Ron Williams Can’t Read
Dec 12th, 2009 by Tennessee Walker
Ron Williams whose Political acumen and ability to predict Delaware races has earned him the nickname of of WRong Williams, is at it again. This time he displays an incredible inability to read, analyze, and subsequently comment on the issue of transparency.
Ron Williams in a December 9 editorial, takes Colin Bonini to task for not knowing who funded the Retirement Week Ads that were put out by the State Treasurer’s Office in October. After all, according to Ron, he asked the State Treasurer herself on October 25th and she told him that Fidelity Investments gave her $50,000 for the Ads.
Ron’s problem is that Colin Bonini asked a question as to who financed the Retirement Week ads from the State Treasurer. It appears Bonini had the gall to ask this question directly of the State Treasurerer and to expected to get a direct answer from her (Williams believes that Bonini should have learned this from his newspaper and not directly from a state official) . Imagine that, a constituent and elected official expecting a direct and simple answer from a simple question from a state official . Ms. State Treasurer who is paying for these ads?
Instead of answering the question directly Treasurer Velda Jones-Potter, demanded that Senator Bonini file a Freedom of Information Request from the Office of the State Treasurer. (Williams has no problem with Bonini being ignored. I guess if Mr. Williams gets an answer no one else deserves one. )
This is where Charlie Copeland came in. On his blog Resolute Determination, Charlie had the audacity to report the truth. That is, that the arbitrary and capricious Markell adminstration official refused to answer a simple question and instead demanded that an elected official and citizan file a Freedom of Information Act request to get basic information. In addition Charlie Copeland pointed out that the Current State Treasurer went on record as to being opposed to:”there is absolutely no reason why any of us as elected officials should be entitled to any gift or gratuity based simply on the fact that we hold elective office, I think Governor Markell’s Executive Order is a great first step to help restore citizen’s faith in government.””
It would appear from this that the Markell’s appointed State Treasurer is in favor of complete transparency. However, Subsequent events appear to make it obvious that it depends on who is doing the asking.
So here is the timeline.
1. Retirement Week Ads, which look very much like political promotions of the current incumbent of the office appear in the News Journal Papers.
2. 10-25 Ron Williams is told by the State Treasurer that the Ads were payed for by Fidelity Investments. A situation that should require disclosure according to the Markell transparency language.
3. Colin Bonini asks the same question that Ron Williams asks (and for which Ron Williams has already received an answer) and is stonewalled by the State Treasurer.
4. 11-9-09 The State Treasurer sends Colin Bonini a letter telling him that he must submit a Freedom of Information Request to get the same information that she gave Ron Williams voluntarily on October 25th.
4. 12-07-09 Charlie Copeland in his blog repeats Bonini questions. Who is paying for these ads? A simple question that is deserving of a simple answer from those who truly believe in transparency.
5. 12-09-09 Wrong Williams takes Bonini and Copeland for task for not knowing what the Democrat State Treasurer told Wrong Williams.
Wrong Williams ignores the fact that Colin Bonini’s request was totally disrespected and could have been as easily answered as was Williams’ 10-25 request for exactly the same information.
6. 12-09-09 Charlie Copeland posts the obvious that WRong Williams got information immediately from the politically motivated State Treasurer whereas Colin Bonini had to file a Freedom of Information Act Request.
Wrong Williams in his role of slavish advocate of the talking points of the Markell Administration has once again demonstrated his total inability to be objective.
Now I choose to believe that he simply doesn’t have the ability to read and comprehend what he is reading.
Some may believe that Wrong Williams and his innacuracy is due to his the News Journal liberal bias.
Those will point to the Wrong Williams bigotry will in no doubt point out the fact of his being the son-in-law of a former Democrat Governor Candidate.
The other explanation might just be that Colin Bonini represents one of WRong Williams’ many inaccurate predictions (there are so many it is hard to remember which is the worst)
Back in 1994, the sage of the News Journal Papers predicted that Colin Bonini had no chance of ever being a State Senator. It is hard to recall all of the Williams’ misguided predictions but this one is classic.
Williams called Bonini “the Darkest of the Dark Horses” with no chance of winning. Only a Democrat like Williams would still have a job with a predictablity rating worse than a gambling junkie.
It is quite apparent that the continued practice of Williams to ignore facts in the face of reality is behind his biased trashing of Colin Bonini. After all the further Bonini advances the dumber Williams looks.
Lighten’ up Wrong Williams. Regardless of how Colin Bonini does, your reputation of being wrong will be well assured in the future. It is not as if Bonini is your only WRong Williams prediction.
Why do you think Williams writes for a rinky-dink paper? He’s an idiot.
It is good to see a little pushback to the Williams embarrassment. (I think wRong wrote it merely to brag that he had put out the ‘facts’ over a month ago).
I don’t know about all the justifications and surmising here about how Williams might be a shill for liberals. Williams loves him some Tom Wagner who is Velda Jones-Potters ally-in-slime insofar as his nefarious relationship with her husband, Councilman Charles Potter and Wagner’s boy-wonder thug, Nick Adams.
When I read over the Williams article the other day, I had two immediate concerns: first was that what I remembered from the original was that Williams seemed to have gotten the tip to write the original piece from the Bonini camp. second was that I was pretty sure that Williams had given no detailed financial information in his original article and I wasn’t even sure if he had named the vendor in question. (I wish you had linked to his original piece here). I know that he didn’t speak with the Treasurer but that the whole story came from Nick Adams. (Maybe Nick himself was who alerted Williams to the story to front-end it publicly- Damage Control 101).
When I went over to read Charlie Copeland post I was then really struck by the letter from Velda’s deputy, Nick Adams.
As you have noted, not only did Adams tell Senator Bonini that he had to file a FOIA request, there was some additional language about having to send the FOIA over to the Attorney General for review. That was a real WTF moment for me. WTF????
Considering the crowing that team Wagner – Potter did about not accepting gifts, the Copeland peice was spot on and being able to see the ad on his site for the first time (I don’t have audio to listen to it) there is no doubt that this was a pure propaganda electioneering usage that stunk highly of conflict of interest much less the breaking of a promise. I have never heard of such an arrangement as wRong described in his latest article.
Note: Nick Adams is a young man who allegedly worked on Nancy Wagner’s campaign in high school while his father, Bob, was Nancy’s boss as Dover HS Principal. This information is from Bob Reeder who was a teacher at Dover HS (Reeder took Nancy Wagner and Tom Wagner to Chancery Court over the auditor’s having used Bob Adams’ Double Dipping “district’ rule rather than state policy rule in his audit support of Nancy Wagner).
Supposedly, Nick got hired right out of high school by Auditor Wagner – who promoted young Nicholas through the ranks and then offered him up to the new and inexperienced appointee, Jones-Potter. Tom Wagner has been carrying Velda Potter’s husbands water by throwing suspicion and dirt on Charles Potter’s primary opponents and their friends for as long as Charlie has been in office. Tom told me as much himself back in 2006 in the basement of leg hall.
This unveiling of sleaze from Jones-Potter and Nick Adams is no surprise to me. And it shows the Delaware Way in action. My vote will go to Bonini.
Interesting post by TW. How was Bonini suppose to know that Williams had the information before it was published? Even if he did have the published account, shouldn’t Ms. Jones-Potters be able to give a first hand account instead of being judged by hearsay?
Nancy came to the conclusion that I like to hear. Vote for Bonini. I can’t speak of the rest. I have always had positve relations with Councilman Potter. I have not researched Wilmington government. Just a glancing look, gives me pause. They should be happy that I am a downstater.
Good posting. Velda Jones Potter as Treasurer has been awful. Doubt this race will be Potter vs. Bonini. Flowers is likely to win the nomination. Markells numbers are down (rightfully so), Jones Potter makes too many mistakes and no one knows her, and Flowers is the best candidate on the D side (did you listen to him on Jenson). She is such a waste and seems like she wants to campaign on her looks not substance (using money from a company that does business with the state. Personally, I think she is a travesty for women and those who aspire to represent good government. Nick Adams is not a boy wonder, he reminds me of a lap dog willing to work for a doggy bone.
“Velda Jones Potter as Treasurer has been awful”
How? Not sure you’ve backed this up with any facts.
GG is right that Chip Flowers is impressive. I am glad to see him pushed aside. It makes Bonini a near favorite.
I wrote this piece to expose the intellectual paucity of Ron Williams. Yes I know this is like saying the sun rises in the east but I thought that I could document his bias and lack of Intellectual authencticity.
I thought that I had done so but Nancy raised a whole host of new issues. These have taken me some time to track down some answers.
Nancy’s comments were long and aledged much. I take Nancy’s comments seriously enough that I choose to follow up on the assertions in her post. I have spent the last 3 days calling friends and trying to get a handle on her comments. As an honest blogger this is the least I should do.
Some Facts.
1. Nick Adams is the son of Bob Adams who was the Principal of Dover High School.
2. Nancy Wagner was a teacher at Dover High School.
3. Nancy Wagner volunteered to be a faculty advisor for the Dover High School Young Republicans. She was appointed.
4. Nick Adams and Many other members of the DHS YR club helped out Nancy Wagner in her election efforts.
I have had confirmation that Nick Adams had state jobs as a casual and seasonal employee while in college. I cannot confirm Nancy’s assertion that he has been a state employee since his high school graduation.
This does not mean Nancy is wrong. It simply means I can’t do a full time job on part time hours.
I do know Nick Adams and I have found him to be very pleasant and willing to do necessary follow up work on any problem.
In the Republican Party (and I have talked to many Kent Republicans on this) Nick Adams is well liked.
My sources tell me that Nick Adams was loaned to the State Treasurer’s Office (from the Auditor’s Office) after the election of Jack Markell in order facilitate transition in the Treasurer’s Office. It seems that the Markell Administration stripped the Treasurer’s Office of Key employees and that any new office holder would need help in replacing those who left the Treasurer’s Office for the new Markell Administration. Nick Adams was supposed to ease this transition.
In my view transition should be done after 6 months. I have some concern that Nick Adams has not only not been returned after 6 months to the Auditor’s Ofice but that he now has a new title of Deputy State Treasurer. One has to wonder, Has Nick Adams abandoned his Republican roots?