Come Ye Up Out of Jordan

No one would be surprised should the New York Times, or any other liberal newspaper, choose to print a letter to the editor, written by George McGovern, that was critical of George W. Bush. After all, Mr. McGovern sought, but did not attain, the very office the Mr. Bush now occupies AND they are from different poles on the political spectrum.

Equally so, it should come as no surprise that today, the left leaning Tulsa World printed a scathing letter to the editor by Linda Jordan, in which Ms. Jordan opines that the four remaining members of the Gang of Five have put our city "on its ear."

I won't go into too much of the rest of her content, because you've read it all before from other letter writers in previous editions of TTW. Her complaint, as well as the other mid-towners that share her views, can be summed up with something like:

"Who do these people think they are? Don't they know it takes years of networking and tedious attendence on innocuous public service committees, lots of donations to a couple of museum fund drives and at least a year of dues paying through either Leadership Tulsa or, if you're really lucky, Leadership Oklahoma, to have the right to make decisions here in our fair city?"

But what is important to note isn't so much what Linda Jordan has to say, but who Linda Jordan is!

Linda Jordan, wife of Tulsa school board member Gary Percefull, was the unsuccessful Democrat nominee in the 2000 election for Tulsa City Council District 2. That's right...the district I currently represent. Ms. Jordan was defeated rather handily by then political newcomer and Republican, Randi Miller.

She and her husband Gary operate a small marketing and public relations outfit under the name of Scissortail Group. Through this entity, they were awarded the contract to do all of the organizing and marketing of last Summer's International Route 66 Festival. Reviews as to the success of the festival varied greatly. I happen to think Michael Bates of www.batesline.com, did a pretty solid job of critiquing both camps arguments in his article entitled "Pair of sixes paradox." However, I think Ms. Jordan might take issue with him, too, since my take was that Mr. Bates' chief complaint was how the event was organized and communicated.

Ms. Jordan notes in her letter this morning, that she now lives in District 4, where she informs the reader that her "councilor shows up." [I'll take the time at a later date to explain to Ms. Jordan how I have a better attendence record than her councilor] "Her councilor" is of course Tom Baker. Baker is a Democrat, a former fire chief and the son of the late Aileen Baker, who served North Tulsa County for several years in the Oklahoma legislature.

But what may be of more interest is the fact that Baker barely won his last race for the D4 seat, beating Republican newcomer Eric Gomez by a couple of dozen votes. So who was Baker's 2004 campaign manager? None other than Gary Percefull, Ms. Jordan's betrothed.

Linda Jordan is certainly entitled to her opinion, and I do not begrudge her any forum willing to allow her to express that opinion. In fact, I won't even accuse her of grandstanding by seeking out newspaper exposure. What is disappointing is that the newspaper didn't share how close she is to the politics of both the Districts 2 and 4.

What we can learn from this is, not all "good ol' boys," are boys.