The headline reads: "Hard to Reconcile - Joe Stanley: compassionate father or political trickster? How about both?" and continues to another full page of commentary, complete with photos of Joe and little six-year-old Mary, the niece he is rearing in the rural Franklin County community of Callaway.
The article includes quotations from U. S. Senator Jim Webb's Roanoke regional director, Fred Hutchins, as well as from Joe's good friend and confidant, Dave "Mudcat" Saunders.
Joe is chairman of the Franklin County Democratic Committee and, in 2005, he and Mudcat conducted a no-holds-barred campaign for their Virginia House of Delegates candidate, Eric Ferguson, against the Republican incumbent. Eric lost that race, but he'll be running again this year and Joe will be working with him, so watch out...
I met Joe Stanley when he was working last year in Jim Webb's U. S. Senate campaign and came to know Joe as a very talented, artistic and quick- thinking operative who understands the need for "brand immersion" and precise political timing.
Joe assembled the Webb campaign's inspiring "Leadership We Can Trust" video which was the centerpiece of the Charlottesville rally for Jim Webb that included fellow authors Steven King and John Grisham.
It was Joe Stanley who first recognized the negative political importance of our former U. S. Senator's "macaca" statement and posted that video to YouTube.
During last spring's primary campaign, it was Joe's strong sense of political opportunism and his artwork that produced the controversial flier about Harris Miller.
Please take time to read this most revealing article about him. Thanks!
Steve
In fact, for many of us, this could create a rather severe regional identity crisis of sorts.
What if one were living on an island in the middle of the James River but inside the western city limits of Richmond, for instance? Would that then be a person without a state, a commonwealth, or a region? Much to ponder here...
Meanwhile, we SOTJFs will continue to think that we are, somehow, still part of the ROVA, but admittedly south of NOVA and the MDL, below and outside the GC, above SS but obviously farther west than either HR and/or TW and, most definitely, WOSP, OK?
So you're correct, KG; down right crazy, ain't it?!
Thanks for playing, but, more importantly, thanks for continuing to allow us to "play" with all of you!
I remain, humbly, albeit regionally challenged (RC)...
Steve
But for an example of real harshness in Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, Tom Robbins characterizes south Richmond as having been settled by a bony faced race of psychopaths from North Carolina - words to that effect. The consolation is that he makes fun of everyone.
Belle Island in the middle of the James was the home to thousands of POWs for a short while. It sort of fits your description of people w/o a state or region..
Didn't know all that about Belle Island - sometimes truth can be stranger than fiction, eh?! Those poor people may not have had even a country...
Read Robbins' "ECGTB" many years ago and thought it was crazy but hilarious; agreed - no holds barred with that guy!
Yours in nearly constant frivolity,
Steve