John Cook at Gawker, “Bloomberg Deputy Arrested for Beating His Wife Last Month“:
When Stephen Goldsmith, the former Indianapolis mayor and technocratic guru that Michael Bloomberg hired as his deputy last year, resigned suddenly in August, everyone assumed it was because he failed so miserably during last winter’s blizzard…
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Turns out that four days before his resignation, Goldsmith had been arrested for allegedly beating his wife at their Georgetown home…
Something seemed to be missing here — namely, a prior history of Goldsmith furiously mouthing pieties about family values! ! eleventy-one ! So I decided to check Indiana-based Doghouse Riley and “Ask The Man Who Owned One“:
[Emphasis mine.] So, I guess Goldsmith (to understand Riley’s spelling, click over and read the whole post) switched from the Talibangelical wing of the GOP, to the Glibertarian faction. And the police responding to his wife’s plea for assistance were therefore damaging his civil rights by interfering in a private contract dispute between adults, not trespassing against his religious beliefs concerning proper spousal conduct. Sucks to be Mrs. Goldsmith, either way…… Anyway, after becoming an Eagle Scout, like Dick Lugar, graduating from Michigan Law, like Ann Coulter, and landing a six-year gig with the US Army Reserves at the height of the Vietnam War, like Dan Quayle, Goldsmythe started work for a well-connected Indianapolis law firm, and shortly after went to work on the government’s dime as Corporate Counsel, and later chief trial deputy, for the city. He won a surprise victory for Marion County Prosecutor in 1978, thanks to the popular Nixonian law n’ order blather and some fortuitous financing. Goldsmythe spent the next twelve years as Prosecutor, pissing off Bad Guys and carping about Permanent Indianapolis Mayor the Reverend Bill Hudnut, whose job Goldsmythe wanted…
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Goldsmythe, meanwhile, had become a disciple of Government Privatization, on the grounds that this seemed like a good deal for his backers. His antics, which to this point had been only about 10% more disturbing than the run-of-the-mill politician’s in these parts–he had a particular fixation on “cleaning up” massage parlors and adult bookstores, and no apparent concern with Constitutional rights, nor the cost to taxpayers of losing extended court fights over overarching prosecutions–now became, in a word, insufferable. Indianapolis did not undertake Privatization under Stephen Goldsmythe for the sake of economic efficiencies or improvement of services; Indianapolis undertook Privatization because Stephen Goldsmythe was metaphysically correct in his every assumption, and on his way to important political office.
Open Thread: Republican <del>Family</del> Values on ParadePost + Comments (103)