Apparently my appearance last Thursday at the secret recall bash wasn’t very well received by the power elite crowd.
    According to their anonymous bloggers, I’m a "scum-sucking, bottom-feeder lowlife that pretends to be a journalist." Another labeled me "a monster" for showing up uninvited.
    And that’s just the nice stuff.
   I certainly didn’t expect to be welcomed with open arms, but such a meeting is a legitimate news story and it was held in a public place. Actually, except for John C. Decas snuggling up close and whispering sweet nothings in my ear most of the night, I was pretty much left alone. Sure, there were lazar-beam stares from all directions. The blood ran away from the faces of Claire Smith and Jim Potter when they saw me, but outside of that, I felt like a journalist covering a political rally.
    Many of these folks are now claiming I was an enforcer sent by selectmen to intimidate anyone from speaking during the meeting. Actually, for one of the few times I can recall, I was actually a little nervous covering an event. I gave my wife and children a long hug before I left because, frankly, I had no idea what I was about to walk into. Some of these people are so fanatical they scare me sometimes.
    I almost turned around and went home after parking near the Congregational Church. There’s a fine line between dedicated and crazy. My wife definitely thought walking into the heart of "enemy territory" was straddling the line.
    But I had to go. What transpires over the next several weeks will shape Wareham’s political future for years to come. I needed to hear their arguments for myself. I needed to know if there was some valid point hidden deep within their twisted logic.
    I left the recall rally more disillusioned than ever.
   Despite what these political partisans may believe, I have no personal connection to anyone serving on the board of selectmen. I have no financial stake in their success or failure. I have never taken a dime from anyone in exchange for favorable coverage. And if anybody believes the Observer has benefited financially from legal advertising from the town, they are welcome to check with the town accountant. The Courier was received at least 20 times as much legal advertising revenue as we have over the past two years.
    I am certainly nobody’s enforcer. I simply have a vision for Wareham’s future that is shared by some of the selectmen. In that vision, the wealthy don’t prey on the poor, developers don’t write the rules behind closed doors, the media isn’t manipulated by business owners, town employees don’t play partisans politics, and the wishes of the majority of voters are respected.
    Over the last 14 months, since voters twice rejected the old guard, this board of selectmen has tried to level the playing field for all of Wareham’s residents. They’ve demanded accountability, and that has irked those who were used to manipulating the town for their own special interests.
    There have been a few missteps along the way. Selectmen violated open meeting law when they voted to hire former town administrator John McAuliffe in executive session. While that may seem like a technicality, strict observance of this law is crucial to providing Wareham the transparency it’s lacked under previous administrations. Even though this board admitted its error before we were even aware of it, it was still a mistake.
    Of course, the real mistake was hiring McAuliffe in the first place. I don’t want to go over old ground, but selectmen hired a man who was dogged by ethical questions during his tenure as TA in Somerset. They were naive to have been so easily swayed by McAuliffe’s charm. Now they are paying the political price for that decision.
    What I learned most of all last Thursday night is the depth of entitlement the political partisans expect from this town. Several people claimed the group was taking the "high road" by not calling for an immediately recall, opting instead to circulate a petition asking selectmen to hire McAuliffe back. It was all I could do to keep from laughing. This ploy was nothing more than a test-run, a way to collect names, phone numbers and addresses to expedite the recall process. I’m not a monster for saying that. It’s the cold, hard truth, and they know it.
    There is no way the selectmen will ever bring McAuliffe back. Even Decas, who has been perhaps the most outspoken critic of the current selectmen, acknowledged that. For selectmen to reverse their vote would be akin to simply handing over their authority to their political opponents. It’s never going to happen.
    Basically, by gathering signatures on this petition, the partisans are saying "willingly hand over your power to hire and fire the town administrator or we’ll take it away by force."
    That’s what this all comes down to. The selectmen are perfectly within their rights to hire, or fire, whatever town administrator they choose. If residents don’t like their decision, they have every right to express that at the voting booth. But the power elite consists primarily of residents with personal axes to grind against this board of selectmen. Almost everybody knows that. For them to call for a recall on purely political grounds should be offensive to anyone who believes in democracy.
    Essentially, these people are throwing a tantrum because selectmen kicked out one of their remaining allies in town government. And make no mistake, McAuliffe deserved to be tossed. A town administrator cannot play politics. He cannot openly defy the wishes of an elected board that hired him. He was an employee of the town and an employee of the selectmen. But he aligned himself with a small group of political partisans in a blatant attempt to undermine his bosses. It’s really that simple.
    I’ve referred to these people many times as the power elite. That’s basically a politically correct way of saying they’re the old boys network (there are plenty of women in this group). On Thursday night, I saw a crowd dominated by older, wealthy white people who ran this town into the ground for 30 years, leaving Wareham with no stabilization fund in its budget, as well as a growing structural deficit. For years, they would socially ostracize anyone who opposed them. They would make vicious personal attacks against political opponents, all with the tacit approval of the local media, which was run by local partisans. They would reward their supporters handsomely.
    There is a better way. The selectmen have chosen to take the path of most resistance in order to usher in a new day, when everyone is held accountable and no one gets a free ride on the town’s dime.
    If this is Wareham’s morality play come to life, I’ll be rooting for the good guys.