"Very well then, instead of fleeing this town, I'll stay here and grow fat off kickbacks and slush funds."
File this under “Did he really think people would buy that story?” (Click Here) for a story from my state of New Hampshire that as soon as it happened I called it as fishy. Gary Dodds is now the leader in the clubhouse for the 2008 “Fraud of the Year Award”. I do not think even Roger Clemens’ lawyer, Rusty Hardin, could have got Dobbs out of the mess he either created or worse yet, staged back in April 2006. My favorite part of this case is that Dobbs was offered a plea deal in which he would have avoided prison time had he just owned up to what he did. All he had to do was plead guilty to leaving the scene of the accident, apologized and repay the state the $20,000 it spent on the search. Nope – not this arrogant politician. Now he may be going to prison.
On a brighter political note, (Click Here) to meet Shaun Doherty who I stumbled across while on my town (Pelham, NH) message board. For those that may not be familiar, a town message board is an internet chat room that allows for all different topics to be posted and discussed. My town has many hot debates raging these days and with the dire need for a new high school combined with a proposed new fire station, taxes may be going up big-time. Long story short, there are people strongly for the $50 million dollars it will cost the town to build a new school and those that are dead set against it. When a current school board member took a shot at another young voter who posted what looked like a well-thought out comment on the topic, Doherty jumped to his peer’s defense.
(Click Here) if you want a sample of what I am talking about and you will need to scroll about halfway down to see Shaun’s response. Seriously, I cannot make this stuff up as the thread is huge and you can see who some of the posters are, including their number of entries, pictures etc. You will also notice how much people are willing to contribute and with emotion, when they have the ability to write it down. As I mentioned, a current school board member tried to bully a young voter and Doherty jumped in to assist. Doherty is 19 years old and I am fairly certain that when I was 19 years old, I would not have responded as professionally as he did nor was I even remotely informed about town events, taxes or the current political climate.
Maybe this is what our political system has come to with message boards, Youtube videos and negative television ads galore. I contribute to it I guess, because although I have never posted a message, I do watch and read many of these things. Many of you are not from my town so I invite you to check out this thread or any thread there and judge for yourself if this is an effective vehicle for getting results or if it is further dividing a town. As disappointed as I was with politicians after last week’s steroid hearings and “2008 Fraud of the Year”, Gary Dodds, I am that inspired by Shaun Doherty and will be inviting him to breakfast on me soon just to shake his hand. Who knows, maybe I will jump on his campaign and test the Enliven First motto of “Inspire First, Results Will Follow” and we’ll be calling him Governor or Senator or even President Doherty some day.
As long as Shaun does not turn out like Mayor Diamond Joe Quimby from the “Simpsons”, who gave us our opening quote, we’ll all be ok.
(Editor’s Note – I realize Doherty is a McCain supporter as was the other young adult that got the shot taken at him on the message board. A reminder that although I support McCain, I am a registered independent and even if Doherty was a Hillary supporter, I would still have written this post about the courage he showed to stick up for a friend, especially against an elected official. I also would have taken him to breakfast, however, I would not be joining his campaign; I can only go so far).
