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Mysteries of the Unknown
Parsky Watch #63

PW got a little ink today in the Los Angeles Times.

Conservatives Keep Eye on Bush Representative

No one loves the sport of politics more than true believers. In that spirit, a hearty band of unapologetic right-wingers has since April 2002 e-mailed occasional thwacks at Los Angeles attorney Gerald Parsky, President Bush's point man in California.”

“Written with the breathless tone of a romance novel, Parsky Watch is e-mailed to 2,500 subscribers and forwarded from there. There's even a website with Parsky Watch T-shirts, mugs, a mouse pad and hats.”

“In Parsky Watch No. 62, the campaign chief was ridiculed for failing to stop several members of Young Americans for Freedom from passing out the "premier issue" of Parsky Watch magazine and a bumper sticker featuring the group's binoculars logo at an official GOP conclave. The anti-Parsky material was disguised in packets labeled with a "Bush/Cheney" sticker.”

“So what gets the right so riled about Parsky”

“He has said hurtful things about conservatives and party activists, said one of the shadowy figures — anonymous, of course — responsible for the critique. Some activists also believe that his efforts to open up the party to a wider spectrum of views has weakened its ideological punch.”

“Success is the best response, said Parsky, who says he doesn't pay attention to the grumblers. The party is more unified than it has been in 20 years and is bringing in record numbers of minorities and women, he said.”

“Oh, and raising oodles of money.”
True, we don’t think Gerry does anything to expand the party’s base by publicly maligning the party’s base (it’s all about addition, Gerry). As we have made clear for the past 61 editions of the Pulitzer Prize-winning PW, our primary beef with Gerry Parsky has not so much to do with his mushy ideological moorings – or lack thereof, really – but with the disastrous combination of staggering incompetence and over-inflated ego that has resulted in the material diminishing of the California Republican Party as an institution and political force.

It’s also true that the CRP is raising “oodles” of money. What the Shogun Emeritus of the CRP unsurprisingly failed to mention was that lovely development has occurred since he publicly resigned as chairman of the CRP Operating Committee late last year – and concurrently with the election of Governor Schwarzenegger and CRP Chairman Duf Sundheim.

It reminds us of those commercials for the Time-Life Books “Mysteries of the Unknown” series – “A woman accidentally burns her left hand on an open flame. At that same moment, 3,000 miles away, her twin sister feels an intense, burning pain in her left hand. Coincidence?”

Maybe Time-Life could add a chapter on Parsky to “Mysterious Creatures”: “One day, Parsky suddenly and mysteriously relinquished his role as master and commander of California Republican Party fortunes – and just as suddenly, those fortunes change from bleak to boundless. Coincidence?”