Friday, November 16, 2007

Tully Wants Answers On Carson's Health

It took him a couple of months to come around, but the Star's Matt Tully has started asking the questions this blog raised as soon as Carson's office failed to inform her constituents for more than a week after she was hospitalized with an alleged leg infection in September. "The secrecy and questions surrounding U.S. Rep. Julia Carson are reaching Castro-like proportions," Tully writes. "Where is she? Will she return to work? Will she run for another congressional term? How poor is her health?"

The man who has been leading us astray on all-things Julia for a long time, Andy Jacobs, pretty much answered the question by taking the public step of endorsing her grandson as her replacement yesterday, even as he reassured us as recently as two weeks ago Carson would fully recover. Tully acknowledges Jacobs' statement is the most telling signal yet that Carson won't be on the ballot next year.

In other local news, the Indianapolis-Marion County Library Board surprised a lot of observers by choosing interim library chief Laura Bramble as the library's new CEO over Councilor Jackie Nytes. I suspect the outcome may have been different if Democrats had maintained control of the City-County Council. Board chairman Louis Mahern sided with the majority backing Bramble for the position.

And finally, Mayor-elect Greg Ballard's plan to revitalize the Front Porch Alliance gets the backing of the Star's editorial board. The editorial reads, in part:


Ballard, in an interview Thursday, said he sees the city's work with nonprofits as critical to fighting crime and restoring neighborhoods. He wants his administration to coordinate nonprofits' efforts in confronting social problems. He also wants to leverage his high-profile position in the community in encouraging residents to volunteer.

It's an approach well worth taking. The problems facing Indianapolis -- from crime, to high dropout rates, to abandoned houses -- are complex. Local government has the primary responsibility in securing and rebuilding neighborhoods, but individuals and organizations can be invaluable in helping struggling families, mentoring children and pulling together communities. It's an especially smart strategy given the city's tight fiscal condition.

Ballard is turning to experienced help in resurrecting the Front Porch Alliance. Outgoing City-County Council member Ike Randolph worked on the neighborhood initiative under Goldsmith. Randolph, who is expected to fill a key role in Ballard's administration, brings a strong vision for how the alliance and similar initiatives can help the city.

17 comments:

Wilson46201 said...

Isn't Ike (Flip-Flop) Randolph already on the Fire Department payroll? Is he going to be taking a leave of absence to go on Ballard's staff directly? Did he also take a leave from IFD when working for Goldsmith on that mayoral pet project?

Lalita said...

I know Representative Carson is valiantly trying to hold onto her office (and her health), but who is representing the people of her district and voting on matters that concern them?

That, in the final analysis, should be the highest concern for any elected representative.

Please Ms. Carson, get well or get gone. Your constituency deserves active, vigorous representation.

Anonymous said...

Wilson: ..."he has not a thought in his head that is not a slogan, and there is no imbecility, absolutely none, that he is not capable of swallowing if the Party hands it out to him."

Wilson46201 said...

Already the obsessive anonymous nobodies are trying to deflect a serious discussion away from Indianapolis politics and onto gossip about me ... I'm kinda flattered by their stalkerish attention but aren't there more important issues than me?

Bart Lies said...

Where's the law on congressional succession? I've seen opinion that there's a one-year rule (which ends Jan 3rd in this case), before which a complete special election would be required and after which the seat could be filled simply by appointment.

This suggests Carson will mysteriously 'step down' shortly after 12 noon on 1/3/2008.

garyj said...

The post is about Julia Carson, no t Ike Randolph.
Is she even still alive?
She's like Frank Anderson, always going through a spokesperson instead of speaking for herself.
Wilson is just trying to change the subject because he knows that Julia needs to leave office.
You are the one who is obsessed with Gary W. and his blog.

Anonymous said...

Maybe myself and the other citizens in District #7 (who pay Ms. Carson's salary) would have representation in Congress if Tully spoke up IN ADVANCE of Nov 2006 election about witnessing alarming and eratic behavior of Ms. Carson which indicated declining faculties.

Instead he wrote his column describing her state a day after the election, as I recall.

Tully is never ahead of the curve.

Case in point: Is constant insistence that there was no way possible Peterson would lose. I don't recall that Tully ever spoke to the grass roots people who endorsed Ballard.

Anonymous said...

Melyssa, honey, I rarely agree with you, but when you're right, you're right.

Wilson talking about stalkers. Now THAT's rich. I laughed so hard I spit coffee everywhere.

The rest of the Indy media corps deserves indictment, too...they all fiddled while her health burned, right in front of their eyes.

Compassion dictates we wish her well. Citizenship demands she step aside or serve.

And sanity screams "No Andre!"

Anonymous said...

It is my guess that Carson will set down, or at least not run. Folks who have rode the Carson name for decades are scared to death. I think Amos was saying you would see one hell of a fight. I think he is right. This should be interesting to say the least.

Anonymous said...

lalita-

Steve Buyer has also been in the top 15 of absences in the House due to a skiing injury in December 2006. Would you suggest too that he step down? What if a MoC were incapacitated due to an assassination attempt? Where do you draw the line?

With respect to Ms. Carson, the voters knew what they were getting into when they sent her back to Washington. She wasn't a picture of health when she was re-elected, so as far as I'm concerned her constituents are stuck with her.

bart lies-

IC 3-13-3-2, Vacancies in Federal Offices, provides:

(a) A vacancy that occurs, other than by resignation, in the United States House of Representatives shall be certified to the governor by the circuit court clerk of the county in which the Representative resided.
(b) A special election shall be held to fill a vacancy in the United States House of Representatives in accordance with IC 3-10-8.


If you check IC 3-10-8-1(3), it spells out that a special election shall be held:

Whenever a vacancy occurs in the office of United States Representative unless the vacancy occurs less than thirty (30) days before a general election.

I think you're stuck with Julia until October (if she can last that long), when Andre will be named to replace her on the ballot.


melyssa-

The little food thief girl footage ran on the local news. Shame on you if you depended on Matt Tully to do your research for you.

Anonymous said...

Melyssa, Matt actually did meet with me and speak with me at length several weeks before the election so he was making an effort to learn more about us in the blogosphere.

Anonymous said...

11:06 anonymous? Who are you? The activists I associate with are serious and we our proud enough of our names to use them.

Why are you hiding in a closet? Are you ashamed of your activism or just not committed and passionate enough to take a personal risk?

Anonymous said...

The post is not about Wilson Allen. The anonymous posters who keep trying to sabotage the discussions on any subjects they don't want to get into just keep coming back to Wilson. It's childish and unnecessary.

Wilson appears to be posting appropriate questions and engaging in appropriate discussion.

I wish the others would knock it off and similarly stick to the substance and the subject.

Anonymous said...

Melyssa, please don't add to Wilson's fire by degrading anonymous posters just for keeping thier names off. If you disagree with our posts, so be it.

There are reasons many of us post anonymously Wilson and his crew are ruthless. They've done disgusting things to people for opposing the Center Gulag's agenda. Truly. You have no earthly idea. Take the grief the city heaped on you, and triple it.

Finally there is an avenue to get the truth out there--but many of us value our families, jobs, friends...and just cannot, yet, put names to posts.

I think things may be changing soon. Their gig is up. Three of them--Rozelle, Ron and Ro--were disposed of last week. Julia is on her last leg (no pun intended). Carl Drummer is, well, Carl Drummer (he actually thinks he can succeed Julia...hilarious).

Maybe, soon, more of us can post names. Until then, please be patient.

Anonymous said...

Wilson wrote:
"..but aren't there more important issues than me?"

Yes, such as your absent-from-duty-though-with-permission Congresswoman, which is what this thread is about. Not Ike Randolph.

Either let us know when to expect Mrs. Carson back to work, or when we can expect her to resign.

That doesn't seem complicated to me.

AR

Anonymous said...

Yikes. The apocolypse must be upon us. This Democrat agrees with AR.

A random thought whilst pumping my $3.19 (Igrrrrrr) gas yesterday:

The blog drumbeat, tho many discredit it, was almost this strong two weeks before the election. And we know those results.

Yeah, there was some nutty stuff. But the underlying theme, and the overwhelming sentiment, was anti-Bart and anti-Council.

Now, it's the same feeling...a drumbeat about Julia Carson's inability to serve.

An old addage comes to mind:

Where there's this much smoke, there's got to be fire.

And now that Andy's spoken up, no one can stop the drip=drip=drip of Democrats who want this seat. They'll be polite, for awhile anyway, but the real looming deadline is Dem slating in mid-February. Or, less than 90 days away.

In other words, right about the time Democrats and Republicans will have locked and loaded on their presidential picks, we'll be choosing candidates in slating.

There are committteepersons to be courted, and the out-of-touch nature of some elected officials in my party will smack them hard in the face if they think they can railroad through Andre Carson--or anyone, for that matter.

If the slating means anything to potential candidates, they'll have to do what they should've been doing for a long while: listen to the party activists.

Wilson is one. But that crew's influence is fading. Fast. Much like a forest fire's effects, sometimes these election defeats have to occur to get us back to our main mission and message. Grass does grow on the forest floor after a fire. Sometimes quickly.

Another random thought whilst fuming at the gas pump: Ron Gibson and King Ro on a slating convention floor, trying to influence voters for a particular candidate.

And then I just laughed out loud. Justice, thy name is Nov. 6.

Anonymous said...

Julia Carson has had a stroke and can hardly speak reason why Andy Jacobs is out front for her as usual. He's liar just like her and the rest of the Ghetto Mafia. Jacobs is the godfather for all of them.

He speaks to the white voter in Marion county for them because they can not articulate properly for themselves.

The dumpster diver seems to know the business of individuals who oppose this corrupt group, but he does not know the current condition of his favorite congresswoman. How strange is that?