11 Comments so far

1. kcinsider on August 9, 2006 9:30 am

   Wouldn’t be nice if Shields would take the hint and NOT run for Mayor? But, she won’t -politicians are like prize fighters, they never know when to hang it up.

   I love the term limit vote -way to go KC Council (except Becky Nace, who was smart enough to know it would go down in flames). Can we now all acknowledge that Barnes is a lame duck and start treating her that way? And to Bonnie Sue Cooper “webe” telling you to get a day job.

2. pendergasted on August 9, 2006 10:37 am

   It was abosultely selfish and arrogant for the City Council to put the term limits changes on the ballot. Term limits
   was an initiative petition that came from the people, and should be left in place until the people decided to make a change.

3. Derek on August 9, 2006 12:16 pm

   I wouldn’t vote for Shields if she did run (and I lived in KCMO)…

4. Northeast Guy on August 9, 2006 2:52 pm

   I’ve lived in KCMO for three years now and every election has seemed worse than the last. I showed up at my local precinct yesterday to a crowd of ten campaigners all of them asking me to consider their candidate or cause.

   There is something terribly wrong when able bodied, employable adults commit this sort of time to these piss-ant elections. There must be a bundle of cash and power to be doled out to the faithful.

   And signs!… I’m always leery of a ballot question that is championed with signs telling me to “VOTE YES”. Ten bucks says that question 2 will come back to cost us dearly in time. Nobody prints signs for a good cause. They print signs because the return is better than what their money earns in the bank.

5. Hank Reardon on August 9, 2006 2:56 pm

   Becky Nace? Smart? Two things you’ll never hear in the same sentence from City Hall insiders. I wish people would stop giving her credit for a grandstand vote. It’s been said before. Losing 12 to 1 is not noble. It’s showing the whole city what a crappy leader you are. Out of 12 people she couldn’t get ONE person to agree with her? And she thinks she can be an effective mayor?

   Paul Danaher was the master of losing 12 to 1. It was said he couldn’t get a second on a motion in favor of motherhood. Where is he now? Probably on some board of directors being the lone dissenting vote. They didn’t call him “Dr. No” for nothing.

   We need leaders. Only the news outlets need martyrs.

6. kcinsider on August 9, 2006 4:31 pm

   I didn’t say Becky was perfect, I just said she was bright enough to see that the term limit issue was dead on arrival and to state publicly that the people had already spoken on it. I don’t agree with her on every issue, and obviously she has made mistakes during her tenure. I just don’t see how she should be damned to hell for voting differently than all of the others on an issue -especially when she was right.

   I love how people on here think changing the minds of other councilmembers is the easiest thing in the world. I guess it should go like this:
   Becky: I think you should vote no on putting the term limit issue on the ballot
   Other Councilmember: No
   Becky: Please, pretty pretty please???
   Other Councilmember: Oh, ok.

   What should she have done when it was evident that no one else was voting no? Been a lemming and voted along with them? Or just not vote? If you’re all so great at changing people’s position, I suggest you go into consulting and make a fortune teaching others on building consensus.

7. Francesca on August 9, 2006 4:38 pm

   Glad to see that others are savvy about the ways of Kathryn Shields. Public records should remain public, but by her repeated disregard of the sunshine law she ovbiously feels differently.

8. Hank Reardon on August 9, 2006 7:54 pm

   kcinsider,

   I now see the irony in your name. You don’t know much about the inner workings of the council do you? Exactly what is it you’re an “insider” of?

   Politics and leadership is about diplomacy, influence, affecting change. We’re to believe that Nace was the lone “correct” person in the room? I’ve seen her in action. I’ve sat in on committee meetings. That has never been the case that I’ve observed. Most of the time she’s good for some WTF? looks exchanged between staffers but that’s about it.

   Yes she got this one right. The question we need to be asking is why the other 11 councilmembers and the mayor got it wrong? They’re all corrupt and slaves to the Charter Review Committee? I don’t think so. Someone needs to dig a little deeper than “Becky Nace was right” if you want to know what really happened.

9. Craig on August 10, 2006 1:46 am

   Kathryn Shields was many things, but stupid wasn’t one of them. She knew that full disclosure would mean sharing a cell with Helga the 400 lb lesbian in Federal Prison. As it was, she barely avoided an indictment when Fred Waris realized they just had a chump charge on him, and failed to roll over on her. Anyway, bet the farm that Kathryn will be having a monsterous shredder party at the courthouse before her sworn enemy moves in.

10. Joe Medley on August 10, 2006 11:42 am

    Jolie Justus a tobacco lawyer? I don’t think so.

11. bridget on August 14, 2006 8:18 am

    While Justus works at Shook Hardy Bacon, a law firm that represents tobacco firms, I don’t know that she ever worked on tobacco cases. Before becoming Director of Pro Bono Services for the firm, I think she worked in their Food area. I believe SHB’s main areas are tobacco, food and pharmaceuticals. The cases I do recall talking to her about in recent years were death penalty case out of Missouri and a case of two under-18 immigrants in Louisiana. It seems disingenuous to call Justus a ‘tobacco lawyer.’