Not only is Wesley Donehue shutting down Pub Politics, he’s giving up his paying gig over at the State House:
Happy Friday – Effective June 30th, I will no longer be the spokesman for the SC Senate Republican Caucus. Please send all press inquires to Mark Harmon, caucus executive director.I’m leaving to concentrate 100% of my time on Internet politics as my company, Push Digital, grows into one of the nation’s most prominent Republican digital and technology agencies….Wesley
I wish him all the best as he grows his business. I don’t necessarily wish all of his candidates the best, but I hope things go well for Wesley. (Which just drives Doug crazy, I know — sorry.)
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I cannot join your hopes for his success. We do not need more of this on either side!
Perfectly understandable.
But I get along well with Wesley, and with Joel Sawyer (despite this awkwardness the other night). And their success causes me to reflect on what it takes to succeed in the world of politics, particularly seen as a business.
It reminds me of what Gil Thelen once said to me when he was my boss, back in the early 90s — you have to decide whether you’re going to be right, or be effective.
Wesley is effective. So was Joel, in using all that Nancy Pelosi nonsense to get Mark Sanford elected. I could never do what they do.
So it is that Wesley was able to take his sideline and make a living from it, to the point of quitting his day job. Which I am so far from being able to do with my blog that it’s ridiculous. And part of my problem is that I approach starting and running a business, as you have pointed out, rather the way Mr. Darcy would have. There are certain things one has to do to be successful that, to me, would be “insupportable.”
No, wait. Darcy was pretty effective in all he did — running his estate, personally tracking down Lydia and the scoundrel Wickham in the back streets of London, and so forth.
I run a business more the way Mr. Bennet would.
If I had portrayed Mr. Bennet in the play, it would have been typecasting. Playing Sir William Lucas, a gregarious sort who had earned his position by being successful in trade (oh, the shame of it!), was more of a stretch for me.
Apparently a moderate sits between O.J. Simpson and Charles Manson and denounces their behavior but admires their effectiveness.
Do you have the same admiration for marketing execs who push cigarettes? Just doing their jobs…
I recently had friend who is a lawyer represent a position I opposed. I could stay friends, but not wish him success in his endeavor.
We aren’t talking Manson or Simpson. Just politics.
I also do not wish tobacco marketers success!
I fully take y’all’s points. I just try — and don’t always succeed — to appreciate people who are different from me. I guess, in this case, I’m sort of in Godfather mode. You know, when he said to Sollozzo, “I want to congratulate you on your new business and I’m sure you’ll do very well and good luck to you. Especially since your interests don’t conflict with mine.”
That was right after telling Sollozzo straight out that in his, Vito Corleone’s, opinion, Sollozzo was in “a dirty business.”
But hey, good luck with it…
I think I come down on the “hate the sin; love the sinner” side, unless a position or activity is so far outside the bounds of decency that I question my original perception of the person.
Lawyers are ethically bound to represent the reprehensible. Not so sure about political spokesweasels.