Closing the Door For Good
Jimmy Moore
December 2, 2003
I have sat back for the past week to observe the various reactions to the personal attack on me by state Sen. John Hawkins. I can't help but be amused by all this attention I am getting considering I am nothing more than a gnat in this story. Needless to say, it has made for an interesting week.
I would like to provide the rest of the story that has been omitted.
The letter I sent to John Hawkins last December was one of MANY that I sent out to various elected officials at that time. Gov. Sanford, Lt. Gov. Bauer and many others received similar letters to the one John Hawkins displayed so proudly and prominently on SCHotline last week.
You know, that's the sort of thing you do when you are looking for employment. Being without a full-time permanent job at the time, I sent my resume with a cover letter out to as many places as I could. Anybody who has ever been on the job search has done the same thing, so there is nothing unusual about what I did.
I wrote the letter to John Hawkins and do not deny it. Yes, I supported him during his run for Attorney General. I believed at the time that he was a good state senator and that he was wronged by people who wanted him destroyed during his campaign for Attorney General. I still believe he was not given a fair shake in that whole ordeal.
However, a lot has happened to distort my view of John Hawkins over the past year (and it has nothing to do with him not hiring me for a job as he would suggest). As I have detailed thoroughly in several articles in the latter half of 2003, the man and his demeanor have changed dramatically.
His attempts at a power grab in the Spartanburg County Republican Party are hard to ignore. He openly disputed with Chairman Rick Beltram on the appointment of Mark Kitchens to the Clerk of Court in Spartanburg County last January. That began a string of events that led up to the County Convention last month.
It is my belief that the local GOP does not and should not belong to any elected official. Unfortunately, that has not deterred Hawkins from attempting to undermine the leadership of the local party establishment for his own agenda. But, then again, Hawkins did not expect to be on the losing side at the County Convention.
When I wrote the County Convention recap op-ed story on Common Voice (as every story I write is...MY OPINION!), he did not immediately respond. He waited to see how I would react to the threat of a lawsuit from Karen Floyd before going on the attack against me.
When John Hawkins saw I was not going to be intimidated by that, he decided to go on the offensive. That is what got the Spartanburg Herald-Journal interested in this story. Isn't it odd that Hawkins waited a month after I wrote the article on the County Convention to blast me personally? Shouldn't he be working on behalf of the people of Spartanburg that he represents instead of using his position of power to threaten a constituent?
So, in a nutshell, THAT is what this squabble John Hawkins is having with me is really about. I'm an easy target because I am really nobody in the grand scheme of things. But he knows if he can discredit me in any way that he can make himself feel better about losing at the county convention and when he eventually loses in the Republican primary race to Lee Bright (I suppose he'll try to blame me for that, too!).
I'm fine with that because I think it is a riot that a prominent politician such as John Hawkins is so afraid of what someone like me has to write on Common Voice, GOPUSA, SCHotline or elsewhere. You've got to admit that is a sign of acting more paranoid than someone in his position should be.
In my opinion, what really ticked off John Hawkins the most was my article on the highly successful Lee Bright fundraising event that was held recently with over 100 enthusiastic supporters. As support for the Hawkins campaign is dwindling, the Bright campaign has kicked into high gear heading into next year's primary race in June.
Within days of that article being published, BAM! A letter to the editor from John Hawkins magically appears on SCHotline. I'm sure he felt all proud of himself with that one, too.
Unfortunately for him, that letter proved nothing except that he has become obsessed with me for some reason. I have not and will not stop writing articles in this forum. My words are my opinions and I make no excuses for them. What I believe is what I believe, like it or not. You are welcome to debate me on what I believe, but you are not welcome to tell me what I can and cannot believe.
That right is guaranteed to every American by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution!
I am now closing the door on this story for good on my end. I don't know about anyone else, but I'm going to move on from here on out because there are much more interesting topics to talk about.
How about discussing the fact that the Democrat candidates for president have yet to light a fire under their supporters? Bush is ready to stampede any and all challengers in the 2004 general election despite the efforts by billionaire liberal Democrats! Now there's an issue to talk about. What do you think?
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