I don’t know anything about the Spokane County Sheriff’s race but it looks like it might turn out to be an interesting one. And by interesting I mean hey Spokane County, enjoy this sort of nonsense from now until November!
Well, if anyone came prepared to answer questions, it was Ozzie Knezovitch. He took every opportunity to cite numbers, dollars, accomplishments, and highlight everything he’s done as sheriff since 2006. Mr Orr, on the other hand, kept bringing up that he doesn’t want to raise taxes like Knezovich does. He says he has a program that could save $20 million and pump either $6 million or $1.6 million, depending on when he said it, back into the department.
Knezovich stressed his leadership with concrete examples. Orr questioned his leadership with innuendo and insinuation. Concerning the 46 deputies who are eligible to retire he said, “I don’t know this for a fact but I heard that Sheriff Knezovich asked for a letter from each deputy who would leave the department stating why they would leave.” The fact that he doesn’t know something is true didn’t stop him from repeating it as fact. What kind of person does that?
[…]
Several times during the debate, Orr would finish his remarks and Knezovich would plainly state that what Orr said about a topic was false. Orr remained impassive and didn’t respond to any of the accusations. After stating Orr had just told yet another falsehood, Knezovich pointed out that “truth, fact, and integrity” is where he and Orr differ. Ouch.
[…]
There were no questions concerning Orr’s strange respectful acknowledgement of a theory that legalized abortion in 1973 contributed to the drop in crime that began in 1992. Orr, with a B.A. in Religious Education from Bob Jones University, thinks it’s important for voters to know that he’s a conservative Republican who is opposed to abortion. On a question about drug enforcement he mentioned, “There’s a 10th Amendment. Interesting.” But then he didn’t explain why he brought it up. I think this paragraph tells me all I need to know about Douglas Orr.
Obviously there are loose cannon candidates everywhere. I once told a pollster that I was for Goodspaceguy,* so I’m not claiming any moral superiority for the Wet Side. Still, there’s something about that happening at a Democratic Party event. I mean holy shit, what’s it going to be like when he goes in front of a Tea Party crowd?
* True fact: The question was “if the election was held today who would you vote for” and then a list. I figured if the timeline got that messed up, he’d be the one to handle it.
Well let’s see … Orr has a Ph.D. in criminal justice from WSU, an M.A. in organizational leadership from Gonzaga, co-authored a paper for a professional publication on how to retrieve black boxes from crashed Ford Explorers, and is fluent in Koine Greek. Plus a
whole bunch of other shit. The guy isn’t stupid, whatever else he is.
I can see where Greek fluency could come in handy for police work. Let’s say his fellow detectives on the Spokane police force have Puddy in an interrogation room. I’m not insinuating Puddy did anything; let’s just hypothesize that’s he’s a material witness to whatever it is that Puddy is a witness to in the course of his daily meanderings. So they’re asking Puddy questions and Puddy’s jabbering away and, fuck, you know how Puddy is. The Spokane police aren’t going to say, “Who’s got the Puddy Decoder Ring?” More likely they’ll say, “Sounds like Greek to me.” At which point somebody says, “Get Orr.” See what I mean? But even Douglas Orr can’t crack the Puddy Code. Nobody can. You gotta have the Puddy Decoder Ring.