GOP decides against sledgehammer party

Looks like the Harris County GOP has backed off its idea to aid in the destruction of the former Democratic Party headquarters.

County GOP Chairman Jared Woodfill said Friday night that the party received anonymous threats after announcing plans to gather Sunday afternoon and hammer on the former Democratic headquarters on La Branch. The building has been sold and is slated for eventual demolition anyway.

Woodfill said callers to GOP headquarters threatened to physically interfere with the event.

He said Republicans will have a party Sunday at their own headquarters instead.

"Once we realized that swinging a sledgehammer would make us, like, all sweaty and stuff, we decided we'd rather not. Besides, none of us actually owned a sledgehammer," Woodfill did not add.

The local Democratic Party had not planned any kind of counter-demonstration, although the AFL-CIO said it would conduct a peaceful rally nearby.

[Democratic County Chairman Gerry] Birnberg said Friday that neither the Democratic Party nor the labor unions ever had any intention of interfering with the Republican event.

"I wanted it to go forward because I think that indicated metaphorically exactly the image that we think fits what Republicans have done in government," he said. "We had no thought of doing anything at all that would be in any way threatening."

"I think the Republicans recognized in retrospect that maybe this wasn't the best idea they ever had," he said.

Indeed.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on August 23, 2003 to Local politics | TrackBack