Cobb County FUBAR-Part 46, Sub-Paragraph F, Part 257.11-(b)
[Editor's Note: This may ramble a bit, but stick to it...there are several points to be made.]
There is a big scam being perpetrated in Cobb County, and it is being perpetrated by the same 'ole Republican Party types that were doing it under Marilyn Gilhuly's reign. Except now, it is being perpetrated by one of Gilhuly's proteges.
Last week was the first county committee meeting Cobb GOP Chairman Anthony-Scott Hobbs held since being elected in March 2003. In comparison, all of the other major-sized county parties have meetings on a regular, monthly basis (Fulton, Gwinnett, Cherokee, etc.), yet this is the first Cobb GOP meeting held under Hobbs' reign.
During the meeting, we have reports from 2 independent sources that there was an oral Treasurer's Report given by Treasurer Michael Altman. We say "oral" because no paper records of either the balance sheet or the income statement were provided or handed-out to committee members (again, in stark contrast to other county parties' management teams). Altman reported that there was a balance of approximately $18,000 in the county party's treasury.
Now, we find it quite strange that Altman only reported the amount of $18,000. That is a mere pittance of what it should be had anyone been reading the Marietta Daily Journal's Around Town section for the past year or so as reported by columnist Bill Kinney.
Kinney has reported that Hobbs had 1) raised approximately $40,000 from the 2002 Christmas Party, and, most recently, 2) that Hobbs had "70 members in his prestigious Republican Business Council" (RBC).
The RBC is a little thing cooked-up by Hobbs back in November-December of 2002. On the face of it, it seemed like an interesting way to raise money. Give $1000 to the Council and you are a member of an elite club. The deeper problem of the Council is the way Hobbs raised money for it.
As we reported in the December 2, 2002 edition of the Political Vine, Hobbs had been calling local Cobb business folks and basically threatening them that if they didn't pony-up and give money to the Cobb GOP now, that they wouldn't have any access to [Governor-elect] Sonny Perdue after inauguration. One of the folks he happened to call and threaten happened to be a long time Republican who had already given money to the transition team and wasn't about to put up with Hobbs' nonsense.
Back to recent history, Kinney recently reported (like 3 weeks ago)that Hobbs had "70 members" of his little club. That would mean that, at a minimum, Hobbs collected $70,000 because to be a member, one has to contribute $1000 to the party. With us so far?
Now, to give you a bit of background on Kinney, he does not pull this information out of his own rear-end. Kinney takes whatever information anyone either calls and tells him about, or whatever someone faxes him, or e-mails him, as a truth that should be reported. He does not bother to check the facts or the veracity of anything he is sent. He takes it as the gospel and then publishes in the Around Town section. He himself does not make things up; Kinney merely prints whatever anyone tells him he can print.
So, the context of Kinney's reporting that Hobbs had "70 members" of his club was part of a larger (and false) story about Cobb Commission Chairman Sam Olens. Kinney reported that "In the most recent tete-a-tete between Cobb GOP Chief Anthony Scott Hobbs and Commissioner Sam Olens...Olens told Hobbs that Hobbs, through his Republican Business Council, was taking money from the Governor's fundraising sources and that Olens told him to stop..."(or something to this effect. We cannot lay our hands on the paper for the exact wording, but, suffice to say, the event description was not complimentary of Olens in any way.)
However, it turns out that the event was a complete fabrication by Hobbs. Olens did not criticize Hobbs' fundraising prowess and was merely informing Hobbs that Olens was going to help Sonny out in a Cobb County fundraiser for his reelection campaign. That Hobbs took this innocuous fact and twisted it into a "woe is me" pile of garbage, and got Bill Kinney to print it, is where the real immorality lies.
We know this because the definition of a tete-a-tete is a "private conversation between two people." Olens would not report such communication between himself and Hobbs in that way to make himself look bad. Kinney has no reason to make-up such tripe. Therefore, that leaves the only culprit in planting the false story to be Hobbs himself. (Betcha Anthony doesn't have a copy of the Ten Commandments on HIS wall...and, if he does, betcha he doesn't read it very often.)
Back to the claim of Hobbs having 70 members in his RBC. If there are 70 members (as Hobbs told Kinney to report in the MDJ), this would result in $70,000 being raised by the RBC alone. And if Hobbs raised $40,000 in December 2002, that makes a combined total of $110,000 that Hobbs should have raised. Michael Altman reported a balance of less than $20,000 in the Cobb treasury last week...so, where the heck did all of the money go??? (Debbie? Sandra?..wake-up and start asking questions of your chairman.)
See, we've long had this suspicion of Hobbs. He's a con-man. Not a "con-artist," because that would be giving him too much notoriety. He is a con-man who will tell anyone anything he can dream-up to make himself look good, and to hell with the facts or the truth.
Of course, it COULD be true that Hobbs is telling the truth and he DOES have 70 members to the RBC and he HAS raised $110,000 since December 2002. So, where is the accounting of how the $90,000 was spent? ($110,000-$20,000 = $90,000)
At the very least, a complete transaction statement showing what has come in and what has gone out of the county party's bank account(s) since Hobbs and Altman took over is warranted. (If they give some crap about "that's none of your business" like Marilyn used to do, then someone should call District Attorney Pat Head and request an investigation into the possibility that the crime of "theft by conversion" may have been committed.)
Now, Hobbs' prodigious claims of his fundraising prowess aside, there is yet another, even larger scheme he is working on to raise money for the county party. This is that "Small Business Economic Summit" a lot of you have been receiving e-mail notices about. The premise of the "economic summit" is that you pay $125 to the Cobb GOP and you get to hear speeches from the Undersecretary of Commerce, some folks from the Small Business Association, an economist from Kennesaw State University, and assorted and sundry other speakers not too many folks have heard of. Oh yeah, and supposedly, State Senator Bill Stephens will be speaking.
Anyway, the gist of the day is that YOU get to hear a lot of keen stuff about your small business and you get to network with fellow businessmen/women (who have been similarly duped into paying money for this farce...but, we're getting ahead of ourselves.)
If you are stupid enough to pay money for this event, then we have some expired stock options in Enron that we'd like to sell to you. This is nothing but yet another scheme by Hobbs to figure out how to funnel money into the Cobb GOP that, we believe, will ultimately end-up being misused and misspent by him and his cabal of supporters.
The fact is that nobody knows who Mr. Hobbs truly is or where he came from, or what his true political nature is. He came out of nowhere to Atlanta in the year 1999 and did not register to vote until February 2001. He moved to Cobb County in 2001 and, after Marilyn Gilhuly took over and started destroying the Cobb GOP, Hobbs slithered up to Gilhuly and introduced himself. Gilhuly's tongue whipped-out and she licked him (like that thing in the movie Aliens did to Sigourney Weaver) and discovered that Hobbs was one of her own.
Hobbs had no political anchor in Cobb and the only reason he won election last March was because he went around to the Flaggers and told them that he believed in their cause and he would take it straight to Sonny Perdue. Being naive sheep, the Flaggers jumped onto his support wagon and voted him into office of a county where he had spent a grand total of approximately 2 years of his life. Why the Flaggers don't flag him because he dropped his promise of taking their flag cause to the Governor we'll never understand (but, consistency and logic don't appear to be strong suits of the Flaggers anyway).
So, the interesting thing about the "summit" is that Hobbs has now resorted to political extortion to raise money for his event (we kid you not). We know this because on September 9, he faxed a letter on Cobb GOP stationery to several Cobb elected officials, and the letter was a de facto extortion letter.
He starts off with "Dear So-and-So...I am writing to extend an invitation to you to attend the 2003 Georgia Business and Economic Summit on Friday, October 17, 2003 at the Galleria Centre...This major event...[blah-blah-blah]...expects an attendance of 400-500 businesses from across the state...this summit will equip small business owners to lead in a dynamic and changing climate..."...yady-yady-yah...
[Ah, here's where the double-dribble comes before Hobbs executes the personal foul]..."As special treatment to our elected officials and candidates, I would ask that you either pre-purchase 20 tickets at $50 each or help sell 20 tickets at $50/person. We have a Congressman who purchased 40 tickets!" [note to Mac Collins: Ever heard of the saying 'A fool and his money are soon parted?']...
[And now, for the personal foul]: "Now, I realize there may be some reluctance in assisting the county Party or seeing the Party grow and evolve. The Party will assist in the general election those candidates or elected officials that assist the Party. In any case, the relationship must be reciprocal." [emphasis added by PV]
The "relationship must be reciprocal?" Let's collectively roll that statement over our tongues, shall we? You know, as an aside, even Ralph Reed wasn't stupid enough to put his threats in writing when it came to his attempts at payback against the folks who didn't support him in his chairman's race. By Hobbs putting his threats on paper that he won't allow county party resources to be spent in the general election on any candidate or race that didn't support his fundraising efforts demonstrates an arrogance not witnessed since...well, since Bill Clinton left office. Sheesh! What a moron!
Well, just so you know, we've done the thorough route thing and checked the State Party's Rules on this matter. Guess what? We cannot find ANYWHERE where it says political extortion is a legitimate tool to use to get people to contribute money to your cause or your political party. Maybe that's somewhere in the Dem party rules, but not the GOP's....
This statement by Hobbs on September 9 happens to make something we were faxed recently a lot clearer. There was a flyer being circulated by Frank Molesky at last week's Cobb County GOP meeting. Someone faxed it to us, and this is what it says (please, we will not be responsible for you pulling a muscle from laughing so hard):
"There comes a time in every organization, when something has to be done to maintain the integrity of the organization." [Before we continue, does this sound like something resembling the Aryan Nation's edict??? Okay, okay, we'll start at the beginning and continue w/o commentary...sorry for that indulgence.]
"There comes a time in every organization, when something has to be done to maintain the integrity of the organization. Now is such a time, at the local level of the Republican Party.
So, we propose at the local level that we have the right to require the following:
(1) A Forum to be formed and interview all candidates for local election including nonpartisan. This forum shall have the power to require that all pesons applying to run as a Republican candidate in local elections shall meet these minimum requirements:
A) A candidate shall have voted Republican in at least two primary elections. Exemptions: Just turned 18 years of age or at unanimous decision of the committee.
B) The candidate shall read the Party platform and oath, agree thereto, and sign a copy of same to be kept on file. (this is state law) (sic) [PV interjects: WHERE IS THIS STATE LAW??? WHAT STATE???]
C) The candidate shall be a member or join the local Republican Party and help the local party, by appearing at party functions and helping other candidates with advice, appearances or campaigning experience.
D) The candidate shall attend at least six local meetings or local party functions a year to stay current with the direction the local party is heading (his or her choice).
E) Any candidate that has given money to the Democratic Party, volunteered their time or worked in any capacity for a Democrat against a Republican candidate should be scrutinized by the County Party."
PV Ignores Own Advice And Pulls A Stomach Muscle: "Scrutinized by the County Party?" What the heck would that entail? An anal probe by Frank Molesky and Paul Ploener?!?!
"Candidate shall attend a minimum of six local meetings?" Local meetings of what? The local John Birch Society? The local UGA Basket-Weavers and Beer-Drinkers Union, Local 186 meetings?
You know, if we were to apply the minimum of 2 Republican primaries rule to our friend Anthony-Scott Hobbs, he would not have been eligible to run for county chairman, would he have? Remember, he didn't vote in the year 2000 in Georgia because he first registered to vote in February 2001. The only primary he could have voted in was the 2002 primary. So, he wouldn't have met the 2-primary minimum.
Gawd...this Cobb County GOP stuff just gets more and more FUBARed-up the more we get exposed to it. Geez...we guess there really is no limit to stupidity, is there?
Oh, yeahhhh...two other minor items. It has been reported to us that on several of those occasions of the Governor holding a conference call with county parties around the state, Hobbs has reportedly signed-off his connection with the Governor with a statement like "Tonight, Governor, there are 400 people in Cobb listening to you!" And, supposedly, the Governor eats this up as the truth.
Well, we hate to bust the Governor's bubble, but this is a crock of bull. Let's recall the Cobb County Convention in which Hobbs got elected. He got elected because the convention was stuffed full of Flaggers and they voted him in. But, the Governor didn't do things the way the Flaggers wanted him to do them with regards to the state flag. So, these Flaggers WOULD NOT be sitting around on a Thursday evening participating in a conference call with the Governor. And, since only a whopping 60 or so people showed-up for the first county committee meeting held last week, one wonders where these mythical 400 people come from...?
The 2nd minor item concerns the photo appearing on top of this edition of Boxers (if you don't get it in e-mail, it's supposed to be on the site). It is a picture of Marilyn Gilhuly and Elijah Coleman holding flags at an August 2003 flagging event. There is nothing at all wrong with them holding their flags and protesting.
However, we do find it rather disconcerting that Marilyn is still involved in this organization that has sworn to haunt the Gov for the next 3 years while at the same time the Governor's people invited her up to have dinner at the Mansion a few weeks back. What is Sonny and/or his people thinking to continue to entertain this woman? Do they think appeasing their political enemies will help them? Marilyn despises the Governor for turning his back on her flag cause, yet she gets to sup with the Gov...
Despite what you naive people of the Governor's team think, she and Hobbs did NOTHING to get the vote out in Cobb except sit on their collective butts and watch the numbers roll in as everyone else did. The winning margin in Cobb was 13,406 while the winning margin in Gwinnett was 32,892. Cobb certainly didn't do anywhere near what Buzz Brockway's crew in Gwinnett did to get the vote out...and has Buzz been invited to sup with the Gov? Maybe Buzz needs to wave a flag to get the Gov's attention, eh?
PV's Conclusion: From this point on, if anyone has anything to do with Cobb GOP Chairman Anthony-Scott Hobbs in terms of giving him moral support or financial support to the county party, it means they/he/she can only fall into one of 3 categories:
1) They/he/she are very, very naive...or
2) They/he/she are damn fools and deserve to be separated from their money as quickly as possible...or
3) They/he/she are a willing accomplice(s) to Hobbs and may be sharing in whatever spoils Hobbs has promised them.
This will include any elected official as well. Because if you cannot discern between right and wrong, then you're a fool who is too irresponsible to hold elected office.
This, by the way, is not a personal matter in any way because Hobbs has not done anything personal to us or against us (that will likely change as a result of this issue of the PV). We merely do not like deceit, whether practiced by a state chairman, a county chairman, an elected official, or the President of the United States.