Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Jen Wagner's Latest Project?

The spokesperson for the Indiana Democratic Party appears to have launched a new blog, The Accidental Mayor, which is dedicated to attacking Mayor-elect Greg Ballard from all sides. The Taking Down Words blogmistress isn't publicly claiming authorship of the site, but she isn't fooling any of us all too familiar with her writing style. Aside from me, nobody got under her skin more than tax activist Melyssa Donaghy. So when a post appeared at the Hoosiers for Fair Taxation blog today asking Mayor-elect Greg Ballard to remember the folks who brought him to the dance, the blogmistress was quick to the draw. "Greg Ballard is no political genius, but he'd be far better off listening to the lawyers and lobbyists on his transition team than he would be paying attention to this group of unhinged hangers-on . . . Translation: We have no idea how politics works, and we cannot accept the fact that Greg Ballard didn't win this election because three dozen of us dressed up in costumes and showed up at some rally."

Advice to the blogmistress, try focusing on how best you can deliver a message to the public that in some way serves the interest of your party. Your constant rants against Ms. Donaghy have gone beyond the point of obsession. Get over it. The ideas of Melyssa and others like her won out over your drumbeat of personal attacks. Make fun of her and her supporters all you want, but the voters bought her message and not your's as hard as that is for you to accept. Your party might have a little bit more success if you focused a little more on what your party can do to better the lives of Hoosiers than spewing a daily succession of insults at people who are sincerely trying to make a difference for something other than the monetary gain that drives your work.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thats because Jen believes in "old school politics"

"When you can't say something nice about yourself, say something bad about the other guy!"
and we all know there is NOTHING nice about Jen. Even Wilson avoinds her, as she is a racist homophobe!

Anonymous said...

Jen's entire political philosophy seems to be, "Let the smart people handle things, not the voters."

Where "smart people" = entrenched political insiders, mostly of a liberal mindset.

Her style and ideas and the epitome of elitist arrogance. Abdul falls into the same trap.

"We're the ones who get paid to do this, so we know more than you. Stop being naive and just trust us. We're insiders."

And now that they're established insiders, part of that gig is to prevent anyone else from having a seat at their table.

Anonymous said...

Gary, you're deluding yourself if you think Ballard was elected because he was for anything. He was simply an alternative, nothing more.

Bart Lies said...

It doesn't show much faith in how our system of government works for someone to characterize people going out and casting their vote as doing so 'accidentially.'

Nor does it say much for the power structure of a politician if his empire can be toppled by a mere 3 dozen individuals.

No, Bart Peterson wasn't ousted by an accident caused by few 'wingers', he was a victim of his self-created trainwreck.

Anonymous said...

The reason that Democrats nationally and now locally have not been able to hold onto the power and responsibility the People have given them (time and again) is that those office holders never take to task their colleagues who either act indiscreetly or illegally, oreferring to take a childish 'cover my eyes and maybe no one will see me/it!'

Then you have self-described poitical hacks such as Wagner, Allen, Amos Brown, and the shrill lunatics at outlets such as Daily Kos, who continue the same pattern of lack of self-criticism, instead they sling insults at the other side and NEVER take to task their own office holders.

Perhaps if they had, the Mayor and Council would still be Democratic controlled? God knows they have had ample opportunity this past year or so, but such honesty was beyond them.

Republicans do this constantly. We realize that such self-criticism makes us stronger and more viable to the public.

Every so often you have an accidental President like Bill Clinton, but eventually, much like a shiny toy with no substance, that person is tossed aside in favor of a office holder from a party who takes the words Accountability and Responsibility, seriously. Thy name is Republican.

Disclaimer: I refer to the party in principal, not the idiots like Tom John who supposedly run the organization locally.

Anonymous said...

I have to say, I realized immediately who was behind the blog. The writing style, the linking style, the graphics - they all point to Jen. When you add in the new media blog she's also started, this makes Jen a busy woman! 3 blogs? I can barely keep up with my own!

Anonymous said...

Well Said!!

One would think that the rational adults on the Democratic side might have been chastened by their huge defeat in Marion county. Instead, the Democratic party seems to be cleaving mightily to Jen's attack dog, "damn the peasants" style that contributed to their failure. Somehow us stupid Hoosiers don't seem to be responding to their "shut up and pay your taxes" mantra. The solution... increase the shrill-level?

Unbearable property taxes combined with effective disenfranchisement by out-of-touch arrogant (and corrupt) public "representatives" lead to some courageous citizens organizing a response. I for one am very grateful to Melyssa and others for leading the way.

Jen's rantings and attacks on Melyssa and the taxpayers were outrageous, but not as outrageous as the fact that she is the official spokesperson for the Democratic Party !!

But I'm also thankful to Jen... She certainly helped motivate my wife and me to donate as much money to Ballard as we could afford this year. Keep up the good work, Jen!

Anonymous said...

Gary, do not give any advice to her. Currently TDW seems to be attacking _any_ property tax relief package. I for one say good. Let the rich in Marion Co. flee to the suburban counties. Let TDW and others stay in the city and pay even _more_ of their income to bailout problems with urban cesspools.

Anonymous said...

so much for jen's claims that she "doesn't play at a local level."

she is so involved in spin all the time that she forgets what she is doing and crosses the line into lying -- or at least believing her own spin and become dillusional.

isn't she close to delivering? ugh, maternity leave and she'll have tons of time on her hands.

on the bright side, she smeared ballard all through the campaign and it just didn't stick. you think she would have her hands full on the state level. she will when jlt becomes the candidate.

Anonymous said...

She must have the most amazing time management skills in the world. Pregnant, reading/preping and practicing for one final law school class, writing for 3 blogs, commenting on who knows how many blogs, and somehow doing communications director work.

Communications Director for a major political party must be a cake job if you have that much free time.

Anonymous said...

Jen is simply engaging in a propaganda campaign of disinformation....it only attracts attention of the uninformed. Unfortunately, there are many who are not informed.

She needs to be exposed for the propaganda and disinformation she publishes. Most of it is factually untrue.

Anonymous said...

on the good news front, very, very few people pay attention to the blogs in general including jen's. even traffic of 700,000 -- mostly the repeat viewers -- hits over, say, an 18 month period of time is nothing in a county of 800,000 some people.

to make a difference on a blog you have to make a splash and get people talking. AA has done that in grand fashion. i know people who didn't even know that such a thing as a blog existed but were looking at this last summer. oh, and look what the patrice abduallah investigation did.

well, jen gets some interesting scoop from her former iu buddies (the YR alleged sex criminal, for example) but hasn't had her big story yet. to get attention, she makes fun of people or tries to smear them (see the pathetic attempt to link ballard to the bart lies monkey cartoon).

tdw is witty and clever but also evil, mean spirited, and, at best spin. at worst, complete fabrication. an iu journalism grad should know better. alas, she thinks she's so damn smart, funny, and cute, she can't help herself.

yes, those that think like her rally around it. as far as impact -- none.

oh, and it is COMPLETELY independent of her job at the state dem party. yeah right, wagner.

her brand of arrogance brought down the marion county dems. just wait, she's going to offend the wrong person soon. she will get canned and the party will be tripping over itself to apologize.

drinks on me the day that happens -- i was personally trashed by her last summer.

Anonymous said...

Anon 11:02

"tdw is witty and clever but also evil, mean spirited..."

That seems a bit extreme. I'll agree with the spin part, but everyone of these local bloggers has their own version of spinning. You can get ready to jump down my throat, but first know that I post regularly on her blog(s) too.

Bloggers are only as harmful as your imagination allows. The politician's actions always speaks louder than a blog entry. Bart sucked. Ballard might end up sucking. It's Jen's right to post whatever she wants short of libel. It's quite a waste of your time to get so fired up about it. That's something I've learned in the past. You're not going to change any of these people's opinions. And they're out to either give you arguing points, or piss you off.

It's kind of fun going back and forth with them. Tip: the less you acknowledge Wilson or Melyssa, the easier life is...

Anonymous said...

grover, what i object to is jen posting picture of families and calling them wingnuts and attention starved. sorry, she's got no conscience. i stand by evil. i wish nothing but ruin for her in her career or political endeavors.