Pat Powers is definitely out of shape. He comes trooping back to the blogosphere, armed with what he thinks are his really cool insider documents, courtesy of his immediately preceding and ethically challenged employer Secretary of State Jason Gant... and his big scoop turns out to be a previously covered non-story.
Dakota War College made brief fartage (pronounce that Frenchily, please: far-TAZH) yesterday over documents that Powers claimed demonstrated that the South Dakota Democratic Party's June convention was "fake." Alas for Pat's slobbering readership, reporter David Montgomery had already explained back in June what the Dems were doing: holding their very real convention in June, but holding a technical door open to make sure they would be able to fill both slots on the PUC ballot and align them against the GOP candidates they wanted, without letting the GOP switch their own candidate order.
The Dems found their second PUC candidate, Nick Nemec, to join Matt McGovern on the ticket. The Republicans pulled no switcheroo at their convention the following week, and in the pro forma meeting conducted by the state Dems on July 10, no wild subversion of the expressed will of the delegates took place.
Fellow blogger and faithful Democrat David Newquist explains the minor parliamentary intricacies thus:
It is difficult to find any hint of deceit in all this, except in Powers' attempt to turn it into an act of deception. It has more to do with trying to satisfy the stipulations of the state party constitution, the Roberts Rules of Order (which the party adheres to in its parliamentary proceedings), and the requirements of filings with the SOS.
What the two listings do, in effect, is indicate that the June convention was adjourned to the July meeting date. As the June meeting approached, the party was in the process of recruiting and confirming candidates for the state Public Utilities Commission. There was some concern that a roster of candidates was tentative and could not be confirmed by the committee-as-whole session of the delegates at their June meeting. If candidates had not given full consent by the June meeting, the party had 30 days after to make final its official list of candidates. Ben Nesselhuf indicated to David Montgomery that the July meeting of delegates would be held by teleconference, if it was necessary.
As it turned out, the convention business concerning candidates was finished at the June meeting so the the adjournment to July was not needed. The report for the July meeting merely confirmed what had occurred at the June meeting of all delegates [David Newquist, "It's Back!" Northern Valley Beacon, 2012.07.26].
Good work, David and David! Powers probably missed this clearly explained situation in June because he and Secretary Gant were too busy scrubbing their databases. From what I hear, they were also too busy to give the Democratic Party a straight answer on what candidate documents they wanted filed when to ensure that everything really was done according to Hoyle...
...all of which only strengthens the case that our Secretary of State's office has been in the hands of amateurs for one year and seven months too long.
Related: Still completely absent from the re-Powersed DWC is not only real news content but also any mention of Jason Gant's various misadventures with documents and law. If Pat really wanted a scoop, one would think he could break out some of the insider documents that passed through his hands and blow the lid off one of the biggest South Dakota political news stories of this summer. But I can't even get a comment through the filter with Gant's name in it. Sigh....
No matter how AG hack Jackley whitewashes the Gant SoS office, I don't know how Dakota War College can ever regain what little credibility it once held in South Dakota, even among die hard Republicans. DWC has no merit hurling the incindiary insults and allegations that it once did without first giving us a full accounting of the corrupt Gant/Powers regime.
Gant Gant Gant.
Just checking.
I think Pat said that when he wiped DWC clean when he left that it was for the benefit of the people who were going to be running the site going forward.
Now that he is back running the site, you don't suppose that he'll bring the archives out of the closet do you?
I bet he will, given the time and effort he put into the site before he left. I bet he has a great deal of pride in what he posted in the past and is really quite anxious to bring it all back out.
Of course, if he doesn't, well then it might be safe to assume that...well, then I guess I don't know what to assume.
Mr. Gant won't like that much, Ms. Jana. Mr. Gant probably had nothing to do with those blogs but it will still cast a vast fat shadow over him if it is pulled back out of the closet. That's why he will not allow it.
Pat Powers is definitely out of shape. *great first line -- could not stop laughing right there*
There is very little difference between the garbage Powers spews on his blog and what his anonymous counterpart was posting over the past year. Makes me wonder if Powers ever took his hands out of the blogging cookie jar or if he was always still involved with it?
"an act of deception"
No, not the SDGOP Establishment types.
Digging up dirt on Kristi this morning reveals that the group that just conferred her with an "award" is a fascist corporate union engaged in lobbying efforts to destroy trade unions:
http://wvgazette.com/Opinion/OpEdCommentaries/201207200079