Peanut VS. Wingnut - An Epic Struggle

Wingnut Metro Councilman Doug Hawkins (R-25) is claiming in an email blast that State Auditor Crit Luallen's report on the sorry state of oversight and fraud out of the mayor's office has somehow "vindicated" him. While we agree that the situation is worse than we thought, the idea that Hawkins has been vindicated is ludicrous, offensive, self-serving and downright stupid . Councilman Hawkins, if anything, is a co-conspirator in this ordeal, given his elected position on the council. He then has the balls to blame the misspent funds and abuse uncovered by Luallen as the reason the South End has been "neglected".

My friends, it is the policies, attitudes and sick, destructive politics and pandering by Doug Hawkins that is to blame for the state of his district. If he had spent as much time representing the voters in the 25th as he has patting himself on the back, creating phony emails, doing push polls and offensive robo-calls, the 25th would be a much more enjoyable place to live and work. He has embarrassed himself and the 25th since Day One in office with his tiring antics and goofiness.

We constantly hear that we need investment in Southwest Louisville. District residents have nearly knelt and begged for retail, infrastructure improvements and jobs. They have not materialized under the watch of Doug Hawkins. I do not know how much more clear it could be. Hawkins simply is incapable of representing his district, and that is the real shame here.

If the filing deadline had not already passed, I'd run my miniature schnauzer Peanut against him in the primary.

The amateurish, idiotic email sent by Hawkins is copied below for your [dis] pleasure:

Hawkins Vindicated By Auditor Again!

Metro Louisville is once again abuzz over another financial scandal in the Mayor’s administration, with a highly critical State Auditor’s report and the firing of two top officials. But let’s face it, what is really new here? The State Auditor, a long time, high-ranking Democrat, has once more confirmed the exposure of these financial problems are not just partisan talking points. They are the considered opinion of every honest official of either party who has looked into this mess.

The Auditor was particularly critical of the sweet-heart deal the Cordish Company received for a downtown project likely never to happen. Same old story- tax dollars taken to support a few friends of the administration for pie-in-the sky idea downtown, rest of community, like South End neglected. Again, what else is new?

The Auditor hits a gusher of problems every time she looks into any corner of our Metro Mayor’s administration, from the callous and incompetent way the Animal Services is run to the fiasco she found two years ago when the Housing Department lost millions of dollars through sheer neglect and outright theft by the head of that department.

That’s not even mentioning the numerous other scandals Metro Council has been able to uncover on its own such as- the sweetheart deal sale on Naval Ordinance the Mayor gave his law clients that’s cost us millions of dollars, the give-away of Slugger Field, the staggering mismanagement of MSD and the massive fee increases to fix the problems, the never-ending saga of chiseling police or firefighter pay and pensions, the misuse of private funds and tax money by the Health Dept. and the Free Public Library for political campaigning, and on and on.

Is it any wonder the Mayor had his friends in Frankfort hold up Sen. Seum’s transparency bill, SB 80 once again, to keep the Metro Council from having any real oversight of Metro finances? The current state of affairs is so sad that the Metro Council has much more information about the operation of independent offices, like the County Sheriff and the County Clerk, than it does over the actual government, Metro Louisville, it is supposed to be in charge of.

I know some people have thought I was too critical over the years about the Mayor’s financial policies and budget. But can any serious person in our community now say my concerns were not justified?

It’s too bad so much of the hope and opportunity in our Metro government has been squandered these last 8 years. We can at least thank our State Auditor for showing us part of what went wrong and that the villains in all this have names and faces.

Villains. As if we are engaged in "an epic struggle of good vs. evil". Hell, we just want a department store and a steak house.