Stick 10 Columbian readers in a room and ask them what they think, and you’ll likely get 10 different opinions.
I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Essentially, I will never get unanimous agreement on stuff I write. I would never ask for that. I would only hope that you read it and engage in conversation about it. And, yes, give me feedback — good and bad — about it.
Most of my feedback lately has been about my columns on the M&M boys, and — yes — there have been many of them. The boys, of course, are county Commissioners David Madore and Tom Mielke.
Madore is a very bright, cunning, manipulative — and sometimes quite scary — politician. He used to be like you and me — not counting the millions he has in the bank — before he became drunk with power.
Mielke is, ah, Mielke. In a weird way, he’s living the American Dream. I mean, here’s a guy who — God bless him — sometimes struggles stringing two sentences together, but by most any standard, you’d have to consider him a success. He has a sweet $100,000-a-year commissioner job, a bunch of nice cars in his garage and a $700-a-month car allowance. (That ‘Vette eats up a lot of gas!)
He is — indeed — living the dream.
Power of the press
So what’s the problem? Why so much ink devoted to these two characters, you might ask. Well, if you’ve been following along, you know all the shenanigans they’ve been up to. Our reporters have written about it, and I’ve commented on it.
Fair enough, you might agree, but does there come a point when enough is enough?
For me, the answer to that is pretty simple. As long as politicians keep doing stupid stuff, The Columbian will keep holding them accountable.
Other critics of mine will say, “Well, your main goal was to get the charter passed, and you knew if you linked the M&M boys to the charter, that would happen.”
My answer? The charter passing ultimately was the fallout from the stupid stuff the M&M boys did. Yes, we reported the stupid stuff, and yes, I commented on the stupid stuff. But none of our coverage happens unless they do the stupid stuff.
So, one might add, The Columbian didn’t play a role?
I didn’t say that. Frankly, we played a major role.
Here’s why. If someone does something stupid in the middle of a forest and no one hears about it, no one will know it. But if the press was there to cover it, everyone would know. Without The Columbian, very few people would have known how silly these guys acted.
In the end, there were lots of reasons why the charter passed. Without the community getting behind it, there would have been no chance for it. But the information and opinion provided by The Columbian clearly played a role.
This is the way our democracy is supposed to work. This is why there is such a thing as the First Amendment in the Constitution. The Founding Fathers knew how important a free press is.
Back to the charter
But was it fair to tie the charter to the M&M boys? The delicious irony of this question is, the M&M boys tied themselves to the charter.
When Madore and Mielke found out the charter would greatly reduce their power, add two more members to the board and cut their $100,000-a-year salary in half, they were livid.
Madore absolutely hated the thing about losing power. And Mielke hated the thing about a salary cut. Their voracious attacks on the charter began, and it clearly showed voters the connection between the M&M boys and the charter.
Not paying attention
When the charter easily passed, it caught a few zealous supporters of the M&M boys by surprise. It caught the boys by surprise, as well.
Anyone who was paying attention knew the charter was going to win. Yet Mielke was “flabbergasted,” and Madore was surprised.
I guess this shows they are not paying attention. Or maybe it’s because neither of them read The Columbian.
Go figure.
What’s next?
After the charter passed, I immediately wondered what was next for these characters. Would they crawl deeper down their rabbit hole and go quietly in the night? Or would they come out fighting?
The answer came quickly. Mielke already has announced he will run for the county council chair — it pays a little more cash and acts much like a mayor acts on the city council.
And Madore — who was loudly complaining before the charter vote — is still complaining about the charter.
To many, it sounds like sour grapes. To me, it sounds like Madore already is campaigning to get the charter changed. You see, two years from now, the county council could reopen discussions on the charter.
Look for Madore to try to restore his lost power as soon as possible.
Staying at it
One of the things the M&M boys and their supporters hope for is that the media will lose interest and simply go away.
“It will be old news tomorrow and they’ll move onto something else,” they say.
But a strong, free press doesn’t go away. Especially when the M&M boys continue to do stupid stuff.
We’re here for the long haul. We’ll keep at it.
