Accused GOP leader has no plans to resign

Missed this on Thursday, but Rob caught it: Tommy Whaley, the State Republican Executive Committee member who was recently accused by state GOP Chair Susan Weddington of tape recording conference calls and leaking the tapes to the Chronicle, has no plans to resign and says he cannot be fired.

"They can't fire me, because I was elected by the people of the First Congressional District," Whaley said.

Whaley has been given the option of resigning from the State Republican Executive Committee, according to the Associated Press.

Whaley is accused of letting non-committee members listen in on GOP conference calls on April 7 and May 13.

"The long and short of it is, they want to try and make me mad to get me to resign. And I'm not going to resign," Whaley said Wednesday, declining to discuss specifics of complaint.

"They are going to have a meeting in a couple of weeks, and they are going to find some way to charge me. As soon as I hear back, I'll know better what I've been charged with."

What makes this more than just inside-baseball stuff to me is the possible reasons why a guy like this would do something like that. Why embarrass an institution for which you sit on the executive board? The most plausible answer I can think of is that he doesn't like the direction the state GOP has been going and is working to show the leaders of that direction in an unflattering light in the hopes that the rank and file will turn against them. Seems awfully quixotic to me, but given that the standard Democratic method of trying to change party philosophy is either public slagging of those with whom you disagree or joining another party in hopes of destroying the old one, I'd say his tactics are relatively mild.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on August 09, 2003 to Show Business for Ugly People | TrackBack