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Thursday’s post challenging Councilman Bob Apple’s label of “carpetbagger” on a city judicial candidate brought more than a dozen comments, including one from Apple himself.
” I honestly believe any body still considers an elected official who would literaly refuse
to live in the area they are elected for would qualify as a carpetbagger. Now
Mrs Staab wants us to, elect her as a Spokane City Municipal Court Judge and
only hearing cases of Spokane City residents however will not reside within our
City as Brian Whitaker dose and as a result, he has my vote. Honestly I cannot
imagine voting any other way concerning this simple question.” he wrote.
To save occasional readers from scrolling down, the Reader’s Digest version of this discussion goes like this: Judge Tracy Staab, who is seeking election to the position to which she was appointed earlier this year, lives outside the city limits in Spokane County. The law allows that, although Apple and some others think that regardless of what the law allows, Staab ought not to hold the post. In an e-mail, to constituents and others last week, Apple said he was voting for her opponent, Bryan Whitaker, because she’s a carpetbagger.
The term carpetbagger dates to the 19th Century and comes from a
description of outsiders who move into an area to take advantage of
something, such as a political race. It doesn’t apply to Staab, the post argued.
In his rebuttal, Apple makes two interesting arguments. One is that she would “literally refuse to live in the city”. Ignoring for a moment the all too common misuse of literally, Apple seems to be suggesting that Staab should move from the county to the city to be eligible for the job.
That would actually be carpetbagging, because she’d be moving in an attempt to get elected.
The other argument is that he’s using the word properly because under his definition, which he believes is acceptable to “anybody”, that’s what a carpetbagger is.
That’s the argument Humpty Dumpty made to Alice, that a word “means just what I choose it to mean, nothing more nor less.”
But on this side of the looking glass, words mean what they mean.
Jim Camden is a veteran political reporter for The Spokesman-Review.
Jonathan Brunt covers Spokane City Hall for The Spokesman-Review.
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ChefGus/ John Olsen on October 18 at 7:13 p.m.
Thanks for the post Jim…. still waiting for my public apology for being called a Criminal by Mr Apple for feeding the homeless at the Tent City…….. His initiative for instituting “rules and regulations” for our homeless, will likely mean that there will be some deaths in the snow this winter, as the “ad hoc” tent cities will not be allowed.. and the warming centers do not open until it is 15 degrees F… do the math on that one…. we try to open at Shalom two full hours early during the bitter cold mornings… john
Citizen on October 18 at 8:00 p.m.
Gus, you do good work at Shalom and with the homeless. No one can deny that. However, you are off-topic here.
Rifleman__Dodd on October 18 at 9:58 p.m.
Me thinks Chef Gus maybe attempting to practice some Kitchen Politics here. As to Mr. Apple and his council commentary on the impromptu homeless shelter of several years ago. If I were the good Chef, I would sit down with Councilman Apple and attempt to determine how the Councilman came to that conclusion and ergo his public comment.
I cant speak for the good councilman, however I saw the mess that was left behind. While there were some very good intentions in setting up that homeless camp, a lot of bad judgement (lack of any judgement) and lack of expertise was involved in the operation. It was just thrown together. “Prior Planning Prevents P#$$ Poor Performance.” Hopefully we niw have these types of operations under good control.
On the 15 degree trigger for the warming shelters. I believe Seattle/Tacoma is at 25 degrees. We should set the same levels. One can just die quicker at 15 rather than at 25. Plus activation of emergency shelters would be good practice for when we REALLY need them and I’m not talking about breaking out the pallets of the air raid biskets from the 50/60’s.
ChefGus/ John Olsen on October 18 at 10:10 p.m.
J Cotton….. sorry i thought the topic was Name Calling…which is what my comment is about… I WAS called a criminal..by mr apple from the dais… check the tapes…. it seems to be the pattern of many on the council to use Ad Hominem comments.. with lack of understanding of the facts… and the rest of my post above has to do with the point that off hand comments DO have an affect… and this is the case with the Judge’s controversy here… I am very confident of Judge Staab and her approach to our shared community… as well as Judge Logan… no reason to trust/change to mr whitaker just because he lives in the city… I like mr apple personally, just find that he is not fact based and fair at many junctures. john