the support of anyone who’ll give it, since it’s the committeepeople who vote for the chairman.

Oh, also:

So, there’s that, as well. That, too, has been deleted.

The post goes on to describe how a local lawyer and Democratic activist who usually sides with Clinton loyalist Steve Pigeon is instead feeling the Bern.

“Saboteur” is quite the accusation. Whom is Reese meant to have sabotaged, and how? “Compatriot” is a word that has a specific definition, and I don’t think the author used it the way he intended. Sure, Reese and Pigeon are “compatriots” because they’re both American. I think “ally” would have worked better, don’t you?

Who refers to Reese as “Pigeon’s brain”? That’s just someone taking the old trope about Karl Rove and repurposing it locally. While I don’t especially like Pigeon, his tactics, or his politics, his intelligence is undeniable.

Also, Camille Brandon isn’t a lobbyist with “Bolton St. James”, but with Bolton-St. Johns. What kind of thing is that to say – that someone is “thought to control” something? They either do or they don’t. One could conceivably look back to the last reorganization meeting of Erie County Democrats to see the results of the vote: 69 – 31. That’s a shellacking.

I distinctly recall the races in 2004 and 2008 when good Democrats were torn between Kerry, Edwards, Dean, and Clark and later between Obama and Clinton. Presidential primary politics are generally cordial affairs; no one challenges anyone else’s petitions, everyone gets along, and as long as the bigshots get their tickets to the convention, everyone’s happy. To suggest that the Clinton vs. Sanders effort now is any different, that it’s breaking a “circle” of “operatives”, or evidence of a party rift is to either ignore history or to be fundamentally stupid. My only question is whether the “former state legislator” we’re talking about is Al Coppola or Antoine Thompson, since those are the only two I can imagine bothering to talk to that author (if the quote isn’t completely made up).

Look at that caption. First, the author doesn’t properly credit the image as being from Facebook. Secondly, he assigns the monicker, “genius saboteur” – I’ve heard Reese called a lot of stuff, but that one’s news to me. Why is it in scarequotes? Is that a nickname? If so, why isn’t it capitalized?

As for the Eddie Egriu mention, that’s puzzling to me. I distinctly recall the Congressional race in 2014 when Reese supported and worked with Egriu, who was challenging Brian Higgins on the (D) line. If I remember correctly, Reese helped handle the ballot access effort. How did Reese supposedly “sabotage” that effort?

Whom else has he “sabotaged”? Again: I don’t agree with Reese, but accusing him of “duping” aspiring candidates with an “unwieldly” style (whatever that means) in order deliberately to “sabotage” a congressional race is a serious accusation that is in no way supported here; there is a complete lack of evidence or foundation for that charge.

In fact, Reese’s animus towards Higgins is so great that he conducted a gentle and touching puff-interview with the execrable Kathy “from Williamsville” Weppner, who was running as a Republican against Higgins after Egriu failed to earn a slot on the primary ballot.

Lots of allegations, few facts, and wild jumps to conclusion: this isn’t how any of this works.

Buffalo. It’s the People℠.