It's time for one my occasional reviews of the Brooklyn GOP media empire operated by KCRP Chairman Craig Eaton, KCRP Law Chairman Gene R. Berardelli and the KCRP's once and future Chief Cook and Bottle Washer Russell Gallo. Since some time before this year's elections, these Brooklyn GOP Leaders and Talkers have had very little to say --- Hmm, I wonder why?
The first blog up is the very long criticized "BROOKLYNGOP.com --- Website of the Kings County Republican County Committee" ( remember all the grief about it from Galt, Taggart, Riordan and the rest at the "Atlas Shrugs in Brooklyn" blog in the early days).
BROOKLYNGOP.com is the official personal blog of the Chairman of the Kings County Republican Party, Craig Eaton. This blog contains Eaton's personal message space, "Chairman's Corner," with its now venerable message that starts, "Politics is not a spectator sport...." That line always makes me laugh, because that is one of the things that politics certainly is --- just ask Room 8's Gatemouth.
Sadly for Mr. Eaton that isn't all that is laughable about his official GOP blog. Lately, about every three weeks somebody named "Honest Abe" does a post. The last was "Happy Thanksgiving" on November 21st. Most of the recent posts are things like "Happy [fill in the appropriate holiday] (my personal favorite was "Happy Yom Kippur" --- how very Brooklyn GOP). What one never sees on Chairman Eaton's blog is real news about what the Brooklyn GOP is actually DOING -- to grow the Republican Party -- to find new candidates and build the GOP organization -- to win elections -- etc. -- etc. -- etc. In the 2012 election year, there was nothing about the 2012 elections (there was something about the 2013 mayoral race [to be sure, more about that in later posts]). The saddest thing about all of that is that Eaton's blog does appear to accurately depict what's going-on in Eaton's Brooklyn GOP.
The next nest electronically belongs to Gene R. Berardelli, the "Big Bird" of the Brooklyn GOP. The "Brooklyn GOP Radio -Official- Show Blog" has been referred to as Big Bird Berardelli's personal vanity blog for a very long time. Oddly, the only recent post on Berardelli's blog was a Thanksgiving Day message by his best political buddy, Russell Gallo.
At least Berardelli's blog did some political coverage of the 2012 races and related matters early in the political season; unfortunately most of the Brooklyn GOP Radio ... Show Blog's 2012 coverage was limited to the political and legal exploits of Berardelli and Gallo. When things started turning badly for the Republican Party in the 2012 election cycle (including for Berardelli and Gallo), the coverage developed a detectable flavor of sour grapes. Then, as election day approached, the postings ceased entirely. Like Eaton's blog, Berardelli's didn't give any election results, much less any meaningful explanation or analysis of what went wrong.
Last , but not least is what I call the Gallo blog, "Brooklynyrs.com - The OFFICIAL Brooklyn Young Republicans" --- after all it contains Gallo's "Message from the President" above his portrait and his message (a truly inspiring one that I'll gladly revisit on another occasion). Without a doubt, Russell Gallo's Brooklyn YRs Blog is worst thing that you'll see if you visit any of these " 'OFFICIAL...' Brooklyn GOP" sites.
Today, December 8, 2012, Gallo's Brooklyn YRs blog announces in its headline "NEXT MEETING - WED. 9/19 @ 7:00 PM"; a close look at its home page shows that nobody has bothered to post anything there since 6/5/12. The "NY Young Republican Club of the Year" is still hawking tickets for the June 11, 2012 Lincoln Dinner at Garguilo's; its "NEWS" tab hits you with the single word "Archives"; its "LATEST EVENTS" tab is a billboard for Brooklyn GOP Radio (which has not done a blog cast since the summer) and a December 2012 events calendar (that oddly runs through January 5th) that only lists Brooklyn GOP Radio programs on all the Wednesdays in December and January 2nd, and a Brooklyn YRs meeting on December 19th; the "BROOKLYN GOP" tab links to Eaton's Brooklyn GOP blog above; and the "NYSYR" tab is the only useful one --- as a convenient comparison to what a real functioning YR blog might look like; all the remaining tabs are either empty, out of date or link to other blog material mentioned above. Like the blog of his boss, Craig Eaton or the blog of his mentor and consigliere, Gene R. Berardelli, Gallo's spot was blank about how he or any other Republican did in "his" area or any other part of Brooklyn.
On Wednseday, September 26, 2012 I posted the following: " 'Russell Gallo, Gene Berardelli and Craig Eaton's GOP “Radio” Silence' --- Is it all simple and straight forward ? Or, is it all about y/k/w from Bay Ridge?" At that time, I conjectured, "One of the old hands with a firm grip on the leash of the Brooklyn GOP, who likes to yank it hard with some frequency, thinks all of the insider GOP blogging, for and against Eaton, etc., is a big waste of time, effort and money. He is known to have the ear of y/k/w; and for some time now, what y/k/w says — goes." Nothing that I've read or heard since leads me to change that assessment one bit. But, I do have this question, "Can the tale that wags the dog also yank hard on the dog's chain with some frequency? "
UPDATE: Since I posted the above item, Craig Eaton's blog posted the following:
ReplyDelete"Happy Hannukah!
by UNCLE ABE on December 8, 2012..."
Not exactly a game changer!
About a month ago Craig Eaton said, “…The Republican Party reached a new low in the 2012 elections."
ReplyDeleteWhose fault was that? Eaton backed Romney and Turner and Storobin and Gallo and McCarthy and he promised a Republican Renaissance in Brooklyn. Why didn't he resign as the GOP Kings County Chairman when it all crashed and burned all over Brooklyn?
When did he say that. Cite your source.
ReplyDelete