So, in the Independence Party court battle over whether the constitutional right to free speech trumps the constitutional right to free association (for the all the gory details, click here), a Brooklyn Court has punted, deciding that what really matters is blind adherence to the plain language of the state’s pernicious election laws, which allows a party the right to attempt to dis-enroll its voters, but only at the request of a county’s local party chair. Since the county parties in question were all controlled by the Fulani-Newman anti-Semitic cult, rather than Party Chair Frank McKay’s ragtag coalition of fast-buck opportunist and tin-foil hatted nutcases, this would appear to be game, set and match. In an incidental and accidental victory for free speech, the Fulaniite zombies will still be able to exercise their First Amendment right to regurgitate whatever hateful bile Fred Newman instructs them to chant, without being deprived of their ability to belong to the Party of Fred's choice. Another defeat for the imperialist, Zionist, running dog lackies of International Capital. "But", in the words of Bob Dylan, "you who philospohize disgrace, and criticize all fears, take the rag away from your face, now ain't the time for your tears".
Nonetheless, McKay can hardly be called a loser here, as his main goal has been accomplished. Faced with the fact that his profitable enterprise would go out of business unless it attracted 50,000 votes for its gubernatorial candidate, and that no gubernatorial candidate who could attract that many votes would take the line as long as it was associated with Fulani, McKay began his putsch, and his attempt was successful enough, early enough, to allow Eliot Spitzer sufficient plausible deniability to take the line without blushing. Having accomplished that goal, McKay can now return to his main enterprise for 2006, which is using the marquee level big box office Democrats heading his slate (Spitzer, Hillary, and Hevesi) to attract enough votes to his party’s line to facilitate the victory of Jeanine Pirro for AG, and allow Joe Bruno’s Naturally Occurring Retirement Community (I call it “The Elephant’s Graveyard”) to continue to control the State Senate. In this endeavor his greatest ally will be the Fulani faction, which shares with the McKay faction the party’s two main ideological goals: “Keep the Ship Afloat!” and “What’s in It for Me?”. Not a happy situation, but, as Bob Dylan says, “you who philosophize disgrace, and criticize all fears, take the rag away from your face, now ain’t the time for your tears”
The public gets the worst of both worlds. The Party continues to exist, and, given their superior organizational skills, and the fact that its members are well programmed pods, the Fulani faction will eventually be back in control. As such, taxpayers will once again have the privilege of seeing their money used to subsidize school based therapeutic brainwashing programs, anti-Semitic theatre of cruelty agitprop, and mortgages for the dens of iniquity where such evil concepts are hatched. For this we can thank Joe Bruno, for providing McKay his technical, organizational and legal heft (shout out to John “Big Pussy” Ciampolli), and Eliot Spitzer for playing the beard. The end result is four more years of Newman and Fulani controlling a ballot line with a name more valuable than solid gold, as the Albany Bipartisan Iron Triangle sublets valuable real estate to a third party without carefully checking the tenant’s references. As Bob Dylan says, “You who philosophize disgrace, and criticize all fears, bury the rag deep in your face, for now is the time for your tears”
(Gatemouth would like to thank Mr. Robert Zimmerman of Hibbing, Minnesota, and Mr. William Zantzinger of West Hatton, Maryland, for their inspiration and editorial assistance)
AUGUST 15TH UPDATE: Today, the Daily News reported that, in a connected Manhattan case, a judge issued a decision which concurred in the results of the Brooklyn case, but actually made some reference to substantive constitutional rights.