Summary: a couple of Little Snappers as we approach Cinco de Mayo. First, I found myself belabored recently in Palm Springs by a low-information pinhead who sought to blame me for my former colleague Greg Pettis’s travel. She waved her fist in my face and shouted at me until I reached for my phone to call the cops. Sadly, this pinhead represents and personifies the debasement of our political culture under the mayoralty of Kathleen Joan DeRosa.
Of course, DeRosa has her defenders and water carriers, including talk radio bloviator Steve Kelly. Kelly works predictably from DeRosa’s playbook, which is all about trying to equate dissent with criminality. In a Sarah Palin-esque Facebook comment, Kelly implied that those of us who were critical of the mayor had violated some mythical duty of “transparency,” and had, by implication, entered into some kind of illicit combination to “alienate” his beloved mayor from her supposedly devoted masses. Kelly’s performance put one in mind of Ted Cruz’s breathless assertions about Communists on the Harvard faculty. Those of us whose integrity was impugned by Kelly’s irresponsible Facebook snark, have a right to resent his comments and implications.
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By: Paul S. Marchand
Every once in a while, I find myself adopting a practice of the late Chief Justice Warren Burger, who would sometimes pen brief concurrences or dissents to opinions being handed down by the Supreme Court. He would call them “Little Snappers.” Though many of Burger’s so-called Little Snappers were never filed, they did provide him with a certain measure of emotional release. In keeping with that practice, herewith are two Little Snappers thematically related by their common nexus with sociopathic Cathedral City mayor Kathleen Joan DeRosa.
LOW-INFORMATION LOUDMOUTHS
Yesterday, I was in Palm Springs for some routine medical tests. I happened to strike up a conversation with former Cathedral city mayor George Stettler, who happened to be there at the same time. As our conversation was ending, an elderly woman, obviously Latina, came up to me and began waving her fist in my face and yelling “shame on you!” I was somewhat astonished by such uncivil behavior, especially as she continued with “shame on you for spending $85,000.”
The only inference I could draw was that this low-information loudmouth had either accidentally or deliberately confused me with my former colleague, councilmember Greg Pettis, and was trying to take out her misplaced wrath on me. After she rebuffed my attempt to engage her in a civil fashion, I gave as good as I got, telling her that she should be ashamed of herself for not knowing the facts. She continued to wave her fist in my face and shout at me, at which point I reached for my cell phone and said to her that I would be calling the police. Apparently not wishing to find herself caught in the toils of the criminal justice system, loudmouth lady stormed out of the room.
And thus it is in Cathedral City after nine bitter winters of Kathleen Joan DeRosa’s mayoralty. I blame DeRosa for this incident, because on her watch nastiness and innuendo have become the order of the day. DeRosa has a long history of seeking to recruit surrogates to carry her political and personal water, and an equally long history of seeking to fabricate a cult of personality in which any dissent ultimately becomes viewed as criminal.
In a city whose mayor feels herself entitled not only to tell a prominent constituent --- in a very public venue --- to go fuck himself, and who subsequently feels no particular compunction in lying about the episode to anyone foolish enough to accept her representations is true, it is hardly surprising that the quality of our civil discourse should be so poor as to lead to loudmouth, low-information jackasses making public fools of themselves in neighboring cities.
I don’t mind being criticized for acts for which I’m responsible, but I do resent being belabored by people whom God has not given the good sense to understand their facts. To use Bill O’Reilly’s phrase, this gal was a pinhead, encouraged in her pinheadedness by the existence of a debased political culture facilitated and encouraged by debased politicians and their enablers within the community.
MORE FOOT CHEWING FROM OUR OWN LITTLE TED CRUZ
Sarah Palin, the rampant maenad of Mat-Su, routinely gets herself flamed to a well done crisp after posting inflammatory diatribes on Facebook. Palm Springs radio bloviator Steve Kelly should have learned from prior experience that Facebook indiscretions can lead to sharply critical pushback.
In the Facebook comment thread to an April 30, 2013 article written by the Tamara Sone, the Desert Sun’s easily-bamboozled beat reporter for Cathedral City, headlined “Finance panel wants closer look at Greg Pettis,” a number of comments critical of the article were posted. Among the critical commentors were Palm Springs Councilwoman Ginny Foat, former Desert Stonewall Democrats chair George Zander, and I.
Ineluctably, dependable DeRosa defender and water carrier Steve Kelly saw fit to weigh in and impugn my integrity and that of Ms. Foat and Mr. Zander. Kelly’s comment reads as follows:
“C'mon guys!! All interesting post but please disclose your connections with Greg Pettis. I was approved by him for the City Arts Commission. Ginny you are a former business partner of his. George, you and he worked together in the Stonewall Democrats and Paul you are a political ally. This does not lessen your opinions but let's practice some transparency in this process.”
By inventing some sort of mythical duty of “transparency” that exists only in his swelled head, Kelly’s implication was clearly that Ms. Foat, Mr. Zander, and I had come together in some sort of illicit combination, and that we had acted wrongly in not making some kind of comprehensive, “transparent” disclosure, that by not making such “disclosure” we had engaged in some kind of wrongful, dishonorable, and deceptive conduct.
Really, Steve, really? Just who the hell died and left you in charge?
I think Ms. Foat, Mr. Zander, and I would be entitled to resent such a transparently (pun fully intended) obvious effort to frame our remarks as some kind of conspiracy.
Of course, given Kelly’s prior history of breathlessly carrying water for an increasingly unpopular mayor, we should not be surprised. After all, Kelly recently attacked councilmembers Greg Pettis, Chuck Vasquez, and Sam Toles for having impliedly conspired to “alienate” DeRosa from “the community” when his precious mayor found herself on the wrong side of the council’s history-making vote on marriage equality. Kelly’s attack was right in line with the way in which DeRosa and her surrogates have historically attempted, across the nine bitter winters of her reign, to cast any opposition to or dissents from her views as somehow deceitful, dishonorable, or criminal. (For more, see also “A Foot-chewing "Defense" of Cathedral City’s Indefensible Mayor.” The link is:
http://cathedralcityobserved.blogspot.com/2013/03/a-foot-chewing-defense-of-cathedral.html. (you will need to cut and paste into your navigation bar))
By parroting such a line, Kelly has once again demonstrated a lack of journalistic integrity. His tactic is, and has been, to imply that those whose views do not match his own must somehow be engaged in some kind of nefarious or illicit activity. When will we see from Steve Kelly the kind of comprehensive “transparency” he likes to demand from others?
In short, by penning his poisonous little post, Steve Kelly engaged in the kind of McCarthyism we have come to expect from freshman Texas Senator Ted Cruz (he of all those “known Communists” on the Harvard faculty).
Essentially, Kelly’s argument is that Ginny Foat, George Zander, and I, must be part of that terrible conspiracy he and Kathleen Joan DeRosa imagine exists to “alienate” her from a community that has grown increasingly skeptical of her character, her competence, and her capacity to tell the truth. I doubt that Steve Kelly would have demanded similar “transparency” from known supporters of the reigning mayor, and that is why I am entitled to resent the implications of his Palin-esque Facebook post.
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Paul S. Marchand is an attorney who lives in practices in Cathedral City, where he served two terms as a member of the city Council. The views contained herein are his own, and he will police them vigorously, and will defend vigorously against any attempt to retaliate against him for their expression. They are not intended, and should not be construed, as legal advice.
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