OUR LOCAL GOP SUCKS, TOO

Bruce Ash is on the Republican National Committee from Arizona and employs the same cheap tactics that Palin, Grassley,Beck and Hannity do. This is from the weekly alternative paper:

Bunch of Dicks
Republicans pump up a baseless art controversy
by Jim Nintzel and Margaret Regan
October 22, 2009

You could hardly squeeze more GOP anxieties into one swollen story: Deadbeat local artists defiling the local fire station! An obscene painting of penises funded by local tax dollars! Homeland Security denied the office space needed to fight terrorism!

The only problem with this political wet dream: Not one of the claims is true.

The "story" exploded publicly last week, when Republican National Committeeman Bruce Ash turned up on KGUN-9 News to accuse the City Council of funding an obscene artwork .

"The Tucson City Council authorized through another committee—a not-for-profit group—the expenditure of a lot of dollars for a piece of art called 'Big Dick No. 1,'" Ash told KGUN reporter Joel Waldman.

Never mind that MOCA didn't spend a penny on the painting. It was a guest piece borrowed for a temporary exhibition. And the exhibition was mounted in the old MOCA building on Toole Avenue, owned by the Arizona Department of Transportation, not the city.


After all, he points out, the City Council OK'd a deal to lease the Fire Department's vacated downtown headquarters to the museum for $1 a year. MOCA is set to take possession of the bunker-like building Dec. 1 and open to the public on Feb 6. Ash claims, without evidence, that the federal Department of Homeland Security wanted to lease the building after the Fire Department relocated to spiffy new digs on Cushing Street.

But City Manager Mike Letcher says flatly: "Homeland Security never wanted this building. ... There's just no truth to that rumor."

Ash admits he has no way to substantiate his claims that Homeland Security wanted the fire station building.

"I'm waiting for some information to be presented to me," Ash says. "If I'm able to make it public, I will."

Ash also asserts that the Tucson Police Department wanted the space. Letcher says it's true that the police department, which has headquarters next door to the old fire station, did consider taking over the fire station lot—but that plan proved too costly.

This may be a coincidence, but KGUN-9 is owned by Journal Broadcasting, which also owns the local FM wingnut station, KQTH.