Watauga Republicans Get Their Story Straight (Like a Dog's Hind-Leg)

We posted here several days ago a letter by an ASU student, Tyler Patrick, about a class project he filmed in which he entered the Watauga County Republican HDQ in the Boone Mall wearing a Kerry/Edwards T-shirt. The Republican Party has now evidently gotten its story together, floated first in the Mountain Times yesterday in a letter signed by Donald Clark. That same version of events is also being promoted by Watauga County Commissioner James Coffey, a grandee in the local GOP, who told a Republican office-holder (and friend of mine) yesterday the exact same version promoted in Clark's letter ... that it was complete strangers, mall strollers, not GOP HDQ staff who were rude to the boy, etc.

Well, now! We finally got a copy of the videotape yesterday, and Republicans really ought to learn not to lie about the facts when there's a camera running to record the truth.

First off, neither Don Clark nor James Coffey were present for the confrontation. In fact, there were no men present at all, except for the mall security guard. Rather than running away from the young man with grandmotherly reticence, the all-woman staff stood their ground and confronted Tyler, two of them with discernible anger, one of them with much discernible anger. (One woman is seen retreating toward the back of the HDQ, but most stood their ground in confronting the young man in the Kerry/Edwards T-shirt.)

By far the most obnoxious participant in this mini-tempest was the mall security guard, who evidently felt his political persuasion far more endangered than mall property. He lectured Tyler on God and truth and the sacred Republican Party and can be heard making the "half-a-brain" comment, as in it would take someone with half-a-brain to realize that God had ordained Bush/Cheney to lead us to war in Iraq.

As an experiment in political communication, Tyler Patrick's video was a raging (yes) success. And our local GOP HDQ staff failed the test (or actually passed, depending on your expectations, which in my case are admittedly rather low).