The Whacky World of the 2011 Georgia GOP State Chairman’s Race
by PV
Introduction
Welcome to the inaugural edition of “WTF is Going On In The Georgia State GOP Chairman’s Race???”
Truthfully, we thought our opening issue would have a completely different flavor to it. Something…way more sedate than this issue. But, thanks to a few true, bonafide idiots in the Henry County Republican world, we cannot pass-up this opportunity to ensure that everyone in our Georgia GOP world who IS “anyone” gets notice of what we know when we know it.
Buckle-up. It’s going to be a rollicking ride! 🙂
Background SO Boring, You’ll Hate Us For It….
Once upon a time, there was an organization called the Republican Women of Henry County (“RWHC”). One of their members ( a woman named Sahar Heckmati) one day decided that she didn’t wish to continue with the RWHC.
So, she left. She left to start her own organization called Conservative Republican Women. The members of RWHC were horrified that someone dared to leave their coop. A verbal war* of words ensued between Sahar and RWHC. Hatred and resentment fell upon the land of RWHC.
Through a long, arduous period of hair-pulling*, face-slapping*, and shin-kicking* of each other in the political world, eventually the attention of Chairman Sue Everhart was flagged-down by RWHC who begged and pleaded with Everhart to help them figure out what to do with Sahar. Sahar, who didn’t care to be associated with RWHC, and didn’t really care about how they felt about her starting a different club with her own marble* collection.
Now, mind you, there was nothing in the State GOP Rules that required Everhart to referee the two warring* groups. But, she went down there and tried to first understand the problem, and then made suggestions to RWHC on how they could revise their rules and do some other things and maybe the fights with Sahar would cease.
But, no, even after Sue went down and spent time with RWHC to help them as best she could, that wasn’t enough for the spoiled brats of the RWHC. You see, the brats wanted Chairman Sue to completely ignore Sahar and her new club because they thought it was unfair what Sahar did, and they wanted their Mommy Sue to take their side in this dispute.
Well, Mommy Sue didn’t do that. Because Sue Everhart is 1) an ADULT, and 2) a State GOP Chairman who knows that her job is to bring-in as many people as who want to be Republican activists as possible. So, how could she choose to ignore Sahar and Sahar’s group if her role as state GOP chair is to speak to people who want to know about the Republican Party and how to get more involved? (Oh…if there’s any candidate named Shawn Hanley OR Tricia Pridemore who thinks Sue should have ignored Sahar and supported RWHC’s position, please stand-up and be counted so we will know your stand on this type of situation.)
SO, when Sahar called Sue and asked her to come speak in front of her club, AND Sue accepted the invitation to go speak to Sahar’s group, RWHC threw a temper tantrum*, stomped their feet*, cried like little babies* about how mean* Sue Everhart was in not punishing their mean big sister* Sahar.
AND, leaders of RWHC (in particular, Sam Fleet and Vicki Temple) swore that Sue Everhart would pay for her failing to see the argument their way by making a pact to support anyone but Sue. Fleet became an ardent supporter of Shawn Hanley and Temple threw her support to Tricia Pridemore.
Now that you have a glimmer of the background story here…let’s turn to the most recent events in Henry County…
* All of these terms are metaphors. None of these things actually happened in the “real world.” This is an important point for you to take with you as you read further.
Well, as they say, you cannot fix “Stupid”
So, last Thursday (two days ago), there was a state GOP chairman’s forum/meeting down at the RWHC. All three candidates for state chair were there.
AND…someone had a tape recorder at the ready for when Sue Everhart spoke, and her speech was recorded.
And, someone sent the tape to 11 Alive News who jumped into action, and interviewed Sue and Sahar on their reaction to the taped words from Sue’s speech.
And, what was the shocking thing Sue said in her speech? Well, Sue made mention of the spat between RWHC and Sahar in this specific terms: “Sahar doesn’t fight like we fight. She has a different culture. We’ll send emails back and forth, but Sahar cuts your throat. She’s going to get to the bottom of it.”
As you will read in this story transcript on the 11-Alive Website, you’ll find out that that Sahar was born in Afghanistan, but long ago became a U.S. citizen. These 4 anti-Sue people decided they could take Sue’s words completely out of context and apply them in a totally different way to make Sue look like she made some sort of bigoted comment about Sahar’s heritage being a “cutthroat heritage.”
As Sue said in the 11Alive interview: “I don’t see anything wrong with what I said,” and explained that in the context of her remarks it should be clear she was defending Heckmati, not offending her or the culture of her birth home. “It was just a cliché to make a point that Sahar is very passionate when she takes a stand during the party’s intramural squabbles.”
And, you can see that Sahar backs-up what Sue said with: “Absolutely not, absolutely not,” she told 11Alive News Friday night. “I just think it’s a huge misunderstanding…. I’m not offended at all, whatsoever. It’s just Sue’s opponents, political opponents, trying to make a big deal out of nothing. It is really all just a ridiculous thing….People in the Henry County Republican Party have called me an Islamic terrorist,” which, Heckmati said, as a Christian who supports the fight against terrorism, is what has offended her.
PV’s Conclusion: Sighhh…Truly, nothing demonstrates how utterly ignorant and unprepared for grassroots activism people like this are than this blow-up-over NOTHING!
You’ve seen the Seinfeld episode where they try to write a show about NOTHING? THIS event with their accusations on what Sue’s comments meant to them is much ado about NOTHING!
If you are such a child that you do not understand what someone in the political world means by “cutting your throat”, then the state GOP is much TOO big of a sandbox for you to play in. Really. Go buy one of those inflatable baby pools, fill it up with sand, and practice in that sized sand box. Maybe you’ll discover you feel safer there, and stay and play all dayyyyyyy…leave politics to the grownups, kiddies.
March 19th, 2011 at 5:48 pm
[…] You can view the rest of the original story at 11Alive and read some additional background at The Political Vine. […]