Voter Fail

Some frustrated head banging going on over here today. Why?

This. "Report against Howard County sheriff unveils 'common knowledge' of a 'living hell' unchecked for years, sources say," by Fatimah Waseem of the Howard County Times.

I voted for this man. I voted for him because he was a Democrat and I'm a Democrat and I just trusted that was the right decision. To be honest, I didn't really even understand what the position of Sheriff entailed. I just knew that Howard County had one.

I pride myself on getting to know the issues and the actors in local politics but in this case I was merely a low-information voter. I am just kicking myself.

I continue to have questions about why we need to have a partisan race for sheriff. I do understand better now what the Sheriff and the Sheriff's office actually does. But why do we make a partisan choice for this position? This still makes no sense to me. And yet up until last week I was perfectly content to not know and just trust it was all working they way it was supposed to.

How could his man have gone through interviews for endorsements without setting off some major red flags? Even if he chose his language carefully, wouldn't his temperament have shone through? Or is he a master of conning the people who might have had the power to rein him in?

In my experience men like this--abusers--are notable for their belief that they know everything. I fear nothing so much as a man who knows everything, to paraphrase Mme. de Sevigné. Men like this also believe that rules don't apply to them. (I'm not suggesting that a woman couldn't be like this. My personal experience has been with men.)

I have a hard time believing that these qualities didn't present themselves earlier and that Democratic Party leadership didn't pick up on this. I also have a hard time believing that there are people like this who are Democrats.

There are a few notable Republicans who read this blog and I would appreciate it if you didn't jump in and gloat in the comment section. You may recall I've been less than supportive of Democrats gloating over Republican failings. I don't really think it looks good on anybody, to be honest.

Fitzgerald has clearly got to go. Of course the best way would be for him to acknowledge that he has lost the confidence of the citizens of Howard County and resign. Short of that, options for his removal must follow whatever laws are in place to resolve such predicaments. We're going to need some bipartisan cooperation to make that happen.