Kleptocrat “Republicans” Lucille Kring and Kris Murray step in it some more.

The Register’s Martin Wisckol wrote an article about GOP leaders facing challengers: County GOP backs embattled Mayor Tait [paywall.]

Diamond for D.A., Tait for Mayor. Those of us not imprisoned by a political party can follow our conscience. – EDITOR.

Wisckol touches on OJB blogger (and attorney to the better class of activists) Greg Diamond, and his impudent challenge to a certain District Attorney.  As a GOP Central Committee alternate I believe I am not permitted to offer aid and comfort to the “enemy” against the party’s endorsed candidate, although the fact that the GOP failed to find anyone else to represent the party brings its own issues, but I will behave myself and refrain from personal comment. (It had to happen sooner or later.) However, I find it interesting that despite Dan C’s rabid partisan cheerleading of anyone, no matter how unqualified, who carries a D behind their name, Democrats (even Central Committee members) apparently have no such restrictions on their side of the fence.  Hey come on over to the right anytime, kids, always happy to have you.

But the bulk of Martin’s article is rooted in the blood sport of Anaheim’s race for the Mayor’s seat, as useless as that seat may prove to be should the majority succeed in a ballot effort, forcing a run for the office every two years, and creating a perpetual candidate where a Mayor once stood.   Conflict of interest, anyone?  Do these people not understand that this means the Mayor will constantly be hitting up special interests for money?  Or is that the beauty of the plan, should they put one of their own in the spot?

Martin reports that:

Tait got a major display of GOP support last month when the county Republican Party announced he was one of its two “Local Legislators of the Year.”

“Tom has overwhelming support inside the Republican Party of Orange County,” said county GOP Chairman Scott Baugh, noting that the selections were approved by the party’s executive committee.

“Tom and his family have been supporting the Orange County Republican Party for probably three decades, sharing their office space, doing precinct walks and helping financially.”

Despite upholding those principles of the GOP platform that fall within the authority of a local leader, and despite growing admiration from fellow citizens on all parts of the political spectrum, somehow Tom has failed to gain the support of his own City Council.

Back to the Register:

Among key issues where Tait has been at odds with his fellow City Council Republicans:  He argued in vain that the beginning negotiating terms for the Angels’ new lease were too generous;  he has favored pure district elections in order to ensure better geographic representation on the council;  and he opposed a $158 million tax rebate to two new luxury hotels.

Wisckol then interviews OC’s leader of the Repulican party, Scott Baugh, telling us that:

The GOP council majority has also targeted Tait by reducing his mayoral staff and limiting his ability to put items on the agenda.  And if the award appears to be a slap at Kring, Baugh didn’t seem to mind.

“Tom’s being challenged by a Republican who lied to the (county GOP’s governing) committee and lied to Tom Tait,” said Baugh.

Kring responded that the rebate deal had changed by the time her vote came up, and she was convinced it made sense. She said she never spoke to the county GOP on the tax-rebate issue, and she complained that the award for Tait had nothing to do with his position on issues.

Then Lucille, as only Lucille can, really stepped in it…

 “That is a joke, the whole thing,” she said.  “Why would four people – three being Republicans – vote against him on the council if he was doing the right thing?”

Lucille has obviously missed the memo that being in the majority does not always make you right. In fact I would point to the difference between being in the mainstream, and just being an angry mob worked into a frenzy until you are completely out of control, like bullies on a playground.  Anyone who doubts what I am saying may be exposed to some video clips I need to line up, but there is a look of glee on the faces of the Council majority when poking at the Mayor – especially from Councilman Jordan Brandman – an air of something truly evil and sick.

The biggest sign that the majority knows somewhere in their deepest hearts that what they are doing is morally reprehensible is the simple fact that they lack any conviction for the task before them.  That lack of conviction was on full display during the same GOP Central Committee meeting (January 2014) in which Baugh and other Central Committee members took Kring to task for challenging not only a Republican in good standing with the party, but a Republican “in VERY good standing” with Republicans.

As Council member Kris Murray took the stage in an Irvine hotel ballroom that evening, one would have expected her to blast Tait for what she somehow characterizes as un-conservative behavior.  This is the woman who uses every excuse to tie Tait to the ACLU, liberals, Los Amigos, scary Hispanics, and others she paints as unsavory characters, who are all clearly in cahoots with the Mayor in some secret scheme to destroy Anaheim from within.  (If that’s true, he would have to beat Murray’s plan to bankrupt it from within, so I guess the race is on, but let’s get back to the subject at hand.)

If Murray and Kring truly believed Mayor Tom Tait to be a phony conservative, wouldn’t the GOP Central Committee be the best place to find support in exposing this “RINO” for what he really is?  Why, all they’d have to do is recount his outrageous voting records, and fellow conservatives – TRUE conservatives – would  surely rush to their aid, offering them sanctuary and shelter from the hardship of dealing with Tait’s daily assaults against apple pie, Chevys, and puppy dogs.

Instead, Murray opened her remarks by immediately tying herself to Tait as a kindred spirit! Watch the painful video here. Don’t worry, you don’t have to watch for long before Murray shoves her high-heeled foot into her mouth.

Kris Murray steps to the podium: 

“So before I get into the Angels, though, I just want to update you on, onhow the City’s doing, doing incredibly well, despite what you might read, in the papers, and the blogs, it’s the exception, not the rule, when we don’t agree.

“We as a Council, the Mayor and the Council, are governing in unison, when it comes to balancing our Budget, when it comes to restoring cash reserves, when it comes to implementing pension reform, there are a number of issues, that we are in total agreement on, in total alignment on, and it is in the best interests of our residents, and I’m very pleased to serve, and honored to serve, with the people who are elected to serve, in the City of Anaheim.”

Again, about 3 minutes into the video, Murray says;

“But the Council is absolutely unified, that any ultimate agreement must be in the best interests of Anaheim taxpayers.

“We are in the process of conducting an assessment, I backed the Mayor up when he asked for that in the Council meeting, multiple times, and we are hoping to hear back from our staff, that assessment is underway  we are hoping to get that information back in mid to late February,”

NOTE:   In reality the Council has consistently offered cover for staff, as staff fought the Mayor in his efforts for an appraisal of Stadium values.  The fact that they even began negotiating for some of the most prime real estate in the nation with no baseline of value to work from marks them as poor stewards unworthy of holding office.  Period.  They need do nothing else this term to carry that moniker and still wear it proudly.  Since the majority has already agreed in principle that $1 a year for up to 150 acres might be OK under certain conditions, the only scenario in which it is bad to release that data is if the land appraises at LESS than $1 a year.  But I am off topic again.  Sorry, I do that.

Murray is the recognized ringleader of Anaheim’s Kleptocracy, at least in the public eye.  She is the first to tear the wings off Tom Tait’s butterfly costume for the school play, and is positively brazen in her hatred of him during Council meetings and even press interviews.

But put the bully into a room where she could get some back-up, and instead she backs down.  Why would she do that if she finally, after all this time, had an audience of what should be sympathetic listeners, rather than the misinformed, politically motivated vocal minority that the “Murrbots” claim Tom Tait clearly controls and operates by remote control during Council meetings?  It seems when pressed in a forum where she actually has to answer to those in a position for give and take, rather than using her Council Communications privilege to rebut public comments with her error-packed propaganda (knowing the public has no opportunity to rebut true facts back to her) … well, suddenly her courage evaporates.  So how solid is her belief, really, that she is doing the right thing in opposing Tait on every possible front, if she’s unable to defend her actions to others who SHOULD be of like mind, such as the GOP Central Committee?  Yes, Murray chickened out.

Returning to mayoral candidate Lucille Kring’s comment to the Register:

“Why would four people – three being Republicans – vote against him on the council if he was doing the right thing?”

Uh… I dunno Lucille, do you think MONEY, power, influence, and the fear of being forced to turn in your secret decoder ring signifying membership in the Masters of the Universe Club might be motive enough to oppose a man doing the right thing?

Photo credit: Cynthia Ward. Depicted: Lucille Kring at her announcement for Mayor (3rd time) with Angels’ Dennis Kuhl. Note the sign in background for Angels Merchandise for sale.

I don’t live inside Lucille Kring’s head, and I’m ever so truly grateful for that, as it seems a very cold, dark, and lonely place.  So I can’t speak to her motive with certainty.  But in general we have a name for when a politician changes a publicly declared standard right after those involved give money to said politician, and it isn’t a name we affix to a lady of any repute.

What do you think, Lucille?   This is your third run at the Mayor’s seat, is it maybe time you stop wasting the family trust fund, and pack it in before you find yourself in genuine trouble?  There’s a line between self-serving and self-dealing, and many Anaheim residents think Lucille and her Council majority compatriots holding the City Treasury hostage votes have stepped over that line.  Should Lucille wish to see how many do object to her behavior, indicating her the-grass-is-greener-where-it-is-covered-in-special interest-money-attitude, she need only wait for Election Day to hear from them.  This assumes her compatriots have not forced a slanted deal on the Angels before November, and are not recalled wholesale.

Good job, Mr. Wisckol!  If Team Tait is sharp, they will grab that lift quote from Lucille for a mail piece.  His campaign couldn’t pay for material this good, and Lucille just continually offers it up, free of charge.


About Cynthia Ward

I am a truth-teller. It gets me in trouble. But if you ask me if a dress makes you look fat, I will tell you so, and help select another, before you go on television and realize it for yourself. My real friends are expected to be truthful with me as well. A secret shared will be taken to my grave, but lie to me, and it will end up here…on these pages… especially if you are tasked with the stewardship of public resources. I am a registered Republican who disdains the local GOP power structure, a born-again Christian who supports everyone’s right to spend their lives with the partner of their choosing. I am a wife, a mother, a daughter, a sister. I am a loyal friend to those who merit that friendship and when crossed I am a bitch with a capital C. I do not fit into a box, nor do I see others through the stereotypes that politics and public affairs so often tries to shoehorn us into. I think for myself, and so do you. Welcome to our shared space in this world.