Charlie White Unplugged

 
Secretary of State Charlie White talked very candidly to reporters this afternoon when he appeared at the Hamilton Co. Judicial Center to plead not guilty to a 7-count indictment stemming from a special prosecutor's investigation of vote fraud allegations. It appeared to his attorney Dennis Zahn he spoke too candidly, particularly near the end of the interview when he acknowledged living outside his town council district inadvertently for awhile. Zahn angrily led him away by the arm like a father does his son when he's been misbehaving in public. I will say that I agreed with some of the points White made to reporters. As Secretary of State, he is not in charge of elections and his continued service will in no way taint upcoming elections. He is absolutely correct on that point. The county clerks administer elections in their respective counties, and the Election Division overseen by the Commission, of which he is just one member, oversees elections. White also makes the point that he is being singled out and selectively prosecuted. He is absolutely correct on that point. Both Evan Bayh and Richard Lugar have voted in multiple elections in the past from precincts in which they did not reside. State Rep. Win Moses lives in a beautiful half million dollar home in Broad Ripple when he supposedly represents a district in Fort Wayne. My former City-County Councilor Patrice Abduallah served for nearly four years on the Indianapolis council in a district he never resided with the full knowledge of his council colleagues and, even after Marion Co. Clerk Beth White learned he did not live in the district, she allowed him to place his name on the ballot for re-election and to continue drawing his salary. Only when I stepped forward and called him out did the Democrats quickly move to extinguish the situation by demanding his immediate resignation--largely so they could appoint Andre' Carson and prep him for his future bid for Congress. Yes, our politicians and media are exercising selective outrage in singling out Charlie White. I don't excuse what he did, but he is absolutely correct when he says many others have done the same thing and nobody seemed to care about it and nobody seemed interested in prosecuting them for it. I find it particularly intersting that Fox59 News ran a teaser Wednesday night for a story it planned to run on allegations Lugar has been voting from an address in Indianapolis at which he hasn't maintained a residence in decades. When Barnes & Thornburg's Peter Rusthoven slammed his fist down on the table during a meeting with the reporter and cast aspersions at those who raised the issue, Fox59 backed down and decided not to run the story. Yep, it's a double standard for sure. And, naturally, WISH-TV's Jim Shella and the reporters for the Star are pretending the hubub in the blogosphere concerning Lugar's residency never even happened. Only the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette's Washington reporter and Brian Howey of Howey Politics have covered the issue.