Political Dysfunction

Well .. it looks like the blood-letting has begun with the Arshinkoff-Coughlin fight. I only wish I could have invested the time to be at yesterday's Board of Elections meeting. According to the ABJ story, profanities flew as board workers discussed discrepancies (or alleged ones anyway) in the petitions for central committee applicants for the Republican Party.

Current GOP boss Alex Arshinkoff and Democratic Party member Wayne Jones -- both Elections Board members -- got into it hot and heavy. Not the first time they've exchanged pleasantries, but it doesn't often happen in front of the media.

I applaud the ABJ for using the actual language that hit the fan instead of just writing "expletive" or "bad word" to describe what was said.

To me, the underlying debate is the joust between Board Director Bryan Williams (Republican) and Deputy Director Marijean Donofrio (Democrat). Donofrio says that her boss, Williams, ordered board workers to overly scrutinize the petitions brought forth by Kevin Coughlin, whose gone public in hopes of overthrowing Arshinkoff. Eventually Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner (Democrat) will end up deciding some of these issues as to who can and cannot be on the ballot come March.

So where does that leave us now? That's the mess that awaits us. Already a youtube video has appeared that pokes serious allegations at both Arshinkoff and Coughlin has appeared. Both camps are beginning to light up my in-box with daggers. You can bet it won't be long before one of them runs the other's boxers up the flagpole.

Know this .. AA ain't going down without firing everything in his arsenal, but Coughlin isn't launching this assault blindly. He knows his future in the party will be made or broken by charging the hornet's nest on his own.

Either way .. local elephants need to choose which trainer they plan to live with because the zoo is no longer safe to wander around alone.