Shelly Sekula-Gibbs ran off all of Tom DeLay’s staffers – hooray! That ought to be a good thing but now the so-called experts are all up in arms against her.
Gary Polland, a former Harris County Republican chairman: “if she decides to run in two years, the story will be, ‘That’s right, Shelley was in Congress for six weeks and ran off all of DeLay’s staff.”
Former DeLay chief of staff David James: “Never has any member of Congress treated us with as much disrespect and unprofessionalism as we witnessed during those five days.”
Allen Blakemore who is considering entering the GOP primary: “She in fact has weakened her chances.”
Fort Bend County GOP Chairman Gary Gillen: “When it comes time for 2008, the negative publicity won’t be beneficial for her.”
Bill Miller, an Austin media consultant: “”She has mortally damaged herself for ’08. She has embarrassed herself. She has embarrassed Republicans. She’s done a first-class job of ruining any prospective chance she had of winning that race.”
By running off leftover staffers from a corrupt congressman? If Shelly is compromised at all it’s because she didn’t glad-hand these people and play their little games. That much, if nothing else, is something to like about her.
If all of the local yokel Pubs are against her, Sekula-Gibbs will have a tough time bucking the party, that is true. But that’s merely a symptom of a corrupted system, not a political issue in and of itself. She might have better luck taking them on as an independent. Why not? We need more of those folks.
What makes these people experts? Two years ago every one of them was probably kissing DeLay’s backside hoping for some of his mojo to rub off on them. How about shutting up and letting the voters decide, fellas?