Yesterday when I was speaking with Whatcom County Executive Pete Kremen about appointing retiring Councilman Ward Nelson to fill a vacant seat on the council, he said he had a large goal in mind with the selection.
While arguing that he believed Nelson was not a conservative council member, Kremen said Nelson’s pick would help to bring the community together.
Said Kremen:
It is my desire to help to depolarize this community. There seems to have been a growing polarization not only in our community but even nationally. The political landscape now nationally and even here closer to home in Whatcom County, there has been a growing polarization and I believe that Ward Nelson is an individual who is accepted as someone who has and will continue to help bring the community closer together to be able to address the issues and problems facing our community.Kremen
Q: Your thoughts?
December 29th, 2009 at 11:11 AM
He’s right!
Choosing somebody that ran in the last election woulda been polarizing since installing an also-ran on the council might have given voters the wrong impression.
Mr. Nelson is simply warming the chair for the next go-around and that’ll give County voters a great chance to see the folly of electing green-horn council members - whatever their political bent.
December 29th, 2009 at 11:19 AM
Wow, ciz, it is really hard to get use to agreeing with you and Jurgy!
That ain’t no fun at all!
AFY!!thesheepdog!!!
December 29th, 2009 at 12:04 PM
Pete is just going wherever he thinks the wind is blowing next. It was a jellyfish move at best.
December 29th, 2009 at 12:07 PM
Mr. Kremen is right. There has been a growing polarization, both nationally and locally.
Perhaps, the County Executive reasons that, with a solid conservative majority, all those scary right-wing property rights advocates in yellow shirts will finally stay home and our council meetings will be blessed, once again, with relative peace and calm.
December 29th, 2009 at 12:28 PM
What was the basis for Mr Kremen’s belief that Ward Nelson is not a conservative?
December 29th, 2009 at 12:46 PM
Ward Nelson is partyline conservative. The whole appointment was originated and stage managed by Sam Crawford, who is currently the most powerful person in Whatcom County (and is an extremely polarizing person).
Nelson’s appointment is not polarizing — how? Perhaps Todd2 is suggesting that it isn’t polarizing because it proclaims so loudly that Whatcom County is nothing BUT conservative, just like the 1990s. Is that Pete’s point?
December 29th, 2009 at 1:02 PM
That’s in the article, Apex.
December 29th, 2009 at 1:02 PM
If Pete thinks that Whatcom County is nothing but conservative, then Pete is wrong. Whatcom County voters, not Pete, put Laurie, Bob, Seth and Carl in office.
The voters didn’t change the political majority of the council. Pete did. With an appointment that disappointed many of his supporters (despite the fact that we may like Ward as a person).
Unfortunately, Pete’s appointment of Ward, despite his reported intentions — will only increase polarization in the community.
December 29th, 2009 at 3:38 PM
Once again, I concur with Elisabeth. Her astute political observations seem right on.
I was hoping for balance on the council. Executive Kremen’s decision is disappointing.
December 29th, 2009 at 3:42 PM
Okay, I found the quote in the article.
There are people who can credibly claim to not know that Ward Nelson is conservative. Mr Kremen is not one of those people.
Mr Kremen’s argument leaks like a sieve, and Sam just quoted it accurately. (I was hoping that maybe some detail was removed from the final edit that would make Mr Kremen’s claim seem less… silly. Nope.)
Two things you need to use Jedi Mind Tricks…
1) A weak willed subject.
2) Jedi training. (this one is the one most folks forget.)
December 29th, 2009 at 4:31 PM
Nationally, The Conservative exists to prove through their own er,.. stubbornness,
that Government doesn’t work.
Whether this far-sighted philosophy plays itself out on the council is anyone’s guess.
Voting to place increased penalties on zoning violators would be a good sign that all’s well.
December 29th, 2009 at 4:52 PM
Well it seems de-polarization is going to be an ongoing project.
December 29th, 2009 at 7:49 PM
Pete’s going to drive me to start drinking if he thinks we are so naïve as to believe his drivel that Lord Ward Nelson is a non-polarizing applicant. HE WAS A REPUBLICAN PRECIENT COMMITTEE OFFICER, a foot soldier in partisan politics. Please Pete, don’t insult our intelligence. I would prefer you just keep lying to us, that at least, we are used to from you.
December 30th, 2009 at 8:12 AM
Not to be too shameless, but I did a whole blog post about Ward Nelson and the choice that Pete made on my blog, Armies of Compassion, here http://smilesriles.livejournal.com
December 30th, 2009 at 8:33 AM
Hey RS, a point of contention, I dos remember a whole bunch of demo’s wanting to leave the US of A if/when W was elected but I’s can’t think of one GOPer who has offered/said that position for Mr O, do you know of any I’s missed?
AFY!!thesheepdog!!!
December 30th, 2009 at 8:40 AM
Why wasn’t there an exodus of Republicans out of America after Obama was elected?
1. Limbaugh and Orly Tate had assured them they could prove Barak wasn’t born an American.
2. There was way too much money to be made off the Tea Partiers.
3. There were so few left after Bush it didn’t seem wise.
4. Two Words - prayer meeting.
5. Glenn Beck had them aligned with John Birchers so quickly they couldn’t find a non-Communist nation to escape to.
December 30th, 2009 at 8:51 AM
Yous can always count on Ciz to add a little love to the subject!
Everytime I’s hear ciz speak of conservative’s or GOPers I’s get this picture of how he is really really reacting!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MLxcKmWOFM&feature=related
AFY!!thesheepdog!!!
December 30th, 2009 at 8:55 AM
What Love?
Those are all factual - in other words, they really happened.
December 30th, 2009 at 9:01 AM
What ever you do, don’t let them get you ciz!
AFY!!thesheepdog!!!
December 30th, 2009 at 10:30 AM
Think about the meaning of de-polarization more deeply, and one sees that K’ comment isn’t really very mystifyingt.
De-polarization means effectively minimizing or even eliminating all but one ‘pole’ (viewpoint, etc) from having an effect on what’s going on. — at least for a while.
December 30th, 2009 at 10:33 AM
Good catch Wynne…
December 30th, 2009 at 10:54 AM
De-polarization methinks means shaking the pole so those hanging way out on the end falls off!
AFY!!theheelotsheepdog!!!
December 30th, 2009 at 1:29 PM
Add to citizen’s list, Rick Perry.
GOP Governor of Texas.
Talked about seceding. As in, Texas would no longer be a part of the United States.
Said it when he was Governor.
On TV.
I think you missed that.
This is fun…
Okay, AFY, now you list all of the Democratic Governors who, while in office, talked about seceding from the USA during the Bush Administration.
Take all the time you need.
December 30th, 2009 at 1:36 PM
Wow, Pete Kremen’s effort to depolarize the community is working like gangbusters, isn’t it?
December 30th, 2009 at 1:39 PM
No but I’s could name a quite a few when Lincoln was elected. errr didn’t they really do it!
Does it have to be only governor’s, I hates it when someone else makes all the rules!
BTW, I’s wasn’t aware of Rick’s statement, FOX news must not have covered that!
AFY!!theheelotsheepdog!!!!
December 30th, 2009 at 1:51 PM
Dude…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyG-pArcZYw
December 30th, 2009 at 1:56 PM
That must have been a night Lock-n-Load was on!
AFY!!theheelotsheepdog!!!
December 30th, 2009 at 1:59 PM
(sigh)
The Governor said it during the big April 15 Tea Party thing that FOX covered all day.
Thanks for playing, AFY, but I can’t even give you a crappy home version of this game now.
December 30th, 2009 at 2:00 PM
Apex - I think AFY may have been joking.
December 30th, 2009 at 2:03 PM
He forgot the funny, Sam.
December 30th, 2009 at 2:03 PM
ST, you knows I’s never joke!
AFY!!theheelotsheepdog!!!
December 30th, 2009 at 3:12 PM
Guffaw.
January 2nd, 2010 at 10:33 AM
With de-polarization techniques like this maybe Kremen should be a motivational speaker in his next life. I find the rumor that this may all be part of an elaborate payback scam involving Kremen ending up in the Senate and Brandland as Exec. disgusting and in need of a re-call exploration. Re-Call? Kremen and get him out before he does any more damage? Seems like he has a closet full of skeletons to work with.
I thought Nelson was a good middle ground but now I need to be re-convinced. From what I know, Brandland was considered a not so bad Sheriff, mostly because we had recently endured a Howdy Doody of a cowboy Sheriff, given to riding his horse through crime scenes while having affairs with young county employees.
I haven’t cared for Brandland much as a legislator, since we used to have true statesman/woman legislators of gravitas like Becker and Van Dyken.
January 2nd, 2010 at 11:18 AM
“With de-polarization techniques like this maybe Kremen should be a motivational speaker in his next life.” -Jurgen. That just made my day!
The issue with Nelson is that he kept quiet about his strident conservatism why he was in the minority but now that he will be in the majority, expect him to shed the “moderate” image faster than AFY on a blog post.
January 2nd, 2010 at 11:51 AM
Can one really dispute that Nelson is less far Right than McShane is far left. So in that sense I can see how Mr. Kremen was thinking that he was choosing a more middle of the road candidate that met his other criteria. Atleast when comparing those two candidates.
Maybe the democrats should push to make the county council seats partisan again. That would have made the liberal/progressive democrats happy because they would have been able to select the top 3 candidate list for the council to choose from and you probably wouldn’t have heard much complaining from from conservative republicans since them’s the rules for partisan positions. The way the last county council election went it was pretty clear that there were four liberal/progressives and four conservatives. Both sides practically ran as a slate.
January 2nd, 2010 at 12:29 PM
Hammer…
The Executive had 25 people to chose from when making an appointment. 23 of them were not Ward Nelson and were also not Dan McShane.
How was Ward Nelson a middle of the road candidate compared to the entire group of 25 nominees?
January 2nd, 2010 at 9:17 PM
Maybe it was delusional to ever think Kremen would do something that was not self serving?