Reorganization Meetings: when Party Leaders Lie with Impunity, Part 2

On December 2 we presented facts behind the probable re-appointment of Ross Marzolf as King County 37th District Chairman and why the new King County Republican Party might consider not ratifying that appointment.

From the email underground comes more detail about this sorry, still festering abscess deep in the KCGOP. Here is yet another unanswered letter, from an articulate, reasonable man, explaining why Mr. Marzolf might not need to apologize for casting aspersions on a man’s character, if Ross truly had believed the lies he spread when he spread them. Unfortunately for Ross, he did apologize, he did admit the scurilous allegations he spread were false, and he did go to party members with whom he has had fundamental disagreements, to complain about the victim’s failure to give him the forgiveness he believed he was owed.

The vote tally in the 37th Leg. Dist. ratification meeting will reveal a great deal about the character of the PCOs who make up the brand new KC Republican Party. I am convinced most of them think of themselves as honorable folks. Let’s hope they do undertake honorable actions at the upcoming meetings, beginning on Saturday.

The following letter, originally sent in 2006, was sent to all PCOs in the 37th District this December 6, in an attempt to open their eyes. It repeats some of the information in the letter published on December 2, but there is crucial new information here.

Emailed to 37th District PCOs December 6:

Note:  Ross Marzolf has failed to response to requests that he divulge the source of his statement that I “had a problem with Jews” and Ross Marzolf and Suellen Rouche continue to refuse to discuss the issue.

September 8, 2006

Ross Marzolf / Executive Director
King County Republican Party
845 106th Avenue NE Suite 110
Bellevue, Washington  98004

Re: Apology at State Executive Board Meeting 

 

Ross:

At the conclusion of the January 8, 2006 Washington State Republican Party Executive Board meeting, the day Diane Tebelius was elected Republican State Chairman, our paths crossed and I took the opportunity to again ask you why, when I was running for a position on the County Executive Board, you told people that I “had a problem with Jews.”

You ‘apologized’ for making that assertion and asked me to forgive you.  But when I asked you why you had told people that I “…. had a problem with Jews,” you did not answer my question.  Instead you again asked me for forgiveness and, again, I asked you why you would say that I “…. had a problem with Jews.”  You became visibly agitated and upset and asked me why I wouldn’t forgive you.  It is true, I didn’t forgive you and I had already told you why: you would not disclose your ‘reason’ for telling people that I  “…. had a problem with Jews.” You would not disclose the ‘source’ for your assertion.

Your response was that you had thought the allegation to be true at the time, as if it was simply an honest mistake.  So I asked you why you thought I “…. had a problem with Jews” and if that was still your opinion.  You did not directly answer either question.  Instead you told me that you had talked with Steve Schulman (hard-left Democrat activist, owner of the “Leschi Food Mart” and close friend of Suellen Roche, your fellow member of Michael Young’s King County Republican administration).  Mr. Schulman is, of course, the person responsible for trying to have the police arrest me for ‘trespassing’ at his mini-mart (for flying an American flag and displaying Support Our Troops signs in Leschi Park which abuts his “Leschi Food Mart”) claiming there were “complaints” by “his customers,” who evidently appreciated the “cheap wine” and “good sausage” (to which Suellen Roche gave such enthusiastic testimony) but did not want to be “confronted” by the American flag.

You told me Mr. Schulman told you “it” (his attempt to have me arrested) didn’t have anything to do with him being Jewish.  That is, of course, accurate as“It” had to do with me flying the American flag in Leschi Park. And since the allegation did not come from Mr. Schulman, it had to come from another source or be a fabrication.

And that is the crux of the issue.

This admission on your part, that you had gone to Steve Schulman, after you had made the assertion that I “…. had a problem with Jews,” to question him about my ‘alleged anti-Semitism’, brings up several disturbing and obvious questions.  Why would you go to Mr. Schulman, upon whom your assertion is evidently based, after you made the assertion?

Why would you go to someone you did not know (and had no reason to know, since the Leschi Food Mart is not in your neighborhood) to ask if I “ had a problem” with him being Jewish?  Mr. Schulman being Jewish is not something you would know unless ‘someone’ had told you he is.  But he must be in Suellen Roche’s neighborhood as she shops at his “Leschi Food Mart” and fondly refers to him as “that boy.”

Is Suellen Roche that ‘someone’ who told you Mr. Schulman is Jewish and that I “…. had a problem with Jews”?

When I would not forgive you, you stormed off, cornered Doug Parris and Michelle McIntyre of the Reagan Wing in the lobby of the hotel and in a long and emotional diatribe, expressed your frustration to them that I would not accept your apology, ‘forgetting’ to tell Mr. Parris and Mrs. McIntyre that the reason I had not forgiven you for your public assertion is because you would not tell me what prompted you to initiate a very ugly smear.

There is a precedent of forgiveness in America, directly associated with our Christian heritage. In Luke 17 Jesus said, “If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him.”  So, Christian forgiveness is contingent on repentance.  And it is clear that “repentance” is not just words, but an act of the heart (2 Corinthians 7:9-11). It is an act of sincerely admitting a fault and forsaking it. You must admit, not to “an error” but to doing something bad on purpose, like taking something you knew was not yours.

It is a simple matter to feign an “apology” if you don’t have to admit wrong doing. To say “I’m sorry I offended you” is, in essence, the same as saying “I’m sorry you have a problem.” It does not suggest any real admission nor repentance, just self-justification.

Ross, did you do anything wrong?  One can hardly be blamed for saying something honestly believed to be true.  No apology is necessary.  Whether or not you are sincere in repenting for falsely accusing me of anti-Semitism depends entirely on whether you tell me the reason you said it.  The claim, as you now admit, was a pure fabrication, maliciously invented by ‘someone.’  It was intended to seriously damage me politically and to help my opponent, favored by your faction of the Party.  If you are the author of the fabrication, then you could not have sincerely believed it was true as you claimed in our January 8th conversation.  If you want anyone to believe that you didn’t make up your assertion, as a campaign smear tactic, but sincerely believed it, then you must reveal its source.

If you have truly repented of the smear, why do you protect its source?  As long as you know the source of the slander and refuse to disclose it, you are enabling its continuance. Why should anyone believe your apology is sincere?   That is the price of forgiveness: honesty.  Full Disclosure is something that, to this day, you refuse to do.

Brian Thomas

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