BiF on Stith's response

Michael's got some righteous indignation up at his place.

Here's the good stuff:

he issue here, of course, isn't Stith's proposed reform. Hell, barely anyone can figure out what it would actually do. The issue is his rather obviously misleading robo-calls, which while ostensibly about some immigration policy, are of course entirely related to his unmentioned mayoral candidacy. Given the almost complete lack of any meaningful information in his calls, the message here is, of course, "illegal immigrants are everywhere! Elect me and I'll run them off!"

So let's review: Stith is in the middle of a campaign in which he's trying to claim that he's a better person to be mayor, a job which under the council-manager system Durham operates under, is mostly to chair city council and to be the public figurehead of the city. He's now demonstrated his fitness for this job by springing an issue on his fellow council members unawares, and stirring up the city with an emotionally charged, misleading robo-call that he's now backing away from as fast as he can. This is how he demonstrates his leadership?

Thomas Stith is a disgrace.