Give me some RED MEAT, y'all!

As Kyle Veazey noted in his coverage of last night's Democratic County Mayoral debate, (sorry, behind a paywall) there was not much disagreement among the candidates, other than Rev. Kenneth Whalum calling, as he has throughout, that NO SCHOOLS should be closed in the city.  It got to a point where my co-blogger Jon and I figured that if we had taken a shot of whiskey every time he suggested this, our livers would have fallen out of our bodies before the first hour had ended.

I believe he is sincere, and I agree that we have to focus on the inner city in order to turn the city around, I just don't know how you fund that, since it will take a hell of a lot more than the $57 million that the courts say the city owes Shelby County Schools.  To be blunt, if a school is closing in a neighborhood, that is a real sign that the neighborhood is dead anyway, with anyone who could leave having done so.

Enough on that.  Even with all of that, all three of the candidates, including outgoing Commissioner Steve Mulroy and my favorite candidate, former Commission Chair Deidre Malone, would be a dramatic improvement over the incumbent, Mark Luttrell, who runs the County like it was a jail, something that I wish all three candidates would point out.

Y'all, PLEASE give us some red meat, will you??  All three of you need to beat up Mark Luttrell and point out his failures, because you are asking the electorate to reverse a decision they made four years ago, and that's not easy.  This means you A) have to point out why continuing his employment would be a costly mistake for Shelby Countians, and B) you then have to prove why YOU are the proper replacement.

AND YOU NEED TO STOP BEING SO DAMNED NICE ABOUT IT.  HIT HIM, WILL YOU?

Not physically, of course, that would be assault!   But ALL three of you need to attack him and attack him HARD and stop worrying about whether you are offending anyone.  If you are doing your jobs properly, SOMEONE will be offended, you just have to make sure it's the people who deserve to be offended!  I can't imagine that there are that many people who are voting in our primary that worry about Mark Luttrell's feelings.

Once this primary is over, you have to go HARD every day whacking the incumbent about the head and shoulders, and it's not like there's not a litany of reasons to do so: Title X, the anti-blight plan, Head Start, screwing over the city of Memphis, and on and on and on.

And when the Mayor shows up at Sidney Chism's picnic in June, whomever the winner is needs to be all up in Luttrell's grill about this stuff.  If you can't go after the REPUBLICAN County Mayor in Southwest Memphis, where the hell ARE you going to do it?  We need to be sure that any GOP candidate who shows up down there (and they ALL do) is confronted about their performance in office (or lack thereof).

Oh, and Early Voting starts downtown on April 16, and in the satellites on Friday, April 25.  Be ready, and go vote.

In the interim, Mayoral candidates, GO KICK LUTTRELL'S BUTT. REPEATEDLY.  LEAVE BOOTPRINTS!

You can thank me later.

One last note:  Since my last post, this blog has not one, BUT TWO, writers that are now members of the Shelby County Democratic Party Executive Committee.  I replaced the legendary Steve Ross in House 90, and Jon Carroll is now representing House 93, along with our friend John Marek.  Thanks to all who voted for us to be there; we promise to raise hell, take names, and elect Democrats.