Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Rep. Frank Antenori (R-LD30) has annoyed his base with his sense of entitlement to Jonathan Paton's senate seat. Acting like an egotistical prick does not sit well with the public.
Dan Shearer, editor of the conservative Green Valley News And Sun has Some Words For Frank:
Like a small rudder that steers a ship, or a matchstick that sets an entire forest ablaze, the tongue — that very small part of our bodies — can do mighty things.
In Frank Antenori’s case, it’s doing a lot of damage. To himself.
Antenori is Green Valley’s District 30 state representative. We have two of them.
He’s the one who can’t shut up.
Frank’s coming off a couple of bad weeks. On Jan. 16, in an awkwardly worded announcement, he told us he’s seeking state Sen. Jonathan Paton’s seat at the Legislature. Unfortunately, his announcement came before Paton made it public that he would be turning his attention to running for Congress against U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.
After Paton made it official, Antenori started lobbying for the appointment to the remainder of Paton’s term in the Senate.
And he did it with all the class of an Amsterdam hooker.
First, he insulted his own party, as quoted by my colleague Jim Nintzel in Tucson Weekly: “A lot of folks are happy with me and they want to make sure that seat stays relatively conservative and doesn’t get occupied by a softer, squishier Republican,” Antenori said.
Then he insulted the County Board of Supervisors, who will make the Senate appointment: “I think the Board of Supervisors would much rather have a guy in the Senate that has been working with them than a guy who is working against them. I think they’d rather have a happy Frank Antenori rather than an angry Frank Antenori.”
We certainly don’t want an angry Frank Antenori. But how about a sane one?
Oh, I spoke too soon because Antenori quickly cleared things up: “I’m not trying to threaten anybody, don’t say I’m trying to threaten anybody,” he told Nintzel.
OK, everybody: Frank was not trying to threaten anybody.
But at the very least it sounds like he was trying to make a deal: You pick me, and I got your back. You don’t, and I — how did he put it? — I’ll be “working against them.”
Never mind doing the right thing by his constituents.
Not long after Frank shot off his mouth, everybody started whispering behind his back, and it wasn’t good. Eventually, he got wind that nobody really likes him much and that he’s been speaking out of turn. And that he stands a snowball’s chance of being appointed to Paton’s Senate seat if he keeps it up.
Now we’re back to “angry Frank Antenori.” But we’ll let him speak for himself.
In addressing speculation that the Board of Supervisors might pass him over, he told Dennis Welch of the Arizona Guardian, “Why am I going to bust my ass for someone who screwed me over?”
(Kinda makes you proud to be in District 30, doesn’t it.)
Continue reading Some Words For Frank
NB: Edited over objection from the author.