Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Jim Esch: Blogging in Circles




On his campaign blog, candidate/blogger Jim Esch complains about Congressman Lee Terry and the Foley page scandal.

Esch first says, (follow us here) that Terry is part of the GOP leadership, and therefore he’s as culpable as Speaker Dennis Hastert. In the Omaha World Herald, we then see that Esch says he’s glad to hear that Terry didn’t know about the inappropriate e-mails until the story broke in the press. (Esch asks if Terry knew about Foley – OWH – 10/4/06.) But, back in the blogosphere, Esch says that’s not good, because that means that Terry isn’t high in the leadership and if Esch is elected he will be high in the leadership.

So to sum up:

Lee Terry is a leader, so he should have known.
But Lee Terry’s not a leader so he didn’t.

Ok. Look Jim, aside from the scumminess of trying to make political hay by connecting Terry to some pervert from Florida, and your genuine confusion over where to go with all of this, consider a few things:

1) You’re going to lose this race.
2) You probably hope to have a political career after this race is over.
3) Your blog makes you seem like a high school kid who yells the first thing that comes to his head as opposed to a candidate for a major political office.

Making wild accusations about a sitting Congressman who had nothing to do with this scandal is no way to make yourself look like you deserve another shot when this seat is wide-open (in 2008?).

Calling on Terry to condemn Hastert, or whomever else – probably politically fine.

Accusing Terry of being part of the scandal, when you have nothing to base it on – not so fine.

**Update, 10/6/06**
For those of you arriving on Leavenworth Street via Jim Esch’s reference on his blog, you can click here, here and here to find all the mentions of your guy on Leavenworth Street. (Or just type "Esch" in the search box above left, but we're not sure it's working...)

(And as long-time readers know, because of employment reasons, we cannot list our names here. If you can’t live with that, feel free to click away.)

**Update, 10/8/06**
We're also struggling (STRUGGLING!) to come up with a decent Separated At Birth for Esch and for Lee Terry. If you have any suggestions, feel free to e-mail them or leave them in the comment section here.)

3 comments:

Peg O'Dea Lippert said...

To the Confused:

Jim asked Lee Terry if he knew about Foley. Lee said he did not. It is not so difficult to follow: therefore, Lee is not the leader he proclaims to be or he, like others, would have known. Of course, Jim is glad he did not know because his not knowing verifies that Lee is not the leader he claims to be. I did not hear Jim make any proclamations about being a leader in Washington. Be real, most first term Representatives are not. The problem is Lee Terry has been there eight years and he is not. Furthermore, to be asked if he knew about Foley,in no way implies that Lee Terry is, was or ever shall be a predator himself. His reaction to the OWH came across as if he felt so accused--an unfortunate misread on his part.
Peg O'Dea Lippert

Anonymous said...

So you're saying that by being a good elected official you should always know that someone is a bad elected official even if that elected official wasn't bad until he or she was bad and if you didn't know that he or she was a bad elected official until they became a bad elected official that makes the original good elected official a bad elected official?

Boy, I feel like Jim Esch now-BLOGGING IN CIRCLES!!!

Anonymous said...

Does it really matter. As much as I would like to see Terry go, this guy is done.