I’m in a quandary. I’m not sure if I should award this politician an Asshat award or a Chutzpah award. Last Saturday night, the Hola Awards were given out to people who work to strengthen the Hispanic community.
It was a sold-out affair at the Rehoboth Beach Convention Center. A few politicians were in attendance, including House Majority Leader Pete Schwartzkopf. But everyone’s eyes got wide when Rep. Ruth Briggs King and St. Bodie Girl’s sock-puppet, Chris Weeks, who is challenging Schwartzkopf, also showed up. The reason – King’s and Weeks’ stance on illegal immigrants. They support Urkels “tag ’em and ship ’em” policy, whereby undocumented workers will be rounded up, micro-chipped, and then deported. And if they have minor children who are American citizens – ship them out along with the parents. So the attendees were wondering what these two were doing at a dinner to honor members of the Hispanic community. But what made matters worse, in the eyes of attendees, was that King and Weeks ate their meals and then left before the awards program started. They didn’t even have the courtesy to stay to see who the nominees were and who won. Bad move!
But Weeks went further today when he was a guest on Curly’s show on WGOP. A woman who lives in the Angola area, called in to complain that Pete hadn’t done anything to help her and her neighbors get their roads repaired and paved, although they had begged him for years. She went as far as saying that Pete wouldn’t even drive down her road or return her calls. Weeks chimed in that he knew the woman and did some calling around for her and would get the money to help with the road repairs. But what the caller didn’t say was telling – the roads in question are private roads, not state roads. So Weeks, who’s campaigning that government is too big and taxes are too high, wants to take our tax money and put it to use to pave private roads. Unbelievable! And the truth of the story – Pete has helped this woman and her neighbors. He got the state road paved as much as possible and told them that they had to deed over the private roads to the state in order for the state to take responsibility for paving and upkeep. He told them that the state cannot pave and maintain private roads.
Then he went on to, once again, deny that he knew who was behind the anonymous website attacking Schwartzkopf (here’s a hint – the last name of one of the big money people responsible is the same as a river in New York and the organization has the same initials as a golfing group). But Weeks has told many people, privately, that he does know who is behind the website.
Asshat or chutzpah, take your pick, but either award goes to Chris Weeks.