Posted on 10/29/2003 6:39:14 AM PST by End Times Sentinel
When is someone in this town going to stand up to Johnny Dougherty and tell him to stop his guys from thugging up our elections?
Time and again, members of Doc's union - Local 98 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers - have engaged in bully-boy tactics and punch-in-the-mouth politics. It's become their stock in trade.
They did it again Monday night in South Philadelphia at a Sam Katz rally at Front Street and Snyder Avenue.
When the Republican candidate arrived, he was greeted not only by a handful of supporters, but about 100 union guys chanting "Street, Street, Street" and "Four more years."
Their aim wasn't to cheer Street.
Their goal was to drown out Katz. Stop him from speaking. Bust up his little rally.
They succeeded. Unable to be heard over the shouts and obscenities, Katz had to beat a retreat.
As he made his way toward his campaign van, he was surrounded by the union guys, who continued their harassment.
According to reports in this paper and the Philadelphia Daily News, the highlight of the night was a guy named Mike Fera screaming at Katz, calling him a "sexual predator."
Asked what he meant, Fera said he was referring to a sexual-harassment suit filed against Katz 20 years ago by an employee who later dropped her suit.
Fera wasn't satisfied with hassling Katz. He went for the candidate's wife, Connie, who was at the rally.
Wife harassed
"Hey, Mrs. Katz," he yelled. "How's it feel to be married to a sexual predator?"
Connie Katz smiled and winked at Fera. God bless her.
Fera is leader of the Cement Masons and Plasterers Union - which is apt, him being a blockhead.
Katz called the protesters "brownshirts masquerading as union guys."
I never thought I'd write this, but Katz was being unfair to the brownshirts. The Nazis were infinitely more despicable, but at least they wore brown shirts to advertise what they were representing. They wanted everyone to know who they were.
The union guys are too cowardly for that. Every time there's an incident like this, Johnny Doc is out there, denying it was his guys, or saying they weren't acting under orders, or just denying that anything happened.
He did the same yesterday, telling radio talk-show host Michael Smerconish that the guys at the Katz rally weren't part of an organized protest. They were just neighborhood guys who happened by the rally.
Right. And I'm the tooth fairy.
This is not a renegade group. This is organized activity by the unions.
Doc is treasurer of the local Democratic Party. The construction unions are among the mayor's biggest supporters.
Don't cross us
It used to be the unions were an auxiliary of the local Democratic Party. Lately, the party has become an auxiliary of the unions.
And woe betide the candidate who dares to oppose them.
They will get harassed at rallies and become the subjects of scurrilous, false flyers passed around their neighborhoods. Sometimes, their personal property will get vandalized.
Just a coincidence, of course.
It's all done anonymously, under the cover of darkness. Cowards playing bullies. Then along comes Johnny Doc with his ritualized denial.
It's hard to figure out which is worse: this thuggery, or our tolerance for it.
It's part of the local political machismo to wink and shrug and say: "Hey, it's Philly; it's just the way things are."
Well, it isn't the way it is supposed to be. Not in America, at least.
Here are the rules: You have a right to run for office. You have a right to your opinion. You have a right to make speeches and appeal to voters.
You have a right not to be harassed. You have a right not to be verbally abused or threatened. You have a right not to be punched in the mouth.
We have several amendments to the Constitution that spell it all out.
In the meantime, Mayor Street should tell Johnny Doc to tell his guys to cease and desist.
And this time, Mr. Mayor, don't wink. Mean it. Tell them to stop.
"Kindness in the extremity of justice"Hey, maybe Lynn could call Mimi Rose! (LOL! Yeah, right.)
By SaraKay Smullens
Philly.com, Dec. 26, 2002Fast-forward to 1995. District Attorney Lynn Abraham introduced me to Mimi Rose, then the chief of the domestic abuse and sexual violence unit in the District Attorney's office. Mimi was the rarest of prosecutors: a tough lawyer when she had to be, but able to distinguish between the truly criminal act and the crime that was a cry for help.
Hey maybe Lynn could call Midge Rendell, Governor Ed's wife, Third District Federal Appeals Court Judge, and fighter for woman's rights! ...
When Midge Rendell and banker Sam McCullough announced in 1992 the creation of Avenue of the Arts Inc., she suggested that they be photographed holding a new street sign atop one of the pillars outside the Union League. It was a gesture with a history. When she was a young lawyer in the mid-1970s at Duane, Morris & Heckscher, the firm had monthly luncheon meetings there - but women were barred from entering the club through the front door. Rendellhelped persuade the firm to switch the meetings to the more enlightened Racquet Club.(Source: Philly.com (The Inquirer's on-line version), The Honorable Midge)
Yeah, r-i-ight. As Ed Rendell might have said: "Mrs. Katz deserved it!" After all, that's what Midge's loving hubby, such a mensch!, said after Don Adams was beat up by IBEW thugs at City Hall.
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