Hilly Boy's Deception (as in the Lovely Tennessee Rep. Matthew Hill)

Well, Hill may have won easily (which is no surprise given his Sullivan County money and, according to some of his volunteers, the not so well run campaign by Smith-who, unlike Hill, wasn't granted time off by his daddy), but a much bigger fish got fried in old David Davis. He has been an embarrassment to east Tennessee and it is truly satisfying to see him booted by a genuine anti-PAC Phil Roe. Congrats Phil Roe! This is the first time an incumbent has been defeated for this seat since 1930, I believe.

So, I feel like I helped knock some holes in Davis' Gregory funded armor. I busted little Timmy on the Internet vandalism story (in fact, I broke the story) and made sure the Knoxville News Sentinel was tipped off. They did good reporting and little Timmy was put on the wire for the world to see. Elmer Gantry busted Davis for giving Timmy an $8000 bonus for that stunt. Of course, Davis' dog fighting vote and Saudi Arabia blood money were the bigger daggers.

So, that makes Cochran and Davis two Gregory candidates defeated in the same election. Not a bad day.

On Hill, when is an opponent going to hammer him on being a U.S. military protester? This is three candidates in a row who haven't touched Matthew Hill's biggest weakness in a district that doesn't take kindly to not supporting U.S troops. Just ask military veteran Marion Light. I guess that Patton would have been a better opponent than Smith after all.

On an unrelated note, I'm glad to welcome Elmer Gantry as a co-author on this blog. Our opinions are not always the same and I'm sure I'll point that out sometimes, but Elmer is a free thinker who is not beholden to any party. He is a Tri-Cities native and has seen quite a few more elections than Hilly boy, so he brings good perspective to the discussion of politics. Enjoy!

Labels: david davis, gregory, matthew hill, phil roe, timothy hill

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Here's another story about Gregory going on the offensive. This story makes me wonder if Timothy Hill was following Gregory's orders, with taxpayers covering the tab, when he was vandalizing Wikipedia. Gregory has essentially been Timmy's bank while Timmy lived in the Tri-Cities. I find it very likely that Gregory would ask Timmy Hill to do something unethical, while simultaneously distributing a paper that says Gregory has done nothing unethical.

-GOP contributor sends letters to defuse critics. (KNS, 9.21.07)

The “precipitating event” for the Gregory donation defense effort, Holcomb said, was a recent controversy over attempts to revise biographies of U.S. Rep. David Davis and state Rep. Matthew Hill, R-Jonesborough, on Wikipedia, the Internet encyclopedia.

Timothy Hill, press secretary to Davis and brother of Matthew Hill, has acknowledged using Davis’ office computer in the editing attempts and, as a result, was ordered to attend ethics training classes by Davis’ chief of staff. Part of what Hill attempted to edit were references to the Gregory family and their donations to the congressman and Hill’s brother.

One of the documents distributed by Holcomb is a commentary on Wikipedia entries on Gregory, King Pharmaceuticals and company dealings with Tenn-Care over Altace.

-I also like how Gregory is annoyed that his man in Elizabethton got beat. Gregory has already given $5,000 to Jerome Cochroach, who lost his re-election bid in 2006. Cochran, who is a decently paid lawyer, is apparently using Gregory's money to run again in 2008. There are a lot of needy people in Carter County who could use that $5,000 more than someone the voters rejected just last year.

-By the way, the state Democratic party needs to return any money it received from that weirdo Hsu. He's a crook and his money is tainted. Don't worry, Gregory's money is tainted too.

Labels: altace, david davis, gregory, johnson city, matthew hill, timothy hill, wikipedia

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It looks like John Gregory sure is glad that Timmy Hill got busted for deleting info off of Wikipedia. Matthew Hill's landlord and sugar daddy doesn't think the people who take his money are doing enough to stand up for him.

-Former King CEO defends record, GOP contributions (KTN, 9.16.07)

Major Tennessee Republican campaign donor John Gregory is going on offense in an attempt to clear up his professional record and counter future attacks by Democrats.

One reason Gregory is doing it is because he apparently doesn’t think Republican leaders have done enough to defend him.

Gregory’s spokesman, business associate and former Tennessee state Sen. Jim Holcomb, has issued a “talking points” document defending Gregory’s campaign contributions to Republicans and his tenure as former King Pharmaceuticals chairman and CEO. Gregory declined to be interviewed for this story.

...The greatest frustration has been that most of the Democratic attack on the Gregorys is defensible while only token efforts have been made by our leadership to call their assertions lies and protect one of the party’s benefactors.”

...After Gregory left the company, King agreed in November 2005 to repay $124 million plus interest to resolve allegations that it underpaid rebates owed to the Medicaid program and overcharged various federal and state governmental entities for its drug products, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

-The comments on this story are pretty telling too.

"I would ask the Gregorys not to be blindly devoted to the Republican Party however, in light of the Bush Republicans' positions towards outsourcing American's jobs, lack of immigration enforcement, NAFTA, etc. The current Republican platform has abandoned the very people who supported it, and we are abandoning the Republican Party until they change."

Labels: altace, david davis, gregory, matthew hill, timothy hill

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It looks like David Davis' office misspoke in regard to little Timmy's punishment. He was asked to "clarify" after his office made an announcement on Thursday.

-House conduct committee hasn't taken position on David Davis' aide's Wikipedia flap. (KTN on 8.25.07)

The U.S. House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct hasn’t yet taken an official position concerning Timothy Hill, who used a government computer to delete information in the online Wikipedia biographies of U.S. Rep. David Davis and Tennessee state Rep. Matthew Hill, Davis’ Chief of Staff Brenda Otterson said Friday.

...Otterson said the committee asked her to clarify her Thursday announcement noting that Davis decided Timothy Hill should be required to take ethics training classes in September for editing Davis’ and Matthew Hill’s Wikipedia entries by using a congressional office computer.

"...The committee has not taken any formal, official position on this matter,” Otterson said in an e-mail. “I just want to make it clear that this was an informal inquiry by phone with staff on the committee to see how we should handle this matter, and I sought advice and counsel from them — no formal investigation by them — just our seriously looking into what the precedents were, and to see how we should or could address the issue.”

Here are some gems from Davis:

"...Timothy probably used poor judgment in altering Wikipedia. ... I think he will benefit from the classes he will continue to take.”

"...I’m sorry Timothy actually took the word edit literally,” Davis said.

Labels: david davis, gregory, matthew hill, timothy hill, wikipedia

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