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Vic Sprouse, West Virginia's best known owner of overly priced "fitness centers" for ladies, is claiming credit for killing the "Not Gary Abernathy" movement even though he was the one doing the most to publicize it, an effort to slide a proverbial dagger in Abernathy's back.
The fight was between the Republicans over Abernathy's appointment as executive director so we watched from the sidelines.
The former Republican consultant Sprouse wore his heart on his sleeve longing for the executive director job state party chairman Doug McKinney gave to Abernathy.
Here's what I wrote before on it:
As former GOP Senate Minority Leader and political consultant Vic Sprouse wrote the other day it's enough to create sympathy for them and he urged his people to stop.
Sprouse, by the way, seems to be going out of his way to try to calm the flames by dousing them with buckets of gasoline. With Sprouse you can never tell if he's being his usual stupid self and being unintentionally inflammatory towards McKinney and Abernathy by highlighting the anti-McKinney and anti-Abernathy people's remarks or if he's being conniving and sneaky for his own motives.
Here's from Abernathy's blog:
Why? Here's my favorite line from Vic's blog: "Gary is getting bashed for being a bad consultant. I'm not sure what that has to do with being ED." Geesh!
I've already busted Vic (jokingly) by email for agreeing that I was a bad consultant. He responded with an "LOL" and said he didn't mean to make it sound that way. Hmmm.
Now before you tell me that Sprouse can't be stupid and clever at the same time, just remember this is Sprouse we're talking about. He was dumb enough to end what many Republicans thought was a bright political future by committing serial adultery while campaiging as a family values politician. But remember he was sneaky and conniving enough to convince many of those soon-to-be-ex-Mrs. Vic Sprouses that she was the only one for him. So is Sprouse trying to be a peace maker and just really awful at it or is he trying to fan the flames because he's angling for something and hopes to come out ahead once everyone else is destroyed?
But here's something interesting and rather telling on Sprouse's blog. In his latest post on the issue titled: "Not Gary Abernathy is dead?" about the movement to oust Abernathy from his new role, the url is www.changewv.com/2009/gary-abernathy-is-dead. (emphasis mine).
Those urls are usually the first words of a post. But his url isn't "Not Gary Abernathy is dead." A Freudian slip on Sprouse's part or is his computer picking up the subliminal messages Sprouse wants to send?
How much did Sprouse do his best to slide the dagger into Abernathy's back? The Not Gary Abernathy web site and its commentors made all kinds of personal attacks and claims about Abernathy - the kind of claims we never wrote about nor reported because they weren't relevant. (Hey, if Sprouse didn't make such a big issue out of being a family values kind of guy and how letting teh gheys have the right to marry like anyone else would ruin the sanctity of marriage we'd never bring up his 22 marriages ending because of his serial adultery.) But at the time Sprouse wrote about the attacks, few people had heard of the "Not Gary Abernathy" blog. Sprouse has one of the more popular blogs for rightwingers in the state. If Sprouse hadn't directed people to the Not Gary Abernathy site and highlighted all the terrible comments made about Abernathy while "tsk tsking" them, who would have ever heard of the allegations or the "Not Gary Abernathy" movement other than a handful of people?
Sprouse even could have mentioned the site and how terrible commenters there were, but instead he went into specifics that helped draw even more attention to what they claimed.
So it's funny to see Sprouse claimed that he killed the campaign when he probably gave it more life than nearly any one else.
By the way, I've got as much claim, if not more, than Sprouse does in having stopped the anti-Gary Abernathy movement.
I know this will make Clem mad since he tells me all the time I've been too nice to Abernathy of late unlike the old days on the site before the new and nicer Carnacki appeared. (I'll criticize Abernathy's politics, but he seems a decent guy who puts his heart into it even though I think his heart is missplaced.)
I think after I wrote that many people began to realize that it wasn't just a grass roots campaign of Republican activists angry at McKinney's selection of Abernathy. He didn't consult them, but when did that many GOP activists ever worry their party is run strictly as a top down organization. It's all about the authority in the GOP. Rather it was an effort organized and led behind the scenes by someone with a specific agenda either for his candidate, Shelley Moore Capito, to make sure only people beholden to her run the state GOP and not people who look out for the welfare of the GOP organization overall. Capito doesn't want to have to deal with people in the rank and file who might want former Sec'y of State Betty Ireland to run against her. In addition, as I pointed out, the person I suspect behind it all has his own personal ambitions to run both Abernathy and Sprouse out of the political consulting business in West Virginia. With so few Republicans in office in the state, the competition is cut throat and when were Republicans ever known for playing nice when their own money is involved?
This is speculation on my part, but I suspect what killed the "Not Gary Abernathy" push is people realized it drew too much negative attention to Capito and someone playing with fire behind the scenes got burned when he was exposed to the heat his effort generated.
As we see the John McCain camp turn on Sarah Palin, it's amusing to go back and read the words of wisdom of fitness gym owner and erstwhile campaign consultant Vic Sprouse:
I was explaining to someone today the difference in my attitude before and after Palin's addition to the ticket.
Before I was definitely for John McCain and would have voted for him.
After the addition of Palin, I feel energized and ready to do anything I can to help the ticket win.
snip
KAPOW! She completely knocked it out of the park. A home run. A grand slam.
She took the podium, took the criticism, and shoved that criticism right back down the throats of her detractors... with as much grace as a seasoned veteran.
Even CNN commented that a "star" was born.
This was a Reagan moment.
This was an Obama 2004 moment. Her speech will literally go down in the history books as one of the most astounding certainly of my generation.
Sarah Palin as a vice presidential pick will certainly be remembered all right.
Republicans: Please run Sarah Palin for president in 2012.
NEWSWEEK has also learned that Palin's shopping spree at high-end department stores was more extensive than previously reported. While publicly supporting Palin, McCain's top advisers privately fumed at what they regarded as her outrageous profligacy. One senior aide said that Nicolle Wallace had told Palin to buy three suits for the convention and hire a stylist. But instead, the vice presidential nominee began buying for herself and her family--clothes and accessories from top stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus. According to two knowledgeable sources, a vast majority of the clothes were bought by a wealthy donor, who was shocked when he got the bill. Palin also used low-level staffers to buy some of the clothes on their credit cards. The McCain campaign found out last week when the aides sought reimbursement. One aide estimated that she spent "tens of thousands" more than the reported $150,000, and that $20,000 to $40,000 went to buy clothes for her husband. Some articles of clothing have apparently been lost. An angry aide characterized the shopping spree as "Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus from coast to coast," and said the truth will eventually come out when the Republican Party audits its books.
West Virginians gave Darrell McGraw a narrow victory over Dan Greear despite the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce and their well-funded outsiders attempting to buy Greear the office.
McGraw will get the well-deserved opportunity to continue to protect the citizens of West Virginia from corporations and businesses that do wrong. The sad thing about the Chamber of Commerce spending so much of their members' money is businesses that operate properly have nothing to fear from McGraw. So the good businesses just wasted a huge amount of money to protect bad ones.
Word from Charleston is Greear is preparing to concede.
The victories by McGraw and Margaret Workman and Menis Ketchum in the other election the Chamber of Commerce attempted to buy puts a sweet cap on a bittersweet night.
The victory for McGraw was so narrow and the Chamber of Commerce spent such a record amount of money for the race that it seems likely Greear might have won if his association with the notorious Vic Sprouse had not cost him some votes.
It is a sad day when the democratic process is corrupted by money. Every election year, lovers of democracy go to polls and make a decision heavily influenced by ad campaigns by candidates trying to persuade voters to vote for them.
This remains true today, (although Obama has thrown a wrinkle in this theory with his ability to raise money from small donors) and is even more true when you consider third party advertising (think Swiftboat Veterans for Truth).
In WV, the WV Chamber of Commerce (with help from Big Brother the US Chamber) is making a mockery of third party advertising and targeting Attorney General Darrell McGraw with $700,000 worth of attack ads.
The only thing people need to know about former Republican Senate Minority Leader and Curves fitness center owner Vic Sprouse is he thinks George W. Bush has been a great president.
For our new readers, you can read all about Vic Sprouse here.
Serial adulterer and former Senate Minority Leader Vic Sprouse, the walking definition of Republican "family values," believes if he lies enough to the public like he's lied to his 22 ex-wives ("No honey, that wasn't me in bed with that person! Golly gee whiz, that was just somebody that looked like me!") he'll be able to pull one over on them.
Sprouse was such an embarrassment to the Republican Party that they begged him to leave office so he's jealous of those that have credibility and political futures.
Sprouse seems to think if he lies enough about Anne Barth - and he tells the same lie every time - that people will believe him instead of their own ears.
But while that kind of routine might have worked with the many wives he cheated on, I doubt if it works with the public.
There's no comparing the articulate and intelligent Anne Barth to the uninformed and ineffective Shelley Moore Capito.
Just as his cheating on spouse after spouse after spouse is a sign he's overcompensating for some sense of inadequacy, Sprouse's constant lying about Anne Barth is his way of overcompensating for Capito's inadequacies as a Congressional representative.
No one should be surprised by the sexist and derogatory comments from Vic Sprouse. That's to be expected from a man who has so little regard for either women or the truth.
Update
By the way, ever notice how whenever Vic goes on this monthly tirade against Anne Barth, he never once is able to describe anything specific that she said? Yet we're supposed to believe she flubs interviews? Really? Describe one answer she flubbed. He can't. Meanwhile he's supporting a vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin who doesn't know what a vice president does.
Update 2
Or, golly gee willickers Mr. Louse! What about your boy John McCain?
Let alone Shelley Moore Capito's Best Friend Forever George W. Bush?
Here's a difference between Vic Sprouse's reaction to the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and my reaction.
After Sept. 11, 2001, I attempted to enlist in the Army, Marines and Navy. I thought if military action was needed and I supported it, I should be willing to put my life at risk as well. I thought Osama bin Laden should be brought to justice and that if it took division-sized SWAT teams to knock down the doors to get him, then I should be willing to run those risks as well. I spoke to my wife and we were in agreement. I was told by the recruiters I was too old.
At 40, Vic Sprouse is younger than I am. The military recruitment age was increased to 42 because they weren't able to find enough recruits. Sprouse has not enlisted to fight in Afghanistan after Sept. 11 or in Iraq, another war he claims to support. Sprouse is fine with other people risking their lives as long as his ass isn't on the line. Like his political hero Dick Cheney, Sprouse has had "other priorities."
He's a classic example of a chickenhawk.
Update: Just want to make clear, he keeps referring to "we" when he describes the wars - he cannot refer to the war "we're fighting" when HE is nice and safe at home. And Sprouse doesn't understand the differences between Afghanistan and Iraq. He blurs the two wars together because there is no justification for our invasion of Iraq so he tries to act as if there is.
We noticed Vic Sprouse, the owner of overpriced gyms who "consults" for GOP candidates running on pro-adultery platforms, still can't say one single thing positive about his candidate Shelley Moore Capito.
In a post where Sprouse drew attention inadvertantly to the fact that All Points Bulletins have been put out for the missing Capito (check the country club golf course!), he failed to list a single event Capito has attended.
Not one.
Zero. Zilch. Zip. You know, the same number equal to the number of marriages where he's remained faithful. (But I'm sure this time it'll be different unlike all of the others.)
I bet Sprouse's email is burning up alright, but it's from a fellow Pennsylvanian political consultant for Capito asking him to avoid drawing contrasts between the ineffective and rarely seen Capito with the highly visible and highly effective Anne Barth that make Anne Barth look so much better in comparison.
Holy cow! does Sprouse, who as the former Senate Minority Leader prided himself on being a "back bench bomb thrower", prove once again that when the heat gets hot, the Pennsylvania boys sweat more than the 800-pound lady who Vic wipes up after when she finishes on the weight bench.
As we've pointed out here time after time, Sprouse never lists a single reason why Capito should be in Congress. He's never got a word of praise for her. Just like he can't list where the rarely seen Capito has been.
That silence is even louder than Sprouse's usual sheep-like bleating.
BTW, I've obtained video of Sprouse spouting off his regular rightwing talking points fed to him from the very uncivil Capito campaign.
I think Vic Sprouse unveils a little too much from the shadowy recesses of his mind that he should really try harder to keep hidden.
Writing (yet again - it's so meta) about Charleston Gazette columnist Phil Kabler mentioning Sprouse in a column, Sprouse revealed:
It's just... weird (1). He's like my own mini-stalker.(2)
I'm guessing that Kabler has one of those rooms like Mel Gibson had on Conspiracy Theory where Julia Roberts happened upon it and it was filled with a whole wall full of photos of her. That's what I'm guessing is in Kabler's apartment. (3)
Otherwise, I can't account for the obsession.(4) The dude literally writes something about me every week. It cracks me up.(5)
Emphasis mine. OK, let's parse this.
1. It's "weird." He's using that word a lot lately. This is coming from the man with 22 marriages and abandoned his own child and he's passing judgment on someone for being weird?
2. He thinks being mentioned in the press is akin to "stalking."
3. Sprouse has a fantasy - I can't think of another term for it - of Kabler having photos of Sprouse all over Kabler's apartment. Like Vegas, what happens in Sprouse's imagination ought to stay in his imagination.
4. "I can't account for the obsession." See 3.
5. In all seriousness, this one is really interesting. Sprouse thinks Kabler is a stalker. Sprouse finds that "cracks me up." Logically doesn't that mean Sprouse thinks stalking is funny?
I know, I know, I referred to logic and a Republican in the same sentence, which makes the question a non sequitur.
Still, some will find it worth noting that Sprouse never offered any defense of the accusation that he's "out of touch" with rural voters. He simply attacked Kabler.
Sprouse also claims that Kabler has written more about him than any other West Virginia figure. Considering how scandalous Sprouse's behavior has been in West Virginia, it's not surprising that Kabler has written about Sprouse a lot. But it's rather narcissistic of the former Senate Minority Leader and "family values" Republican to think he's been written about the most.
But Sprouse doesn't dislike all media attention. He gave lots of praise to Scott Sabatini writing for something called LegalNewsLine for Sabatini's story on Attorney General Darrell McGraw (D) and his GOP challenger Dan Grar.
...the author is Scott Sabatini who does a great job with it.
But why does Sprouse think Sabatini did a great job writing about the McGraw-Grar race?
He quotes Sprouse at length criticizing McGraw.
McGraw's critics, of which there are many, sing in harmony, though fail to force him to in any way to change his tune.
snip
Republican State Sen. Vic Sprouse, who served on the Joint Committee on Government Operations, called the issue the largest concern facing the West Virginia Legislature in regards to the Attorney General's office. Sprouse admits that, to date, the Legislature has been ineffective. Looking back to the recommendations of the joint committee, Sprouse says they went unheeded.
"I don't know that any of them have been enacted," he said. "It's a case where Darrell McGraw is going to do what he wants to do. He thumbs his nose at the Democratic leadership in the Legislature, and they curl up and let him do what he's going to do."
See what Sabatini didn't include? Sprouse isn't some disinterested, objective observer. Grar has paid Sprouse money to say nice things about him and help elect him. But Sabatini never mentioned that in the article. Either Sprouse failed to mention it to Sabatini or Sabatini deliberately chose not to include in an effort to make McGraw look bad.
How much do you want to bet Sprouse even billed Grar for his services after doing the interview?
Sen. Clark Barnes, R-Randolph, says he dropped Sen. Vic Sprouse, R-Kanawha, as a consultant for his re-election campaign in the 15th Senatorial District following the May primary, but not over any personal issues.
Barnes said that, in outlining his strategy for how to run the general election campaign against former Sen. Mike Ross, it was clear that Sprouse was "out of touch" with how to run a campaign in a predominately rural district.
Ever notice when West Virginian Republicans talk about how we should elect Republicans, they never say why? They attack Democrats, often for problems that have nothing to do with their state offices. When we talk about Anne Barth, we can talk about her skill at getting things done, her ability to work with people from all walks of life, her experience as the right hand of the beloved Sen. Robert C. Byrd, her understanding of the middleclass and regular West Virginians because she grew up in a minister's home and not in the governor's mansion. Except for Republican strategist Gary Abernathy (and he tries to make the best of the hand he's been dealt) the rest of the rightwing bloggers and Republican "strategists" never mention anything positive about their own candidates. I guess they can't think of any thing good to say about them or Shelley Moore Capito either and on that we agree.
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