Dalby panics: Help, I'm being muzzled ... Watership Down to Commandante Stemler ... HQ, they're not listening ...

On election eve, as Clarksville's town council emphatically said "no" to tolls, State Senate candidate, Jeffersonville city council member and 1Si endorsee Ron Grooms continued his campaign-long duck and cover on the topic of bridge tolls.

I've probably never enjoyed voting against someone so much, unless it was ... nah, never mind.

Ironically, Monday evening also proved to be the occasion for Jeffersonville's council to consider greasing One Southern Indiana's sweaty outretched and upturned palm.

Public policy committee apologist Michael Dalby was there to ask for continued payment for non-itemized "services rendered," and according to media accounts by the Tribune's David A. Mann and the C-J's Ben Zion Hershberg, several legislators weren't sounding all that eager to meekly pass the K-Y Jelly.

Evidently 1Si's devolution into political advocacy isn't playing well in Jeffersonville, either. Both media articles mention New Albany's "support" for One Southern Indiana, as described in greater detail in this bit from the NAC archive:

Caesar stars in "conflict of interest" night as council approves, but slashes, bucks to 1Si.

... And then there's Bob Caesar, 1Si member, 1Si advocate, 1Si fan, and sometimes even playing at being a councilman in real life. After exercising the most blatant conflict of interest vote since Benedetti's decision not to absent herself from her brother's real estate zoning appearances, Caesar took advantage of a five minute recess (for the purpose of council members receiving their stipends?) to bound across the room, beaming, and land in Michael Dalby's lap. The last time anyone saw giddiness like that, it was probably the high school prom. Unlike the aftermath of the prom, someone in this instance "got some."

Appropriately, reporter Hershberg manages to locate Jeffersonville's own version of Caesar:

“They have been very good to Jeffersonville,” City Council member Ed Zastawny said of One Southern Indiana at Monday night's meeting. “They have brought a lot of jobs here, they have a right to endorse candidates.”

If readers detect anything approximating logic in Zastawny's jobs-to-endorsement linkage, please kneel in the direction of 1Si and chant, "Huzzah."

Meanwhile, there's the inconvenient matter of council member Grooms, seated on a body that considers monetary support for the organization that endorsed him in his bid for office. Seeing as Grooms' staff at Facebook is nowhere near as efficient with their stained cudgels as Rep. Ed Clere's, I actually was able to post this comment on Grooms' Facebook site:

"Thank you for ducking the tolling issue to the bitter end. Your paymasters at ISi deeply appreciate it. By the way, will you be voting on the council funding to the organization that endorsed you?"

Start your egg timers; I neither (a) expect the comment to stand, nor (b) believe there'll be an answer.

Finally, on the whole topic of 1Si's dizzying descent into a quivering, servile arm of Kerry Stemler's right-wing proclivities, here's my FB status for today:

"The corporate oligarchs and rabid theocratic fundamentalists who pull the Republican party's strings thank you for believing the propaganda and voting GOP. But why ruin a perfectly good day talking about One Southern Indiana?"