Looks partisan to me

Morning briefing

Tuesday, February 23

Last month, the Warren County Board of Supervisors did something it had never done before. It made a woman its leader.

The board, which had been chastised for years as being a group of “good old boys,” had done something historic, but it does not appear it made it any less political.

Cleaning up the politics of the land should start locally and new chairwoman Rachel Seeber talked a lot about working together and being nonpartisan. She is talking a good game, but her actions speak otherwise.

Seeber reorganized the leadership structure on the board to include a majority and minority leader. If anything, that seems to draw even more attention to the political affiliation of each supervisor, not less.

Seeber then reorganized committee assignments and managed to avoid giving Queensbury Supervisor John Strough a chairmanship. As the supervisor of the largest town in the county, Strough brings talent and experience to the table. He also defeated Seeber in the Queensbury supervisor race in 2017 and you can’t help but wonder if this is payback or an opportunity for Seeber to position herself for another run as Queensbury supervisor.

Keeping Strough out of a leadership position does not serve the citizens of Warren County, it serves Rachel Seeber.

Merlino retires

The changes also bugged longtime Lake Luzerne Supervisor Gene Merlino enough that he announced he would not run for re-election in the fall because of the changes made in committee assignments.

Merlino had long been an advocate of changing the way Warren Country distributes bed tax money, saying that Bolton, Lake George and Queensbury benefit disproportionately. Merlino knows the issue and made some good points, but it was never addressed.

Peaceful transfer

I’ve been reading Jon Meacham’s biography of President George H.W. Bush “Destiny and Power” and came across this passage from an audio diary he kept during his presidency:

“I’ve tried to keep it. I’ve tried to serve here with no taint of the dishonor; no conflict of interest; nothing to sully this beautiful place and this job I’ve been privileged to hold... (Misjudgments) maybe on this issue or that, but never misconduct, never doing anything that would tarnish and hurt the Presidency. And yet no one seems to know that, and no one sees to care. They say, `What motivates you?’ And I used to be teased about `service for the sake of service.’ Well, it does motivate me. People should give, but its service with honor, service with a flair for decency and hopefully kindness.”

Bush dictated in his final movements in power.

And it struck me that this is what we have lost.

After showing President-Elect Bill Clinton around the White House the days after the election, Bush said he told Clinton this as he was leaving:

“Bill, I want to tell you something. When I leave here, you’re not going to have no trouble from me. The campaign is over, it was tough but I’m out of here and I will do nothing to complicate your work and I just want you to know that.”

I can’t help but wonder if we will ever get that back.

Ugly Orange

ESPN announcer Jay Bilas summed up Joseph Girard’s play over the past five games as up and down Monday night. Unfortunately, it was almost all down Monday as Duke ran away with an 85-71 victory.

Girard played just 18 minutes, failed to score and did not start the second half as freshman point guard Kadary Richmond played an impressive 29 minutes with 15 points, three assists and five rebounds. His playing time continues to cut into Girard’s minutes.

The defeat also put Syracuse under the gun to qualify for the NCAA tournament. It will almost certainly need to pull of wins against George Tech and North Carolina in its next two games.