The old Republican Brand just ain't what it used to be

It seems that some prominent Montgomery County, PA Republicans are worried about their Brand. Referring to AG Gonzales in a letter faxed to the President, they lament that Abu has lost the public trust. And, of course, they know first hand that there is "nothing more important" than the public being able to trust their elected officials. The letter was signed by District Attorney Bruce Castor, who is now a candidate for commissioner, County Commissioner Jim Matthews (brother of Tweety) who is running for re-election, and one Risa Vetri Ferman, the first assistant D.A., who is seeking to succeed Castor.

It seems that GOP strategists  worry that mere association with the White House could be a drag on the ticket and cost the party control of the county courthouse. Incredibly (or not), our entire judicial system has been compromised through partisan politicization, and all these Montco Republicans are worried about is their own skin.

After finding out about the letter faxed to President Bush, the head of the local Democratic party cuts to the chase and calls out Castor and  Matthews (Tweety's brother) on their blatent hypocrisy:

Montgomery County Democratic Chairman Marcel L. Groen today blasted as "hypocritical" the letter sent by three Montgomery County Republican candidates to President Bush asking him to remove Alberto Gonzales as U.S. Attorney General.

The letter was sent by fax to President Bush because, Castor said, ..."the Republican brand is at an all-time low." Apparently Mr. Groen found this a bit hard to swallow.

"That is the height of hypocrisy," Groen said. "It is incredible reasoning that these three candidates, particularly Mr. Castor and Mr. Matthews,worked so hard to get President Bush elected twice, and now that it is inconvenient to run as a Republican they are running as far away as possible as fast as possible. There are several legitimate reasons Mr. Gonzales should have been removed from office a long time ago, but the letter from Matthews and Castor fails to list even one," Groen said.

"Where were Matthews and Castor when Mr. Gonzales was politicizing the
Justice Department? Where were Matthews and Castor when Mr. Gonzales on
several occasions danced around congressional questioning and parsed words
until they were unrecognizable? Where were Matthews and Castor when White
; House Counsel Gonzales went to the sick bed of then-Attorney General
Ashcroft to try to convince him to authorize an illegal wiretapping scheme?

Where were Matthews and Castor when Mr. Gonzales as White House counsel
was calling the Geneva Convention restrictions on torture ‘quaint’? They
were checking polls, and now, and only now, they want Gonzales gone."

Groen goes on to suggest that Castor and Matthews should clean up their own back yard first. Apparently the Rove legacy and the US Attorney scandal has tentacles reaching well beyond the Beltway to suburban Philadelphia.

"If you don’t like the tactics used by Karl Rove, don’t use similar ones
here in Montgomery County," Groen said, referring to the actions of a Castor
campaign functionary who bought two web domains using the names Damsker and
Hoeffel, the names of the Democratic candidates for county commissioners.

"If you don’t like Alberto Gonzales politicizing the Justice Department,
then stop politicizing the county district attorney’s office," Groen said
referring to the fact that an a fulltime employee in Castor’s district
attorney’s office is also a fundraiser for him and Matthews, and that many
assistant district attorneys are active politically and running for office.

"If you don’t like the fact that no one in Bush Administration is ever
held accountable, then don’t show an embarrassing department head the exit
and then turn around and give him a consulting gig at twice his salary,"
Groen continued, referring to the fact that Matthews and his GOP counterpart
on the board of commissioners did just that with former Public Property
Director Andrew Gulotta.

"If you don’t like the cro nyism that has been a landmark of the Bush
White House, then don’t hire a woman, who is dating one of the county
commissioners, for a $35,000 a year county job," Groen said, referring to
the hiring of a woman, who has a "dating relationship" with GOP Commissioner
Thomas Ellis. Matthews voted for the hiring.

"If you don’t like the cesspool of no-bid contracts that Halliburton has
received from this Administration, especially in Iraq, then don’t approve
RFPs that only allow one company to bid, and then turn around and take over
$42,000 in campaign contributions from the CEO of that firm," said Groen,
referring to the RFP, which resulted in only one firm being able to provide
forensic services to Castor’s district attorney’s office, and the CEO of
that firm writing over $42,000 in checks to Castor’s campaign committees.

Ouch.