Another day and another flattering column at the Gannett-owned Indianapolis Star by its political columnist Matt Tully about the outgoing Angie's List CEO who promises to shake up the political climate in Indiana, all of course, without any prodding from his mentor, former Gov. Mitch Daniels. Here's a taste of what Tully has to say about his former neighbor and best source:
Bill Oesterle was filling a to-go cup of coffee at the Cornerstone Coffee Shop on the Northside Monday morning when a worker there recognized him.
"Thanks for what you're doing," the employee, a lifelong Indianapolis resident named Marty Sullivan, said. "I just appreciate someone around here having some backbone."
As Oesterle deflected the compliment, less than a week had passed since he'd sent the Indiana political world into overdrive with his announcement that he would soon step down as the CEO of Angie's List so that he could spend more time on politics — and, more specifically, on moving his Republican Party in Indiana away from the culture wars that have cost it and the state so much in recent months.
"Hoosiers are fair and practical people — they are," Oesterle, 49, said during a 90-minute conversation Monday. "I've seen it up close and personal, over and over. And if we as a party don't begin to realize that we will eventually end up with another 16 years of Democratic governors, like we had before Mitch (Daniels) came along. I don't want that. My goal is to prevent that." . . .
Oesterle was cautious as we talked because, he said, he has barely begun to draft the details of his political plan; he is just now re-engaging in state politics after several years as little more than a big-dollar financial contributor. With a few months remaining at Angie's List, he said his next step is "to gather up a bunch of people and figure out what we are going to do."
By "people," he means Republicans who served in the Daniels administration, or who believed deeply in its focus and ambition, or who simply worry that state GOP leaders are forging a destructive path forward. At a high level, he said, the concept is to make it easier for people who come from the Daniels wing of the party — the pragmatic, jobs-focused wing as opposed to the far-right wing — to once again play a leading role in Republican Party politics, and to win elections.
"Mitch's governorship represented something very powerful to a lot of people," he said. "It was built on ideals. It was built on energy. It was fearless. It had thousands of loyal participants. It was about putting the interests of the state of Indiana first. It was about the simple proposition that if you do the right thing for all Hoosiers, everything works out."
"I want to make sure," he continued, "that all of the people who bought into those things have the organizational and institutional support to run for office or to get involved. Right now, they are stuck out on an island. Banding them together and putting resources behind them is the point here. Because they will change the world." . . .Seriously? This guy wants you to believe Mitch Daniels' cronies are stuck out on some island as if they've been exiled from Indiana politics? Please. They're all living up the good life as multi-millionaires from all of the insider political crony deals they enjoyed during Daniels' eight years as governor--all of the stuff you refused to report on as any responsible, legitimate State House political reporter would have done, Mr. Tully.
I'll give you a taste of what I hear about the Bill Oesterle-run Angie's List. Here's the latest from Advance Indiana's mailbag:
How about the Angie's List company bus trip to Cincinnati for a Reds game? The place shuts down and everyone goes along for the beer-infused trip down, the game, and the return home. Part of the ritual forces females walking down the bus aisle to be groped and fondled by any and all. Yes, even company officials participated.
Then there was the "soap box derby" races in the parking lot.
All the while [Company Official] is carrying one with a very, very young employee. So young that other notices how hard she has fitting in with all the carrying on. After the divorce and remarriage, [Company Official] steps aside from Angie's sexual harassment committee . . .
Just a fun place to work. No wonder it is filled with unemployable and unemployed Republicans.Which is more accurate? Tully's press releases masquerading as serious political columns or the Advance Indiana mailbag?
13 comments:
I want someone to ask Bill Oesterle if he is on the pipe again because that might be the only basis for BO's grand delusions about himself, his political chances, and about the corrupt Mitch Daniels and his gubernatorial administration.
I cannot imagine a bigger kiss-ass than Gannett's Tully unless I throw the Fop of The Indianapolis City Council into the mix.
Hardly anyone reads Tully or knows what Tully's lame thoughts of the moment are unless Tully's mental follies are recapped on Advance Indiana or perhaps on Paul's blog.
Yes, but who's opposed to crony capitalism?
People may talk big, but only around 3-6% EVER vote for any alternatives to it.
Well-over 90% of us (more, if you include the tacit approval of non-voters) vote a big thumbs-up to the two-headed crony network "Two Party System."
I am not a historian, but I am a History Buff especially the Eastern or Russian Front during WW 2. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union a wealth of detail has emerged.
What I find interesting and yes very disturbing is how much The Indianapolis Star in particular resembles the Party and State Control of the Media during Soviet times. Tully's fawning article reminds me of something a Soviet Reporter might have written about Comrade Stalin.
If Pence made a mistake in signing the original RFRA Bill, then why is Tully so loud in his critique of Pence and at the same time so very silent when it comes to calling out the Republican Leadership in pushing the original RFRA Bill to begin with????
I've lived in several cities in this country. Nowhere have I observed a major daily newspaper flack for certain individuals and causes in the brazen manner I've observed with this newspaper. Truly bizarre.
I believe strongly in a Republican ideology that no longer exists. This was the Republican Party of Ronald Reagan. That party stood for smaller government, far less federal spending, individual freedom, less intrusion, a strong national defense, lower taxes and supply-side, business-friendly economics. But Ronald Reagan could never even win a Republican primary today, so much has it changed. Gone are the days of fiscal conservatism. Republicans and Democrats are indistinguishable from one another on spending. Clinton built up reserves. Bush spent them. The world is turned upside down. The Grand Old Party today is dominated by evangelical social issues; its an antiquated throwback to another time and place, so pathetically out of touch with America that it has become a parody of itself. Consider just one fact: Mitt Romney lost blacks by 94 percent, voters younger than 30 by 63 percent, Hispanics by 54 percent, Asians by 53 percent and Jews by 39 percent. In a demographic where white guys are a disappearing majority, the inability to carry anyone else seems like slow suicide. Mitch Daniels wisely advised to leave the social baggage behind in an attempt to make the tent larger. Smart Republicans, and certainly young Republicans, agree. This nonsense in Indiana of trashing progressive Republicans is just extremely small thinking. If you’re really that conservative shall we all become Amish? Will you give up heterosexual right to divorce? Come on. Small thinking is killing this grand old party, which used to treasure Ronald Reagan, but which today would consider him a liberal. You love to say it. A Rino. It isn’t that Ronald Reagan changed. Its that today’s party is too old fashioned. Guys like Oesterle are at least trying to modernize, enlarge the tent, be more inclusive. Do you really want everyone to follow Pence back into the church? It isn’t the way forward.
Bring on the Integrity Div. of the DOJ...
And we really don't want another Iran/Contra either. Republicans are at war with themselves. So obvious.
Its so very curious, this phenomena of Republicans bashing Republicans. After several Democrat terms in the Governor’s office, Mitch Daniels won the seat. Nationally, he’s considered a brilliant mover and shaker. But local Hoosiers love to bash him, even though he brought Republicans and rich business into the top echelon of politics. What, exactly, do conservative Republicans want? Mayor Ballard, a long shot for mayor in a race almost certain to go to incumbent Bart Peterson, won the office and filled his offices with Republicans and business supporters. But try to find a happy Republican in Indianapolis. They all bash Ballard. What is it, exactly, that rank and file Republicans want? The current theory going around is that dissatisfaction with Republicans by Republicans is just grumpy old man syndrome. These are guys who go outside and just yell at kids to “get off my grass.” They don’t like Mitch Daniels. They don’t like Greg Ballard. They don’t like Bob Grand. They don’t like any sitting Republicans. They just don’t like them. They don’t want to be Democrats. Because they really despise them. But its hard to find anybody they do like. And that’s kind of a problem for progressives within the Republican party who are trying to attract young people and appeal to a broader demographic. The old guard isn’t making any change possible. They just hate every idea. They hate Obamacare. They hate immigration. They don’t want gays to have any rights. They hate government. Even when their guys win every race in the State, from Mayor, to Governor to a super majority in the Indiana General Assembly, they hate the way things are going. Grumpy old man syndrome. Its a thing. And its a problem.
Anon 1:44 begins by dismissing the party of Ronald Reagan and then segues to the party of Mitt Romney, Karl Rove, and John McCain... Conservatives in name only.
It was these "progressive" Republicans who gave us socialist Barak Obama in the White House and it was these types of "progressives" who for a century abetted the liberal progressive Democrats trample the Constitution and weaken our civil liberties.
I haven't been able to vote for a REAL Conservative since Ronald Reagan won his two historic landslides. There has not been a REAL Conservative on a national ticket since Ronald Reagan.
Everytime the RINO corporatist east coast GOP runs the type of candidate Anon 1:44 seems to belive is "the answer", that type of "Republican" candidate loses. Every time. Voters will always for the real Democrat.
Why is is that liberal Democrats constantly warn us that the Republican Party is old fashioned and needs to change but not that the Democrat Party is old fashioned and needs to change?
If the Democrat Party is the "big tent" why does the Demcrat Party refuse to accept candidates or members who are Conservative Women, Conservative Gays, and Conservative African-Americans? It is the Democrat Party, now owned by the Socialists, that is the party of the old fashioned ideass... and those old fashioned ideas are Communism, Marxism, Fascism, and Socialism... all have failed their peoples or even led to starvation and death in the country where those failed ideologies were imposed.
It is the idea of individual liberty, of freedom from the State, that in all of mankind's history is really the New Idea.... slavery to the State (or a king or queen or some type of despotic ruler) has been for centuries what men and women suffered under until our Founders brought forth the new idea of personal human freedom as embodied in the US Constitution and in the Declaration of Independence.
Left liberal Democrats love to advise how the Republicans are out of touch, but it is the liberal Democrat who look back to the past- a past where people were plagued by the State telling them what to do, stealing their incomes through confiscatory taxes, and even murdering people who disagreed with the State in any way. Conservaties (not "Republicans" but Conservatives) look to the future where a man or a woman can dream about accomplishing or becoming or "being" who and how they are and then taking action to make that dream come true by their personal initiative and unhindered by the State.
2:56:
You're one of those infiltrators who is only happy when Republicans don't act like Republicans.
You should really be honest about what you are and start the Rich Boy Party and get the hell away from the Republicans.
All you care about is using government to get rich.
Actually, I'd say skepticism of government is a healthy thing in a republic.
4:29 & 2:56- I consider myself a republican by principal but at the end of the day I absolutely hate the cores of both parties. Neither shows respect for someone who doesn't look, think or act like one of their own. They are nothing but hacks interested only in self gain by any means necessary. For them it is not about the greater good or promoting party principals but personal enrichment. Quit drinking the kool aid, use your damn brains to think for yourselves, and you will see what is really going on.
The NFL is really protecting this Colts, this year.
http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/teams/ind/schedule/
Only one possibly cold game, Pittsburgh on 12/6, and the Patriots have to come to Indy for the second year in a row.
The only tough road opponent is Pittsburgh.
What a carefully packaged schedule that should give the Colts an easy 10 wins.
Seems the NFL thinks it's time they give Luck the spotlight.
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