Wednesday, October 05, 2005

What part of CONFLICT OF INTEREST don't you understand?

I have just read a disturbing post from Frank Burhart at Polar Donkey. According to the Donkey, there may be a move afoot to allow Richard Fields to remain on the Executive Committee while he continues to work against a Democratic elected official!

This is a clear violation of the SCDP bylaws. Period. End of discussion.

Here is an excerpt:

What is the Shelby County Democratic Party thinking? Richard Fields has gone off the reservation and now wants to drag the Party with him. I first heard about Fields doing pro bono work for Terry Roland and the republicans a couple weeks ago. To me it was a no brainer, he has to be thrown off the Executive Committee. I don’t care what his motivation for attempting to give a democratically elected Senate seat to the republicans is. The problem is, he didn’t come to the Party to try to work out his concerns about the vote. If the Party didn’t take action that satisfied him, then Fields should have resigned and then gone to work with the republicans. But some how, there is talk now in the Party’s Executive Committee of a compromise. WTF?! Fields has been able to turn this from a simple issue of Party rules into a debate based on rhetoric of clean elections. Richard Fields took an oath and he broke that oath by working against a Democratic candidate and now certified elected official. Some are going to say, clean elections help the Party in the long run. That is true. The problem is he didn’t go about this the right way. If you break the law, cops don’t ask you about your motivation, they just arrest you. Well, the Shelby County Democratic Party must fulfill is duty and throws Fields out.

I agree. The post also notes that Fields has been participating in regular conference calls with John Ryder and Ed Bryant. Yes, you read that right.

We are now beyond the point of requesting resignation; this demands that Fields be expelled from the ExecCom. One CANNOT provide advise and counsel to a Republican nominee while serving on the board of directors (ExecCom) of the Democratic Party. Any suggestion to the contrary is just an act of dissemblance.

2 comments:

polar donkey said...

As if tomorrow's EC meeting isn't bad enough. There is talk now of making it closed to the media and people not on the EC. That's BS. Are they afraid of not showing party unity. Im pretty sure the cat is out of the bag. The EC is voting on throwing a vichy democrat out. Everybody knows this. You may as well let everyone see. Is the EC going to throw out Bob Tuke as well. He's going to be there. We sure don't want to look like fools in front of him. Oh no, it's too late, we already look like fools. Note to the Executive Committee, there can be no compromise. Throw Richard Fields out.

polar donkey said...

The EC meetings outcome will be dependent on what stance Matt Kuhn takes. If he pushes for Fields removal it will most likely happen. If he comes out for the compromise, than its a disaster. Fields will not be removed and it will be a festering sore for as long he remains on the EC. The party will be discredited and we will be laughing stocks.