I'm still cynical, but.........

This guy has been on the radio, newspaper, etc. lately pushing this book. Dr. Allen Loughry evidently is a clerk for Justice Elliot "Spike" Maynard. Of course, Maynard is big buddies with Don Blankenship. He didn't finance his campaign, like he did with Justice Brent Benjamin, but evidently, Blakenship and Maynard have at least had dinner at the Chop House together. That alone is normally enough to raise the red flag of cynicism, at least in my book.

But, "Don't Buy Another Vote, I Won't Pay for Another Landslide" appears to be fairly evenhanded (at least at first glance) in its accounts of the scumbags, thieves, clowns, and incompetents of the political arena that have feasted practically unfettered on the citizens of West Virginia. I haven't read the whole thing, in fact I've just started sifting through it, but it does appear to be somewhat non-partisan. It also seems to have at least a small bit of outrage (we love outrage here at the Sweatbox) at the political crap and shenanigans we are constantly exposed to. If you get it (and I do give it the preliminary "thumbs up," subject to change after I read more of it - you can pick it up at Taylor Books) I suggest quickly turning to the later chapters, dealing with the most recent cast of political crooks and clowns (including many that are still in office or at least still on the scene).

For example, the Bob Wise stuff is kind of neat. Ol' Bob even gets a bit salty with his language in an interview with Loughry on page 363 when talking about his own little scandal.

Just prior to Wise's 2005 departure from the Governor's office, I interviewed him at length about West Virginia's politics. I asked him specifically whether he felt that events in a politician's life which create negative attention to State politics and amounts to violations of the public trust, create further apathy among voters. I have to admit that I was glad this was my last interview question for Governor Wise, because his tone changed dramatically. He said, "Quite frankly, I think that's bullshit." He said, "Nobody has come up to me in a year and a half and said anything other than sympathy. But what they're mostly concerned about is am I getting the job done." He then said, "If that's the situation, then talk to Bill Clinton, talk to Rudy Giuliani, talk to a whole bunch of people. I had the press on me a lot more than I had the voters. That's not to any way soft-pedal what I did, it was wrong on a personal basis, but in terms of voter apathy, I think that's crap."

Loughry then thinks to himself the next logical question is, "Are you really that naive?" He doesn't ask it, but he doesn't really need to at that point. Wise's answer is sufficient to show his complete disconnect to average Joe West Virginian. Especially in light of the previous couple of pages where Loughry writes about Wise's reaction to the Clinton scandal, or how the same situation (two married individuals having a fling, one an employee of the other, and using company $$ to facilitate their trysts) would be looked at with extreme disapproval (or worse) in the private sector.

If this is any indication of what the rest of the book contains, I'm sure his chapters on Moore, Wally Baron, et al. (and there's Vic Sprouse stuff in there too), are also equally compelling, and unfortunately, probably quite comical in a tragic sort of way.

I'm still naturally cynical, but maybe, just maybe, this Loughry guy is one of the few who "gets" it.