Memo to Kirby Wilbur: Get your Kevlar on. (Night of the Long Knives)

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As a Veteran of the Republican War of Eating Our Own in 2000, I know the thrill Kirby Wilbur experienced today in winning the chairmanship of the state Republican Party.

I also, I believe, understand something of what Kirby had to overcome to win this race. And now... he needs to watch out.

No... this is by no means in the nature of any kind of personal threat against him. This is a statement of probability: he has defeated the Bellevue Mafia's candidate. They will now do all they can to destroy his chairmanship.

My guess is that the members of the Party Executive Board voted en mass for Esser. This is the pattern that happened in 2000 to Sen. Benton... Benton was confronting an Executive Board of 20, and 16 of those 20 had endorsed Benton's opponent.

They never let that go.

Hatred is a powerful force. Certain members of the Executive Board, including our then Clark County State Committee woman, made it their mission... their personal goal... to destroy Benton's chairmanship.

The majority of those so inclined were members of the Bellevue Mafia. And Luke Esser is a product of, and supported by, that same Mafia.

They are a powerful force politically in this state. They stretch back at least as far as the late Jennifer Dunn's tenure.

They want control over all major GOP politics in this state. They and they alone determine who runs in the statewide races. Thus, the mediocre, timeworn candidacy of Dino Rossi, a candidacy I knew would fail from the start.

But Rossi was their guy. They wanted him. He was their known quantity. He would get elected (after all, that idiotic Moore poll showed that he'd win, right?) and they would OWN him.

With Rossi's defeat, Rob McKenna became the titular head of the political realm. As most everyone knows, McKenna campaigned mightily to retain Esser in the chairmanship... much like those in the Mafia... including former state Chairman Dale Foreman, who resigned in an abortive attempt to run for governor, campaigned to get their guy in and keep Benton out, helped out Benton by assuring the media that Benton simply could not be party chair AND be an elected state senator.... Even though, oddly enough, a minor state called "Florida" had that very thing until recently.

Further, the impacts of McKenna's defeat can't be ignored. With Esser, the state GOP could have been considered just another appendage of McKenna's campaign for governor. Now what?

It's OK to kill the king... but you had damned sure better make sure he's dead.

Will Kirby rise above McKenna's serious effort to defeat him through Esser? Would you?

Let this be a lesson to all who would try and interfere: Sometimes, that interference results in resentment.

This scenario can play out under the remarkably similar circumstances to the 2000 scenario. That result? The Executive Board sharpened their knives and came after Benton every step of the way. Many of the more moronic, including our then local state committee woman and other executive board members, beat a path to the media and wasted no time in airing the "dirty linen" of the party, bashing Benton and myself, all to the delight of the democratian, who seems incapable of avoiding reminding us of that sordid episode; as if they knew, or cared, about the truth of the issues.

The power of the BM can also be seen locally, where charter member Slade Gorton used his position to insure that the only truly qualified candidate for Congress we had locally was crushed, so an empty-suited, blithering idiot could be elected instead.

Why am I mentioning this now?

Because I expect them to do the exact same thing to Wilbur.

Kirby would be well-served to replace the entire party staff. What loyalty they have will be to Esser and the Mafia; everything Wilbur does will be known by those out to destroy him within moments... for their exaggeration, misrepresentation and ridicule.

He cannot ever expect to earn the respect and support of those on the E-Board who opposed him. What he has earned is their enmity, and they will not hesitate to criticise him for issues both real and imagined, and they will do everything they can to politically harm him... because the LAST thing they care about is getting Republicans elected... and they want THEIR guy running the show, dancing to their tune... and SCREW the State Committee.

I, personally, don't have a dog in this fight. But what I've got is experience with the dishonest, politically self-serving types on the Executive Board who shared the Nan Malin view: that they are not there to serve the Party... the Party is there to serve them.

And with Malin's election to the Executive Board as just another example of the short-sightedness and stupidity here locally, knowing that Malin will bring to her position on that board they same self-serving lack of concern over her job as county chair, the same self-aggrandizement where she tried to get everyone she could meet to believe that she was holder of the non-existent position of 3rd District Chair... and where she ran a county where not a single Republican ran for anything in the last election, the basic flaw in the system is revealed.

How this woman could be given any responsible position is simply beyond comprehension, since her efforts have resulted in no one ever getting elected to anything. Is she the best we could do?

God help us.

In Wilbur's situation, distancing himself from the party apparatchiks is his only hope.

Otherwise... they'll bide their time and gin up a bogus situation like the Executive Board did over moving the party headquarters to Olympia... where it should be, and is precisely one of the two states in the United States where GOP party headquarters is NOT located in the state capital; instead of keeping it within the sphere of influence of the hopelessly inept King County GOP and the Puget Sound Members of the Executive Board, who have a proven track record of not knowing any more about winning elections than they do about how to operate a meth lab.

Be careful, Kirby. Rest assured: the knife-sharpening has already begun.
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