Good Time Furlip.

Evidently, our very own Chicago Furlip, right wing radio ranter non-extraordinaire, Michael Agnello, got busted for DUI over the weekend. Evidently, Good Time Furlip thinks it's ok to down a few, then get behind his car and swerve all over the interstate.

I didn't hear his first admission, when he started the show at 3pm talking about his latest dealings with the criminal justice system. But, I started listening to his show after being notified of the Gazette story you can see by clicking on the title of this thread. However, the callers I heard, all called in to somewhat "support" him, including Wanda Carney. Of course, Wanda's former employer, Mike Clifford, is his attorney (also a frequent guest on Agnello's show). Eventually, Agnello repeated his statement he made earlier in the show, and basically said he's "going through the process" and then began talking about how he's done this and that in the community and with his show. And of course he follows that up with a "But I'm not making excuses." Then why mention it? Either you blew a .17, TWICE, indicating a blood alcohol content over twice the legal limit (.08) or you did not. There is nothing left to discuss, especially not the dealings you have had with other public figures dealing with DUI charges in the past. What does that have to do with his recent behavior? I'll tell you. It has NOTHING to do with his DECISION to drive drunk, and potentially kill any number of innocent drivers on the interstate.

One caller in particular that was strange, said to Agnello, "It happens to the best of us?" Really? The "best" of us blow 2x the legal limit? I'd like to consider myself one of the "best of us," and I have never been busted for DUI. So how exactly does it "happen to the best of us?" This wasn't some "accident" or some freak thing. He got drunk, evidently stating he "had a few drinks," and then decided to get behind the wheel, making himself a danger to everyone on the road.

Of course, the fact that Prosecuting Attorney Mark Plants is a frequent visitor to Agnello's show (and also a republican right winger nutjob like Furlip), is a bit troubling. It will be interesting to see how Agnello is dealt with by the Prosecutor's Office, considering his buddy Plants is in charge of the office that will be handling the case.

Also somewhat troubling, evidently Kanawha County Commissioner Kent Carper, on his weekly appearance on 58 Live made some comment to the effect of "Don't worry about this Mike. You have lots of friends." Now, this could be taken that he's got lots of friends who will support him if he needs anything, while the criminal justice system doles out the same treatment you or I would get in the same situation. Or it could also mean that his "friends" might help make this thing go away, with some kind of treatment that average Joe Schmoes don't get, because we aren't a talk radio host. Maybe Carper was referring to Plants as a "friend" of Agnello like I mentioned above? In West Virginia, this would not surprise me one bit.

If you spend three hours a day, polluting the airwaves by railing against everyone who disagrees with you and your holier than thou, sanctimonious, ignorant warped little view of the world, when stuff like this happens, I don't have a lot of sympathy for you.

When you talk the talk, you better walk the walk. Or drive the sober drive.

Listen up, you anonymous commenters on the Sprouse posts.

I'm getting tired of seeing 20 "anonymous" posts all saying the same things. So, because I can see your ip addresses and know that there's only about 4 or 5 of you, I have to start making rules, because you can't be trusted to act like semi-adults.

First, you can start by using a fucking name, so there's not 50 straight messages by "anonymous," all saying basically the same thing cluttering up my email box.

Second, while Slick Vic is a straight up slimeball, if you are going to post crap about him or his current relationship status, at least put something substantive in it. And just in case you are unsure, "She's a bitch" or "She's a skank" or "She's a phony" or whatever, is not the least bit substantive. We know those things already. You've told us that umpteen times. Plus, it's Vic we are talking about. It only makes sense. If you don't have something useful to post, save the bandwith and go look at porn or play online poker or something.

Lastly, you don't have to go back and post basically the same message on EVERY Vic post I ever made, dating back 5 years. Nobody is reading those posts, but you.

I hear a rumble.

It might be time for a new post in the very near future.

Distress

Are they finally turning on each other?

Ok, I can't let this go any longer. The whole "Heathergate," Heather Bresch, Manchin, WVU EMBA scandal would be something that the ol' Binger would normally be commenting on daily. But I just can't devote as much time to this as I would like. But, for a quick primer, for those who've been living under a rock for the past month here's a quick "get up to speed" lesson. Just go over to the Fifth Column, and read the posts and comments there over the last month or so.

That will give you all the details, and links to those details, to get a good idea of what's going on.

But, as this whole thing is sort of quieting down, in that the "panel" has been picked and are going to start their investigation soon, there are going to be little dribs and drabs, slipping out. Like in today's Daily Athenaeum, where the cracks in the already shaky WVU official position, start to get a little bigger.

Sears, the Business school dean (who did a hilarious "ants in my pants" impression on Bray Cary's Decision Makers show a couple weeks ago), says he resolved this degree discrepancy, based on information given to him by Professor Paul Speaker, and EMBA Program Director, Gerald Blakely.

Now, it appears, that Sears had his mind already made up, when he asked Blakely for the information. In the DA article, Blakely said he provided a summary of the evidence, but it wasn't all developed in his office, to Dean Sears regarding the information on Bresch's coursework. "It was prepared to support his (Sears') conclusion that she had met all the requirements,” Blakely said.

Even more interesting, Speaker said he never spoke to Sears about this. Again, after Sears referred to "consulting with and relying on" evidence from Speaker, AND Blakely.

Blakely quickly denies any part of making the call Bresch earned her MBA, on behalf of himself AND his department. He appears to lay the "call" at Sears, and seems to assert Sears did it, with evidence that was questionable.

Blakely also says, "My belief is that the University panelist is the proper place to find out what’s gone on." To find out “whether Dean Sears is right or wrong or what’s gone on.”

Could they finally be turning on each other? Who's going to start blaming who? Who's going to blow the whistle, to save their own skin?

This is how things unravel. This is how the original "gate" snowballed, and became a part of our lexicon.

We can only hope the same result happens here.

We deserve it.

WVU deserves it.

And most importantly, legitimate WVU graduates deserve it.

Maybe Hoppy needs to re-evaluate his observation skills.

47 to 5. Take that, Garrison fanboys. The faculty Senate at WVU sent you and your posterchild for all things bad about West Virginia politics, a nice big fat steaming cup of "HELL NO." They voted 47 to 5 to support Nellis for the President's position. That's a resounding defeat. They weren't even close to supporting Garrison. Good for them. Faculty were getting the blow off on the whole selection process anyway, and were smart enough to see what was really going on here. Maybe the fact they got railroaded when Davey Boy became president, caused them to take a little more action this time. They at least get kudos for getting themselves more organized this time.

The reality of this whole situation is probably still already decided, however. The Selection Committee will still pick Garrison, and that will be the choice the Faculty have to live with. It was interesting to see in the Gazette's article on this, that the Student Government reps on the Selection Committee are for Garrison. Well, of COURSE they are. They know that if they support the done deal choice for Garrison, Garrison will be more apt to help those little climbers in a few years when they need a good suckass job in government, or with one of Garrison's business contacts. And the Gazette didn't disappoint in that it spent more time talking about how the student reps were dazzled and wowed by Garrison, as opposed to the actual reasons why the faculty senate voted the way it did. Garrison spoke glowingly of how he thought he had the students' support, but surprisingly lost his voice when asked about the faculty senate vote. The Gazette's preference for Garrison has been well documented by Hippie Killer over at the Fifth Column.

The faculty can make Garrison's life a little more difficult with this vote if the outrage over Garrison is sustained. Or more likely, the outrage over his selection will eventually flame out and he'll coast along, making 300 grand with a house, car, expense account, etc., for a job he's not remotely qualified for, but more than connected enough for. I'd call that par for the course for West Virginia. That's what happened with Davey Boy. Joe Simoni and some other faculty tried to fight the Hardesty selection in the courts at the time, but were rebuffed every time and eventually the hubub died down, and Dave has led the University to........ uh.......... um........now. If there were massive improvements to WVU's academic standing in the last 12 years, I'm pretty sure I've missed it.

Then again, maybe this will be an instance where the politicos and ruling government class will take note of what the people want, and re-examine their search process. That would be the best outcome. But I'm not betting on it.

But the real story here is, how this situation is almost in verbatim conjunction with this blog's stated purpose, going back to my very first post over two years ago where I stated:

In the realm of talk radio, Hoppy Kercheval's Metro News Talkline is probably the most important talk radio show on West Virginia politics, but again, he's a bit too cozy with some of the political elite on occasion.

Hoppy, for almost a solid week now, has done nothing but pimp for Garrison, while in the next breath immediately professing he doesn't have any inside information, and tries to come off as "impartial."

The most egregious act of pimpage, however, came yesterday in Hoppy's column. He fawned over how "well" Garrison did at his Q&A session with the faculty. Oh yes, he managed to handle "every" question with the perfect answer. Let's review Hoppy's column.

Garrison was at his fortress best yesterday afternoon as he stood before over 300 WVU faculty, staff and students and took questions and comments for 90 minutes.

Finally, The Fortress was on his turf, answering the criticisms and questions about his qualifications for the WVU Presidency.

According to Hoppy, who was at the Q&A session, Garrison was at his "best," answering the questions (Hoppy nicknamed Garrison "The Fortress" during his days in the Wise administration).

On his modest academic accomplishments: “I have a different background.”

Well, no kidding. What a BRILLIANT answer. And this is what Hoppy classifies as handling himself well? Saying “Uh, you are right, I don’t have the same education background as almost every other higher education president in the country but I should get this job anyway because of who my friends are,” is a good answer? How is that addressing the issue? Admitting he’s not got the background that faculty is looking for (and is the accepted background in all but a few similar positions in the whole country) you are looking for, is somehow a “good” answer? Hoppy, come on. Don’t patronize us.

On his age, 38: “I have the energy level, the passion, the fire in the belly” to do the job.

Well, there you go. Slam dunk. He says he’s got the energy to do this job. That’s a clincher.

On his connections to the search committee and the Board of Governors: “There is no conflict of interest.”

Who knew that Garrison would use the Jedi Mind trick on the audience? Stunningly brilliant. More telling, however, is that it apparently worked on Hoppy. He should have followed this up with “These aren’t the droids you are looking for.” Obviously, if he says there's no conflict of interest, there isn't one. Who knew it was that simple?

On his priorities: Number one, more pay for faculty and staff.

No shit? He wants more money for faculty and staff pay? He probably wants world peace too. And puppies for everyone. Just how is he going to acquire more money for faculty and staff? Last I checked, he was running Wise’s administration when 10% budget cuts were the yearly norm for Higher Education. With friends like him, I doubt Higher Ed in West Virginia can handle too many more enemies. And I don’t recall any Fanny Seiler columns when he was Tax Commissioner telling everyone how he managed to jack up the salaries of Tax Department employees. Based on this record of acquiring funds for salaries while he was in charge, if I were an employee of WVU, I’d hold off on spending my raise just yet. I know, call me crazy.

On the ever-expanding University: “Growth for growth’s sake is a mistake”

Really? Did he get that off the back of a fortune cookie? Nice soundbite. I’m sure he practiced it over and over in front of the mirror before he took the podium. He probably even believes it. Well, at least we know he won't allow growth for "growth's sake." Whew. That's a relief. I'm sure that was a big concern the faculty had.

Yes, Garrison held his own, not with soaring vision or excessive higher education speak, but with a cool, collected demeanor that showed he has confidence he can do the job, even if some academics think otherwise.

So, “cool, collected demeanor” trumps substantive answers? Cliches and soundbites trump specifics? Jeez, Hoppy, you sure are easy to please. How about, “I just want to give 110%.” Or “We have to play them one game at a time.” Or “We are going to work hard, and do our best.” I guess that would be “holding his own” too?

Garrison was helped by the fact that during the limited time frame some of the faculty questions were self-absorbed monologues that lacked punctuation and purpose. By the time a couple of the questioners finished their painful posturing it was a relief to listen to Garrison, even if he had nothing substantial to say on the subject.

So, some of the faculty questions were self absorbed monologues, and that is bad, but Garrison answers with nothing substantive, and 100% clichéd and political “rah-rah” answers, and that’s good? This is example A of why this State’s media is pathetic. Hoppy lets EVERY SINGLE FREAKING politico on his show give those “self absorbed monologues” as the answers to HIS questions, and then he NEVER challenges them. Hoppy will ask a straightforward question, and the politico gives the equivalent of a “self absorbed monologue,” as their answer, and then Hoppy takes it and moves on. He NEVER pins them down, and they KNOW they can get away with softball answers on his show. Why? Because Hoppy’s livelihood DEPENDS on his access to them. If they don’t go on Hoppy’s show, because Hoppy calls them on their bullshit, then Hoppy has no show. Hoppy knows this, so he never calls them on their bullshit. And he’s going to need access to Garrison if he’s the next President (and Hoppy knows he’ll be the next President, regardless of what he says on his show), so he gobbles up his bullshit too, and prints glowing, fawning, puff pieces on him on Metronews’ website.

A few faculty members said afterward that Garrison won them over, or at least they were not as worried about him as they were before they heard from him. When it was over, most of his critics' cannon shots had whizzed by The Fortress or, if they made contact, barely caused a splinter.

"They whizzed right by, or only caused splinters?" A 47-5 vote in the WVU Faculty Senate would indicate otherwise. Some of them, apparently, landed squarely in his wheelhouse and exploded. Nice job, Hoppy, you completely misread (or misrepresented) the faculty response to the Q&A session. But hey, don't let that get in your way of your constant pimping for Garrison. We know you need access to him for your livelihood. It's just a shame you can't put that aside, once in a while, and give us the straight story, and call "Bullshit" on occasion.

“Uhhhhhhhhh, Mr. Garrison, I have just one more question.”

Ok, by now, everyone knows that Mike Garrison will be the next President at WVU. Everyone knows it. Garrison has been angling for this job ever since he first shoved his head up Alan Hammock and Bowtie Bob DiClerico’s collective ass. He’s been student body president (yay, WVU student government elections have a such a pathetic voter turn out, you can win if you can manage to get half of your dorm floor buddies to vote for you – and you can easily accomplish that with a couple cases of free beer), he’s been this scholar or that. He’s been to Oxford (though according to comments at The Fifth Column, he dropped out – to me, that makes him a quitter). He’s been a smarmy law student who was on Moot Court, and now evidently, according to HK over at the Fifth Column, he’s playing somewhat fast and loose with his resume about whether he graduated with “honors” or not. You can agree or disagree, but stretching the truth, wouldn’t be something I’d put past Mikey.

So, he now gets out of law school, and goes to work for one of the smarmy defense firms, but quickly latches on as Tax Commissioner under Bob Wise. What the hell? Tax Commissioner? What the hell did he know about taxes? He got that job purely because he knew Wise. But he was surely qualified to be Tax Commissioner. Oh yes, he was so qualified he held that job for all of about 10 seconds, before being bumped up to Chief of Staff. Oh yes, he’s just quite the little political climber. But, let’s not stop there, noooooooo. Wise then appoints him to the Higher Education Policy Commission. I’m kind of surprised WVU mentions that. I would be afraid it might set off a fatal case of déjà vu, considering the bullshit maneuver that got Hardesty got the job in the first place. For those who don’t remember, Hardesty was on the Board of Trustees – the precursor to the Policy Commission – and they picked the new president. Of course, Hardesty stepped down as a BoT member, when he applied, but obviously, he had quite a few buddies on that Board. He made it to the top three choices (he and two other no-names, who both had infinitely more experience in higher education than Dave). But the BoT decided to simply sit on the selection, until the other two candidates eventually withdrew their names (after they took other employment) and then said, “Well, I guess we have to go with Dave, he’s the only candidate left. What a coincidence too, because he’s the one we would have picked anyway”

So, we have Garrison as the lock now. That’s really no surprise. Hell, I figured this out about 10 seconds after Hardesty announced his resignation back in August. But, that’s backroom politics as usual in West Virginia, we shouldn’t be surprised.

The other two candidates on the short list, are what one would call “traditional” or “old school” type candidates. Candidates who have spent long chunks of their careers, dealing with the ins and outs of higher ed life. They’ve been in the trenches, and done the dirty work, and knows what actually goes on in a university. One is currently the Provost (ie, the 2nd in command) at Kansas State, and previously served as an academic Dean at WVU. He’s spent 25 or so years in higher ed. The other is also a lifelong higher education guy. He’s been a Dean, a teaching fellow, and is currently a university president. He’s spent 30+ years in higher education administration. These two guys are imminently more qualified to run WVU. They know infinitely more about a university, and it’s primary goal of academics, than Garrison ever will hope to know in 10 lifetimes.

But the REAL insult in this whole mess is more subtle, and totally exposes the “selection” for the total sham this thing is, if you just think about it for a second. Everyone knows Garrison is going to get the job. People like Hoppy Kercheval say stuff like “Oh, well, I don’t know who’s going to get it,” and he’s lying right through his teeth. Then people like Hoppy will hedge their bets by following it up with, “Well, you know the job of a university president isn’t the same as it used to be. It’s more about fundraising and schmoozing, and dealing with the legislature, and blah blah blah.” Maybe so. Maybe that IS the new breed of university presidents. No more working your way up through the ranks of faculty, to a dean’s job, to a provost, and then to a president. No, now all you have to do is be the right politician’s buddy, and viola, instant president material.

So, let’s assume that’s true, the job description now doesn’t lend itself to the “old school” type presidential candidates. And that “new” type of job description is what makes Garrison sooooooo attractive as a candidate, that the selection committee will most certainly use that as their justification for picking Garrison. So, now we come to what I’ll call the “Columbo moment.” For those who are too young to remember, Columbo was this TV detective who would investigate murders or crimes or whatever, and talk to all these people, and then he would go to the main “suspect” and talk to him as if Columbo was convinced the guy DIDN’T commit the crime. And as he got ready to leave, Columbo would then stop and say, “I have just one question……” and this question would invariably be the one question the suspect couldn’t provide an adequate answer to, and prove beyond a doubt that Columbo knew the guy did it and could prove it in court beyond a reasonable doubt.

So, we come to the Garrison “Columbo moment.” Ahem. In my best Peter Falk voice, with my rumpled trenchcoat on and a half-burnt cigar in my hand.

“I’m sure you’ll make a fine president, Mr. Garrison, and the search committee has obviously done its job well. They see in you all the qualities that are now needed as a university president. You are the epitome of the “new” breed of university president, much more suited than the “old school” type presidents to respond to the demands of running a university in today’s world. I’m sure this was an open, and honest search, and you are clearly the best qualified candidate. I wish you luck.

“Oh, I have just one question before I go. If the search committee knows the new trend in university presidents are the same type of candidates as you are, and this is the most important quality for a university president in today's world, why are the other two finalists, old school presidents, and not the same type of “new breed” university president as yourself?”

See, if they truly were wanting someone with the same background as yourself, you’d think they’d have more than one candidate in the entire candidate pool. And then they’d have more than one of those types of candidates in their final three. That is, if they truly had an honest search.”

This whole episode is a perfect example of why West Virginia is a joke.