CD3 Dems in chaos

There was a revolution of sorts in Grand Island on Saturday.

While there were no shots fired or gatherings in the streets, tears were shed and resignations were made.

Lisa Hannah resigned from chair of the Third District Democrats, and Brian T. Osborn resigned his associate chair position.

Hannah and Osborn have been fighting it out for a while now -- in public, in private and here on the Leavenworth Street comment boards and on other blogs. (Where did people go to argue in the old days?)

On Saturday, according to Osborn:

Basically, what the issues between Lisa Hannah and I were all about concerned whether the Nebraska Democratic Party is going to be a grassroots based organization that is run by the people, or if it is going to be an organization run by only a few people behind the proverbial curtain.

In the NTV story, according to Hannah:

Osborn didn't make her feel welcome in her own party.

Hannah was in tears, saying later she threw in the towel due to what she called "dirty politics." While addressing her district, she said tearfully that nobody should have to put up with the behind-the-back comments she took. She said the district is supposed to be working together, but she often felt isolated.

We would state that having an argument about governing philosophy can be good for a political party. It's not as if the CD3 Dems have been successful by any means lately.

It will be interesting to see how they go about putting things back together.

***

The talk of the Politico sites these days is all about how the National Dems are going after Congressman Lee Terry for his vote on a supplemental war funding bill.

Terry voted against the bill, in part, because it added $108 billion in new loan authority for the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which the President agreed to at
April's G-20 summit.

The funding is unrelated to U.S. war efforts, and may fundamentally change the IMF's role while weakening the U.S.'s power within the institution.

The provision represents a ten-fold increase in the U.S.'s current IMF contribution to fund a massive expansion of the IMF's lending programs. Funds provided to the IMF could be passed on to state sponsors of terrorism, such as Iran, Syria, and Venezuela.

But state Senator Tom White, who is ithcin' to run against Terry next year, said:

he didn't know enough about the IMF loan provision to take a position on it...

...and yet he apparently felt he knew enough about it to criticize Terry for voting against it.

Gotcha.

Of course the crux of all this, as Don Walton saliently pointed out in the LJS, is to soften up Terry's support in the GOP stronghold of Sarpy county -- home of Offutt Air Force Base. They figure White would take Douglas County easy, what with the Obama win there in 2008, and then can compete with Terry in Sarpy.

Or as former Nebraska Democrat Party E.D. Barry Rubin put it:

“We’re going to find out whether or not [Obama’s win] was a fluke. And I don’t think it was. I think the numbers are there in black and white.”

Gee Barry, interesting choice of words. (I can guarantee that if we had written something like that people would be calling this a racist blog....)

Rubin and the rest of the Dems are still sore that they had to put up with Jim Esch in 2008 when they figured they had their best chance.

“He put up a good fight, but if we had a more high-profile candidate in 2008, it would have been a slam dunk,” said Rubin.

Yeah, right. And if Jim Esch had a bill and webbed feet he'd be a duck.

Well, we will see if a voting cult shows up for Tom White in 2010, like it did for Obama in 2008.

We are guessing that maybe that won't be the case.

Oh, and good luck convincing GOP voters in the CD2 that the Dems are more supportive of the military than the GOP. That always works out well.

***

Jim Vokal has stated that he is going to stay involved in Omaha politics.

Vokal, who left the Omaha City Council and lost in the Mayoral primary, is creating a watchdog group keeping an eye on the workings of MAyor Jim Suttle.

You can follow Vokal's OMAPAC via their Twitter account for now: twitter.com/OMAPAC

Interesting that Suttle mouthpiece Ron Penzkowski said,

“We need to work together to solve these problems and not be divided by tactics and maneuvers that resemble campaign rhetoric.”

Hmm. This coming from the guy (Suttle) who said he was running for Mayor of Omaha from the day he was elected to the City Council. Suttle made it pretty clear that from Day One all his tactics and maneuvers were campaign rhetoric.

You'd think he'd appreciate that sort of thing.

White all but in against Terry

The LJS reports that Tom White, during his speech at the Dem's Morrison-Exon Dinner, all but announced his intention to run for 2D seat against Congressman Lee Terry.

(Note: The OWH either missed or skipped this speech and event entirely. Interesting that we have to go to the 1D newspaper in order to hear about this. If I've missed the OWH article, please let me know.)

“I’m close to making a decision. It’s fair to say I’m seriously considering entering the race.”

Walton noted that White "focused on Terry with the intensity of a laser beam during a speech", while White droned on about Republican Lee Terry voting like a Republican.

It will be interesting to see if White can come up with a campaign theme other than "Lee Terry doesn't vote with Obama 100% of the time, like I would." The bloom is off the Obama rose and is drying up in the garden dirt right now. It ain't 2008.

What else does White have in his bag of tricks?

***

Also in the LJS article, State Sen. Steve Lathrop seems to indicate he is less likely to make a run at the Governor's office -- mainly because of the popularity of Governor Dave Heineman.

Ben Nelson, however, thinks Heineman can be taken down:

“It’s uphill,” Sen. Ben Nelson said during an interview.

“But it’s possible. A number of issues are tailor-made for a challenger.”

Nelson declined to be specific.

Declined to be specific?! Why, that cagey Nelson....

***

Omaha Mayor Jim Suttle just keeps trucking on. By now we've all heard about how he is going to raise taxes in many and various ways.

And of course Suttle has decided to shut down Morton Pool in order to save $21,000 from the budget.

But then there's this nugget from KMTV:

Two of Suttle's top aides are getting big bumps in pay.

Suttle's spokesman Ron Gerard (Penzkowski) will earn $71,000. Former Mayor Mike Fahey's spokesman Joe Gudenrath earned $58,000.

Suttle's Chief of Staff Steve Oltmans' will make $125,000. Fahey's Chief of Staff Paul Landow made $92,000.

For those of you who understood there would be no math on this blog, that adds up to an increase of $46,000 for those two staffers.

So once again:

Shut community pool and give the $21,000 saved, plus another $15,000, to staffers.

(Why do I have a feeling we're going to hear how shutting the pools will make the city "greener"?)

***

The kids at the Suttle Watch blog beat us to it, but we too received this bumper sticker image.

It made us chuckle:

***

SAB from the image on Drudge:

POTUS and Bigfoot

OWH's 1000 words

You know what they say a picture is worth right?

Well the Omaha World Herald's continuing vendetta against Mayor Jim Suttle is starting to crack us up.

Now we here at Leavenworth Street enjoy using the various Faces Of Suttle to adorn our posts. But we're a blog, and we're expected to have a little fun with the mugs of the pols that we skewer from time to time.

But the OWH is supposed to be an unbiased news source, right?

Then how to explain this shot they added to the online story about Suttle's salary?


Really, that's the best you got?

Compare that to the main shot of Mike Fahey the OWH uses:


Gosh that Mayor Fahey is a swell, happy guy....

The OWH: It's Blog-tastic.

***

Speaking of the OWH, how about THIS headline for their least favorite member of the Nebraska Congressional delegation:

"Rep. Smith's Playing Time Scant"

Yes, this is a story about how Rep. Adrian Smith of CD-3 played in the House Dem vs Repub charity softball game. Smith pinch-ran twice and scored once.

Not much better in the print edition:

"No at-bats for Smith in congressional ballgame"

So is the headline, "Smith scores in a pinch for GOP"?
Or how about, "Smith honors UNK at House game"?

No, it references that Smith didn't play the field.

We're sort of amazed it didn't say, "Smith skips House duties to play games".

***

Senator Mike Johanns at a Senate Banking Committee hearing yesterday:

“I really worry today if what we’re seeing is a dead cat bounce, where all we are doing is pushing so much liquidity into the marketplace that we’re just setting ourselves up for the next cliff.”

While it's apparently a regularly used financial term, I think we can all agree that Dead Cat Bounce would be an excellent band name.

You can thank me later, kids.

***

**UPDATE**

For those of you who don't know, Joe Jordan is leaving KMTV Channel 3 in Omaha as of June 26th.

Jordan is taking a new gig at The Franklin Center for Public Integrity. (We're looking for more info on it, as there are a couple of groups with similar names.)

We are sad to see Joe leave the Omaha MSM. Mainly because he is the only reporter who seeks to ask the incisive follow-up questions for pols, rather than let them deliver their own spin.

Sure Joe often tried to make himself more of the story, but he usually made interviews interesting and got nuggets that you seldom got from other reporters.

We're not quite sure on what he'll be reporting (Joe feel free to contact us - not sure your old email works!), but we look forward to hopefully getting more news from him in the future.

June-buggin

First a Separated at Birth, brought to you today by The Hill:

Apparently they haven't been at the SABs too long. Because if they really wanted a fine SAB for Fort, they need to look no further than the Leavenworth Street archives:

Fort and Donny Osmond:

***

Nebraska's senior Senator has been making the news of late -- this time via Newsweek editor Jonathan Alter.

Alter talks about how the group ChangeCongress.org is claiming victory in their web campaign to force U.S. Senator Ben Nelson to change his stance on Obama's health care plan.

It went like this: Not long after ChangeCongress started their ads, Nelson said that, like pretty much every issue, he is on the fence and tries to play both sides unless forced into a position by a blogger.

OK, maybe he didn't say that (but is it far off?).

What he did say was that he never changed his position, is open to listening to all plans and he would not filibuster against the President's health care bill.

And the filibuster part is really the only thing anyone cares about in the Senate where the Dems hold a solid majority.

Is the Benator just feeding the Free Health Care crowd a bone? Will he stand up for what he believes in? Will he finally recognize Leavenworth Street when he makes his decision?

We will have to wait and see...

***

Speaking of Democrats from Nebraska's Third District, we saw this post on the Facebook page of the Third District Democrat Chair, Lisa Hannah (she of video-stalking Senate candidate Mike Johanns).

It seems that Ms. Hannah was employed for a while by the Service Employees International Union - Change that Works campaign, but for whatever reason was fired/quit/we don't really care.

In any case, the lead at that group in Nebraska is of course Mrs. Jane Fleming Kleeb -- of the Scott Kleebs.

Could Ms. Hannah's complaints about cowboys and cowgirls and fake Nebraskans be directed at the Kleeb Clan (and is there trouble in paradise?).

Gee whiz, don't say we didn't warn ya...

**UPDATE**

Lisa Hannah has contacted Leavenworth Street to say the following:

The comment had nothing to do with Scott Kleeb, and any assumptions made by those not within my closest circle of friends are just that: Assumptions without any basis in fact.

***

Finally, we hate to keep bringing this up, but we'll just point you to the latest report by KMTV's Joe Jordan (in case you missed it).

Jordan points out that the Omaha World Herald isn't done with the investigation of Mayor Jim Suttle's political confidant, Matthew Samp (aka "Matt Moore").

It seems that the OWH is delving deeper into the "what did Suttle know and when did he know it" aspect of the investigation into Samp, and are seeking to open search warrants and other records.

Jordan notes that Douglas County District Court Judge Pete Battallion will decide (this week maybe) whether the info will be opened.

Stay tuned, apparently.

***

**UPDATE**

We'll give these guys a shout-out just for the pure creativity factor:

Suttle's new ride

Things to do as new Mayor:

1. Offer a suspected pedophile the top job in your administration.
2. Lose your first legislative issue with the new Council.
3. Tell everyone how the city is going bankrupt, that taxes will be raised, that you are cutting library hours...then blow more than two grand a year more than the previous Mayor on a brand new luxury SUV to drive you around town.

Well, that's quite the agenda the new Mayor has going.

The Mayor's new press flack, Ron Penzkowski, says Mayor Jim Suttle is trying to

"increase awareness of the use of other forms of technology and different ways of looking at things."

Well, we'll give Penzkowski that Suttle is certainly "different".

What's the #1 issue facing the city (arguably)? Money problems.
So what does Suttle do right out of the chute? Blow a bunch of money.

And then he pulls an Al Gore and gets the biggest freaking thing he can find, then claims he's being "fuel efficient". What Mayor, there were no more Priuses left at the dealership?

A fuel efficient SUV is right up there with hoping to lose weight by getting the Super Size Big Mac meal with a Diet Coke.

Well hey, the Mayor will now have a nice symbol of how he is handling the city's finances EVERYWHERE HE GOES.

Next?

***

By the way, sorry to those of you who were shut out of the OWH's story above because they want you to buy a copy of paper.

That seems to be their new M.O. these days -- tease you with a paragraph from their big story then tell you to go buy a copy.

Well, that's the new strategy of the NEW Omaha.com. Our friends over at the Weird Harold have a very nice summary of the OWH's other new endeavor, Omaha.com.

You know things like, not being able to discern the ads from the stories, killing all the old links that web sites had to the OWH site and the curious matter of picking and choosing when you can comment on a story.

I'm sure you have your own beefs.

***

And the Kim Robak for Congress flash-in-the-pan?

A no-go, says Robak (via the LJS).

“I do not have any interest in running for Congress.”

That might have been interesting. (As Team Fort unclenches, just a little.)

Omaha Bankrupt?

Bankruptcy for Omaha.

That's the message Jim Suttle sent out on the eve of his taking office. On the week of the Omaha's nationwide event.

How's this for an ESPN opener:

"Here we are LIVE at Johnny Rosenblatt stadium, in Omaha, where the new Mayor says they may go bankrupt if they don't raise taxes."

Omaha! Rare, Well Done and Cooked!

This is what you get (and will be getting) from the new ambassador for Omaha. Not that Omaha is a thriving city on the move. Not that it has a new ballpark, new buildings and a growing economy in a state that will weather the recession.

Nope. A message about bankruptcy.

Welcome to your new Mayor.

***
Senator Ben Nelson to KOLN, regarding the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor:

"Some people are quite troubled by some of her comments."

And by "some people" he means...? Heck , Rush Limbaugh is likely going to endorse her (though for his own reasons).

Nelson says he's going to quiz the judge when she stops by his office.

"I'm going to ask her the context -- what did she mean when she said some of those things."

And that's fine and all, but her "Wise Latina" speech can be read in full. It wasn't an off-the-cuff statement. The "Wise Latina" concept was the basis for the speech.

Anyway...

"My belief is that if she has a very sound hearing before the judiciary committee she'll get approved."

How he defines "sound hearing" will make the difference. (But can HE make a difference...)

(By the way, unless there was any question, he is also against a "Single Payer" health care plan.)

***

Don Walton notes a new Facebook page (and who knew Don trolled Facebook?):

"Nebraska Needs Kim Robak for U.S. Congress 2010"

Not exactly a catchy title, but you get the point.

1D Congressman Jeff Fortenberry is no stranger to taking on former female Lt. Governors (see Moul, Maxine). Of course, to be frank, if you were going to run one of these former Lt. Governors, who would you go with?

OK, thanks. (Then again, looks was 90% of the pitch for Scott Kleeb as well...)

We'll see where this goes.

Who is Ron Gerard?

After Mayor-elect Jim Suttle stormed out of his "press conference" the other day -- the one where the press didn't get to ask any questions -- he left his new Communications Director to sort out the queries of those assembled.

We joked in a recent post that Communications Director-designate Ron Gerard must be longing for the days when he was a simple TV weatherman on KPTM.

How little did we know!

Upon a tip from a reader, we looked at what "Mr. Gerard" has been up to the past eight or so years. However, we couldn't find much because there's little on the web about "Ron Gerard", other than his time as a meteorologist at KPTM, and before that KETV.

But look under "Ronald G. Penzkowski", and you find much more!

(OK, this is going to be less exciting than we're building it up to be, but....)

It appears that "Ron Gerard" is simply the stage name for Mr. Ron G. Penzkowski. Around 2001, "Gerard" (which we will assume is his middle name), entered the business world, and has since been working as Owner, CEO and CFO of Pavilion Capital Group, "a wholesale mortgage banker and private equity group facilitator."

Apparently once Penzkowski, nee Gerard, entered the mortgage banking world, he didn't want people to remember his weather-dude moniker, so he ditched the TV name and went back to his Polish roots.

Penzkowski has, along with his American Meteorological Society Television Seal, a degree in communications from the University of Winconsin-Madison (or so says Penzkowski on his LinkedIn page).

So after leveraging his mortgage banking skills as Suttle's campaign Field Operations Director, Suttle gave him the gig as Communications Director.

And then somehow Ronald G. Penzkowski once again became...Ron Gerard.

Why? We don't know.

Because people would wonder why weatherman Ron "Weird Science" Gerard now sounded like he was writing about alpine bovine?

Because Gerard is shorter to write on the press releases?

Because he wants to further confuse his former mortgage banking clients?

We dunno.

Just chalk this one up to "Another day in the Suttle administration."

(If that is the Mayor-elect's REAL name....)

***

We were really hoping to leave the Samp story behind by now.

Suttle, frankly, did the right thing by admitting that he screwed up by not taking questions then doing some interviews on the subject. OK, great.

But can someone, based on any of the following news stories from the past three days, tell us Suttle's reason for rescinding the Chief of Staff offer to Matt Samp?

Suttle says caller wouldn't give details of Samp allegations
Suttle's screening efforts faulted
Suttle Does About Face After News Conference 'Mistake'
Mayor-Elect Criticized For Snippy News Conference

Finally, plowing through them, here's the best we got -- from WOWT -- but what's the answer here?

So we asked if it's gossip, why fire Samp?

"It doesn't make any difference whether it's perception or reality -- treat them the same," says Suttle. "It's time to part company and I did."

So we are to understand that as long as someone makes an allegation against a member of the Suttle administration, that's good enough for firing???

Samp told Suttle he didn't do anything wrong. So what's the reason?

And frankly, if the reason is "there's a rumor out there", that is as flimsy as it gets.

We'd like some closure here from the Mayor-elect, but this just ain't it.

No questions. No Answers.

At his press conference yesterday, Jim Suttle said he wanted to put the Matt Samp episode "in the history book" (and what chapter will that be exactly?) and get to work as Mayor.

That would have been a good idea, except that because Suttle screwed up his presser, he won't be able to do that just yet.

Why?

Because he left a bunch of inconsistencies hanging in the air, which until cleared up, will always remain.

To wit:

Suttle said:

"I have asked Matt Samp to separate himself from my Administration."

Well, that's not what Samp said (and for what it's worth, that's not what KETV or KPTM are reporting).

Samp said:

"I will decline the position of Community Chief of Staff."

Channels 7 and 42 each reported that Samp "resigned".

So which is it Mayor-elect Suttle? Did he quit or did you rescind the offer? There's a big difference.

The normal route here is that the offeree nobly rejects the offer "for the good of the City" etc. etc. But here there is a little twist.

Suttle can't exactly take that path because then people may say, "Hey, you kept your Chief of Staff position open to a suspected pedophile?" (to use the harshest argument).

So instead Suttle said that he rescinded the offer (apparently before Samp rejected it?) because,

"I expect my staff to lead by example."

Huh. Interesting.

Now wasn't it just two or three days ago that Suttle said, he knew all about the allegations and rumors and he had heard them all and they were nothing but political vendettas?

So when did that all change? Does he have new info? Can he share it with us? With the parents of the supposed victims?

Sure there's Attorney General Jon Bruning's statements that Samp was calling some sixteen year old, but Bruning himself said that he can't legally act on that.

And Samp has said that all the allegations out there on him are not only "false", but also "untrue" (in case you weren't sure of the definition of false).

So just exactly what is it that Suttle believes Samp has done that is not "leading by example"?

Well, we don't know. Because Suttle walked out of his press conference without answering questions. (And Joe Jordan and Tom Becka of course both tried asking anyway and Suttle brusquely marched onward.)

Suttle left plenty out there on Monday afternoon. And if anything, the History Books will show a shot of a frazzled Ron Gerard wondering why he ever got out of the weatherman biz.

And if Suttle was hoping to lead by example, the example he has set is, "Don't ask. Because I won't tell."

Suttle's judgment

**UPDATE**

Samp won't be getting the job.

***

When you read something, then have your exact thoughts repeated over and over, you know a chord has been struck.

In Sunday's OWH story about Jim Suttle's Chief of Staff certain parts jumped out:

The mayor-elect also said he had not heard these specific allegations and will not ask law enforcement officials for documents outlining the accusations.

"Accusations come and go."

Suttle said he did not run background checks on Samp or anyone he has hired, saying such checks were a "suspicious, punitive system, and that's not something I build on."

"What goes on in private lives is private business," he said. "I don't sit down with anybody and say, 'Tell me about your past.'"

"You have to set (rumors) aside," Suttle said, "and just look at whom is trying to embarrass whom. I've seen this, and this happens."

In Monday's OWH:

"The mayor has a priority to protect the community," (Virgil Patlan) said. "You just can't hire anybody. The city has a right to know the truth."

"That disgusts me," (Amy Adams) said. "If allegations come up and you don't look into it, that seems ridiculous."

Jim Vokal said it was "fairly arrogant" of Suttle to not seek more information about the allegations. Vokal said Suttle instead should be "making sure he is protecting the public."

Patlan said he had to have a background check done to join his neighborhood's citizen patrol, even though he'd been a police officer.

Suttle has scheduled a 1:30pm press conference. It will be interesting to see if his judgment has changed by then.

***

By the way, not included on the online version of Sunday's story, note once again the summary of Suttle's other pick for co-Chief of Staff:

Steve Oltmans was fired from the Papio-Missouri River Natural Resources District in 2006 for “a material breach of contract’’ after his board said it had lost confidence in him in the wake of an affair with a former board member.

The affair sparked a special audit that showed no criminal deeds but did reveal incomplete NRD expense records and violations of IRS rules under Oltmans’ watch.

This is a lovely pattern already from the Mayor-elect.

***

By the way, if you tried clicking on the OWH's story on Sunday morning, after the first two paragraphs, you were greeted with this teaser:

To find out how Suttle reacted after being told of the investigation of his long-time aide and how the boy's father feels about Samp moving into the mayor's office, see the full copyrighted story in Sunday's World-Herald.

Hmm. If the OWH had an online version back in 1941, it may have looked like this:

Japanese Bomb Something
(to find out what, go give the kid down on the corner a nickel.)