Ralph Doty’s Brother Gary works with my wife on the Symphony Board and met with her recently. Gary joked that it didn’t look like his brother or her husband liked each other very much. My Wife told the former Mayor that she’s only related to me by marriage.
Ralph’s latest Budgeteer column has me pegged as America’s most notorious red baiter, Senator Joe McCarthy. At least Ralph got the color right. Ralph, of course, pictures himself as the heroic Joe Welch who brought the Wisconsin bully to his knees. (Hey. That’s the part I’m auditioning for!)
As for Ralph’s decency you are welcome to check it out for yourself by typing Ralph’s name in the search engine on this blog to see what turns up. Ralph reminds me more of Tail-gunner Joe’s associate Roy Cohn except that Ralph is much more toothsome.
Ralph quoted a short passage from one of my recent blog posts out of context much like Mr. Goosens: Ralph writes:
And then, as if to demonstrate that his supporters weren’t hooligans enough, ringleader Harry Welty wrote on his Web site, www.lincolndemocrat.com: “I got a report from a close friend shortly afterward who watched the meeting on TV that [board member] Nancy Nilsen was rolling her eyes and yawning and so deliberately rude that someone ought to have slammed her head against a wall.” (Emphasis added).
I’m sure quoting other portions of that post would have had the disadvantage of making me sound a little too reasonable for Mr. Cohn’s taste. Things like:
I got a report from a close friend shortly afterward who watched the meeting on TV that Nancy Nilsen was rolling her eyes and yawning and so deliberately rude that someone ought to have slammed her head against a wall. I didn’t notice that myself and in fact, I thought that once again the Board was relatively well behaved. That only happens when there is a significant audience of critics at a meeting watching them. . .
. . . Our crowd was hot and, for what good it did, when they got to growling I turned around and put my fingers to my lips. Except for a couple occasions I was proud of the crowd’s demeanor.
There is a very juicy and ironic story that ties into this little episode but its late and I’m nursing a cold. Tomorrow I’ll probably post it under the title: “Hooligans Enough.”
