In fact, if the average person got as close as I did to the entire political system, they would probably react with addiction to the soap opera or disgust for the entire process. For me it was a combination of both. What amazes me most is how many people will use you to sling the dirt or get their message notice, and then they are no where to be found when the attack on your character begins. They are too busy saving their own political butts by distancing themselves from it. Yet they had no problem prior in taking a swing at a candidate like Billy Long. I say this because I want to give some insight about the entire 2010 elections from my point of view.
You see, while some will just discount me as that blogger, I played a role in the research of a couple key political commercials that were released in 2010. In fact, you might remember Roy Blunt's windmill commercial alerting of the Carnahan family receiving over a hundred million dollars in stimulus money for their windmill farms? I was out in front of that quite early in the campaign, months before Roy Blunt released his attack ad. Do you remember the ad?
As that commercial was released, a Blunt insider, Soren Dayton sent an e-mail to the Blunt campaign team notifying them of the contents of the commercial and then giving them background to the commercial. I had been working with Dayton since early that year to attack Robin Carnahan, and Dayton was well aware of my concerns of various Blunt votes that didn't come across as very conservative to me. We developed a good working relationship throughout the campaign and Carnahan was defeated, and my blog was actually used and given thanks for my efforts by this Blunt insider.
Following the race, I congratulated both Dayton and Miles Ross for the huge victory over Robin Carnahan. Dayton responded:
It was pretty epic. That's a huge thumping. Clay, you really impacted the race. Thank you very much.
So there is a Blunt insider thanking me for the work I did to expose Robin Carnahan. The ethos doesn't get much better than that.
There is so much about the 2010 races that hasn't been said. While I may be looked upon negatively by the local Republicans for my efforts against Long, it's these stories you don't hear. The work I put into defeating other candidates like Robin Carnahan. Of course, all this gets overlooked thanks to the new bully in Washington who obviously has no regard for the Constitution in his pachyderm stripes.
This is not an attack on Soren Dayton. Not at all. It just goes to show how hard you can work for a candidate or candidates, and then be thrown out to the wolves. It's a dirty game--this politics. It's no wonder why more Americans don't participate.
The truth is Long is Wrong was lots of people. Unfortunately, it was my name and face associated with it, all the others have run to protect their political hides. While I expected this, it was sad that many of these same people who fueled Long is Wrong issued no statements of character or support. They went into hiding. Like I said, the system will throw you to the wolves, so it's no wonder few people care enough to stand up any more and fight this two party political system in which both parties send corruption to the offices they hope to fill.
Deep down inside I remember the accolades I received in hopes Long wouldn't receive the Republican nomination. There were many, including one cute moment where Roy Blunt's most faithful aid, Mavis Busiek, carefully came up to me at a Joplin Forum at Missouri Southern as I stood near the front row hoping to talk to other candidates and said, I liked what you wrote today, it was right on. That day's post featured who Billy Long was bragging he has never received a government paycheck, and I proudly stood up for the men and women in uniform who receive that very check with that Statue of Liberty printed on it from the US Treasury.
So it's with this knowledge that I laugh when Gregg Hartley, a former chief of staff to Roy Blunt who recently got into a pissing match on Twitter with me, tweets "@BungalowBillCW a meaningful conversation has value on both sides. Cong. Long and I have had ..maybe your problem is you fail to contribute."
Of course, Hartley is the same guy already in Sarah Steelman's bed endorsing this:
Of course, these stories are all worthy of a book, and soon they will find themselves in the pages as I expose what I observed goes on behind the scenes of the American political process. It's going to be fun.
