Silence was on the money...

This past weekend at the Democratic County Commitee meeting, which I was at, Michael Morrill announced he was not running for the 127th Legislative District against Rep. Tom Caltagirone.

While I was right on the money, I laughed at Morrill's announcement since we have known this since last month. Morrill's poll showed he could not beat my favorite Representative and showed how out of touch Morrill was with with reality. I was informed by our Union leadership that the poll showed Caltagirone was quite strong and that a majority of his constituents stood with him. They told me that Rep Caltagirone's numbers were around 95%. Talk about strength!

Morrill has plenty to answer for including where his money came from, especially since his reports thus far have failed to show where his money came from. I have from good sources in the Attorney General's office that they are continuing their investigation and Morrill may find himeslf having to pay not only a significant fine, but may actually face some charges.

While I looked forward to this election, especially since Rep Caltagirone was right on the mark in regards to Bill DeWeese. It would have been intersting to see how Morrill would have attacked knowing that there is an investigation into DeWeese's handling of Bonusgate. From an outsider I have to tell you that I believe Caltagirone's re-hiring of Chris Winters and the guidance of John Ryan as Executive Director, would hav rendered Morrill's positioning as moot and unremarkable. Mr. Winters is known throughout the political world of Berks County as a talented public relations man and political strategist, while Mr. Ryan has consistently demonstrated a brilliant legal mind and is a respected legislative guru in Harrisburg and across the Commonwealth. Throw in the talents of others legislative personnel in Harrisburg, such as the effective talents of William Andring and one quickly realizes the talent that Rep Caltagirone has at his disposal.

I know that the Rep and his staff have had a rough year, especially with the horrible death of their colleague, Sonia Medina, in August. But their tenacity and perserverance stands as testimony to the type of people Rep. Caltagirone has working for him. I know when I have called for help, the Rep's staff in the district has gone out of their way to help me.

Now, I did not see Mr. Winters this past weekend and I was disappointed because there is a lot of work to do this year. I hope he will find time to help in other areas of the County to maintain our seats under attack and even help pick up seats elsewhere. And Mr. Ryan, I hope you will assist in developing strategy to protect our incumbents like Mr. Kessler and Mr. Seip. Now I know that they will not be able to do much while working, but I certainly hope they will make themselves available for strategy calls at night and on the weekends. If they do, we will be in a strong position. Even Republicans have made respectful comments to me about the abilities of these gentleman and as a woman, they have always treated me with the utmost respect, even when we have disagreed.

Now, since Rep Caltagirone seems to be safe in the Primary, I intend on focusing my energy on electing a Democrat in the 187th and saving Rep. Seip and Rep. Kessler. Let me be honest though, Rep Kessler has not always made me happy with his positions and I know my Union is considering not supporting him for some of his positions. Also as a practicing Catholic, I am not happy with his perceived attacks on our Church and Schools. But he is one of ours, so though I do not agree with him, I will do what I can to help him.

See folks, I would rather work and elect a person I do NOT agree with on 10, 20 or even 30 percent of the time, then see someone elected who I only agree with on 10, 20 or 30 percent of the time. But alas, that is why the lunatic left like the Nefarious Blogger do not get it - they attack our own and strike at them because of the small percentages we do not agree on. As I have said time and time again, they lack civility and compromise. I would rather work with a Republican to gain a compromise then work with a lunatic left who does nothing but attack that which they can not control.

For the last 7 years we have been polarized by a divide in our country that gets wider every year, and while we all may want to point the finger at Bush: the reality is that we only need to point to the lunatic right and lunatic left in each party to understand why our Forefathers hated political parties so much. Give me the ladies and gentlemen of compromise and civility, and I guarantee our country will become more united, stronger. While we enjoy the freedom, we need to realize that our fears are overcoming us. We attack our heritage as a Christian nation and then wonder why the hate grows among us. While we are a nation founded by Christian principles, our Forefathers gave us the ability to be free from persecution for our religion; it was never envisioned that the Christian faith would be targeted from within. Instead of idolizing our parents, our family, our God, we have become fixated on ourselves, our wealth and the rich and famous. We care about the trials of Britney Spears, instead of worrying about plight of the homeless man in our backyard. How demented is that!

I hope the lunatic left will get over this attitude that it is their way or nothing or we will see our Party disintegrate into a quagmire of irrelavency. The Republican Party, under the careful guidance of Mr. Gillen, seems to be getting a grip on their divisiness; let us hope the Democrats will do the same...

Respectfully, I am...
S. Dogood