'S No White

Ignoring pleas from The Other Dunwoody, DeKalb's most notorious Unnecessary Combatants refused the "Name Writ Large" contest afforded by our recent snow event and have instead continued to regale us with more public pissin' contests. Once again it involves Miz 'Laine's Termite Hatin' former Chief of Staff and yet another Ethics Board member. While the termite trauma involved Ethics Board Chairman John Ernst this time we're treated to belly buckin' with Robert Blackman. Why wait for the Fourth of July for fireworks, eh? Or so sayeth the AJC:

The spat occurred when Blackman questioned Lundsten about his allegation that Board of Ethics Chairman John Ernst had failed to be impartial.

Then Lundsten accused Blackman of being biased against him and said the ethics board member called him “slick” at a previous meeting in December. Blackman denied Tuesday he had called Lundsten any names. Lundsten responded by saying Blackman was lying, using a vulgarity [TOD: thereby doing exactly what he accused Blackman of].

That’s when Blackman said Lundsten could meet him outside.

Really? You sometimes have to wonder if everything local politicians need to know they learned in the high school cafeteria.

YO! Youse! Meese! Tree o'clock. Unda da bleacha's. Be DAHR!

No matter the source of this early onset Civility Alzheimers, this food fight slung some of the slop over to the Cool Kids' table where it has splattered all over Snow White. Miz 'Laine's successor ran on a commitment not only to the Big T but to also clean house, replacing all existing staff with her own. The naive amongst us assumed this meant not only riding into office on a White horse but also with a full set of Pink Slips. But the AJC report indicates the Chief of Staff is only on administrative leave, was not dismissed but has submitted his exit paperwork, end date undisclosed. 

Commissioner Nancy Jester placed Lundsten on administrative leave Thursday after an internal review. Lundsten has submitted his resignation papers to the county. He had already been planning to step down after helping Jester, who was elected in December to replace Boyer, transition into the job.

It is nice to know that the Chief of Staff is the one who is really in charge though the stated intent of "job transition" is baffling. What can Snow White possibly learn other than how not to do things and there is now sufficiently detailed public record that color commentary is unnecessary. Or perhaps having tasted of the poisoned apple provided by DeKalb's other wicked witch she feels inoculated and immune to the effects of even a full barrel of similarly tainted apples. Surely she's not channelling her inner Turing... Still it seems more prudent to sanitize the barrel and start over with fresh apples. Or maybe we misunderstood, jumping to the conclusion that cleaning house would be first order of business and should have known that removing the existing staff "after I take office" could well have been "quite a while after." No matter where this is along the political line that includes "it depends on what 'is' is" it is on that line nonetheless.

It didn't take much time in the political sun for Snow White to pick up tan lines.