Today several of the Oberserver and Eccentric newspapers carried the story below about Trent Wisecup taking a leave of absence from Joe Knollenberg's office. Funny thing is some people don't believe Wisecup's story. When I posted an entry on Daily Kos and asked whether Trent is really sick or if he is using the medical story as cover for his behavior, these are the results.
Do you believe that Trent is really sick or is this a cover story?
Trent is really sick
18 votes - 20 %
It's a politically motivated cover story
68 votes - 79 %
It's kind of interesting too that Wisecup is blaming his behavior in the Rochester drug store where I confronted his boss, Joe Knollenberg about his vote on the war on lack of sleep, not his bi-polar disorder.
If Trent is really sick, then I have all the sympathy and empathy in the world for him, but if he isn't, this is a really despicable act to use a medical condition to cover up for really bad behavior and bad judgment. In the Keith Olbermann piece about Trent's outburst, Rachel Maddow seems to say that she had contacted Knollenberg's office and was told that they actually had a meeting about me and what to do should they encounter me and they made a concious decision to confront me the way Trent does in the video. Wisecup claiming to be sick is just the kind of tactic Trent might have learned at the knee of Karl Rove the most prolific polital dirty trickster in history, who even stooped to outing a CIA agent to protect his boss, President Bush. It would gain Wisecup sympathy and make him immune to further attacks, since anyone attacking him would be criticized for attacking someone with a mental illness.
Knollenberg's chief of staff takes medical leave
By Greg Kowalski
STAFF WRITER
The bruising campaign for Joe Knollenberg's 9th U.S. House seat took another hit Thursday when Trent Wisecup, Knollenberg's chief of staff, announced he is going on medical leave.
Wisecup sent an e-mail Friday stating, "I haven't been sleeping well of late, as you all will know from all the late e-mails I have been sending over the past few months. Some of the e-mails have been really weird and flat-out kooky. I recently checked myself into Beaumont (Hospital)... to see what was up. I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. This is a form of depression that fortunately is treatable with medication."
Steve Betz, field representative for Knollenberg, said Wisecup went on paid leave Oct. 22, and no date has been set for his return. He'll come back "when he's rested and ready," Betz said. "It's left up to him."
Betz said the election race - which is already in full force more than a year before the vote in November 2008 - is exceptionally hot. "It's a stressful environment," Betz said.
Knollenberg has been under a virtual siege with Democrats targeting his seat as vulnerable. Knollenberg was first elected in 1992 and has won re-election every election since as a solid Republican.
He is facing a strong challenge from Democrat Gary Peters and Nancy Skinner. Knollenberg narrowly defeated Skinner last year.
In recent weeks, anti-Knollenberg campaigners have been following the Congressman around to area stores and even to his Bloomfield Township home with video cameras asking him, among other things, why he supports the Iraq war.
In a widely circulated video, Wisecup had a confrontation in an area store with Bruce Fealk, a Rochester Hills man who has been highly critical of Knollenberg. The video shows Wisecup berating Fealk and shielding Knollenberg. "I got fired up about the MoveOn.org protester and his mugging video, protesting Sandie Knollenberg at her home tactics because I think politics in America should be better," Wisecup said in his e-mail.
"I love my job, especially when I can make a difference for people in Michigan and Oakland County," Wisecup said.
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9 comments:
haha (genuine laughter)
You posted a poll on DailyKos and expect that to be representative or worth reporting?
(more rolling on the floor laughter)
Laugh if you want, Chet. Remember this, "first they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they attack you, then you win."
I'm three-quarters of the way there with a year to go until the election.
I'm not laughing at you, Bruce, I was laughing at the concept of a poll on DailyKos being a valid measure of something.
And I guess, applying your formula of "they attack you" to your family, you have "won" the battle with your family?
Good work, Bruce. You've defeated your family.
Chet, it has nothing to do with my family. I was referring to defeating Joe Knollenberg and replacing him with a Democrat whose values are more in line with the current makeup of the 9th Congressional District.
Hey Chet - unless you have been hiding in a cave, the Internet is the new "4th estate". I wouldn't dismiss any poll - even from the DailyKos. The Repugnantcons thought their internal polls gave them clear sailing in 2006. Rove had more then egg on his face. I think 2008 will be more of the same. As for Knollenberg "if he can't stand the heat - get out of the kitchen".
Bruce, that's called "using your own reasoning against you". Apply your general statement, "first they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they attack you, then you win," to your situation with your family. At first, I'm sure they ignored your Knollenberg obsession. Then they laughed. Then your family attacked you (after you used or carelessly caused your brother's name to be involved).
My question was meant to show you the irony. Did you win?
Let's say a year from now Joe Knollenberg loses, and you reflect back on your broken family. Was it worth it?
Mike, I didn't see any of those "clear sailing" internals. And if you're suggesting DailyKos was the cause, I'll admit that they did a good job organizing and out "netted" the R's hugely, but any one site didn't do that and even the net has its limits in influence. But go on believe DK polls have meaning.
Sorry to disappoint, but my business is going to take me away from you for a few days. And I my weariness of the drone as well.
We'll miss you Chet. I'm looking forward to a reply to my offer. I think that Trent's willingness to take advantage of my brother's lack of political astuteness and how ruthless someone like Trent can be came as a surprise to my brother. I did try to warn him, but his anger with me at the time blinded him to my advice.
I do hope at some point I can mend fences with my brother, but one has nothing to do with the other.
Again, Chet, I have tried to prove to you that what happened with my brother's name being inserted instead of my was a computer code glitch and nothing more, so if you have any honor, I'd appreciate if you stop referring to it as if I did it purposefully.
Do you happen to know when Trent is going back to work? We might like to send him a card or something.
Don't you take a laptop with you when you travel? I will so miss our back and forth.
Bruce, you assumed I was traveling. Unlike you, I have a job.
It's irrelevant whether you did it purposefully, but you have refuse to provide evidence otherwise, which actually suggests, that you did it purposely. But if it were unintentional anyway, I'd still think some apology to your brother other than your arrogance "he'll have to accept it" type of thing would be appropriate. And why belittle your own brother here - he's responsible for his naiveness in politics? Or are you responsible for putting him the position? Sometimes mending a relationship requires sucking it up and doing the right thing - sometimes even accepting more responsibility than you believe you're responsible for. Bruce, its getting cold out there - I know a lot of people travel south this time of year. You may run out of time to do the right thing.
By the way, you said "we'll miss you" - who's we? Your other personality?
Trent, I had the company re-send the original e-mail, since you wouldn't accept the one I sent that was copied and pasted that I sent to my brother. My brother has no apology coming from me. I told him what happened wasn't my fault and was completely out of my control.
My family matters are frankly, none of your business and don't change the fact that Joe Knollenberg and Trent Wisecup are completely out of step with the district.
In fact, I think Joe Knollenberg and Trent Wisecup owe me an apology for the way Trent went after me for asking my Congressman perfectly legitimate questions and then trying to smear me with the letter my brother wrote to Trent and then Trent then putting it out in the press when he apparently knew he was mentally ill and perhaps even in the hospital as he forwarded my brother's letter to the press.
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