IPSE Asks: What Does It Mean to "Pull A Brizzi"?

OBSERVATIONS: It isn't often that circumstances beg additions to America's lexicon.  We remember "to pull a Perot" was to stay in an political race as a spoiler.  Today we're asking our readers to define what it means to "pull a Brizzi". or you can defined it as a single verb or noun as well. The choice is up to you.

If this little exercise catches on today we will pick various of our colorful elected/appointed/blogger personality and let you define them in your own terms.

PS- We will also accept your suggestions for the next nominee to be immortalized in today's political culture.

Have fun!

IPSE: Open Thread....

A few of us are out of town today and the others are behind in their for-profit ventures so we'll leave the board open for comments. 

Beleaguered Carl Brizzi Inspires IPSE To Add Another Stock Category!

OBSERVATIONS: Well you know things are not going that well for you when the Indianapolis Star starts up its printing press against you. With all do respect to Mr. Ryerson, the Indy Ops gurus are typically a bit late ( fashionably of course)  when it comes to speaking out against most controversial issues particularly when it targets the political insiders and supporters of the status quo. 

Today's editorial is the second such declaration from the Indianapolis Business Journal with its detailed anaylsis of Brizzi's questionable financial activities was the first from the traditional media to see the obvious call for his resignation.

One of the few upside from Brizzi's reluctance to accept the dividends of his action is that it forced us to ask the question: How do you measure the impact of a political office holder that fails to see how his actions become a detriment to his party?  As a result of Carl Brizzi's walk through his own personal wonderland, we are creating a new stock industry based soley on a political party. 

Unlike our standard array of equity the price for each of these stocks will be only $1.00.  We purposely designed this industry to be very liquid in order to facilitate easier transaction and of course better measure party popularity. 

There will be 3 separate classes:  Local, State and Federal and will have the following symbols

REPl, REPs, REPf,

DEMl, DEMs, DEMf,

with the lower case letter "l,s,f" designating the level of government (local, state, federal).  We are still weighing the option of including the Libertarian Party as they exist on the ballot only at the local and state level.  If Libertarians are interested in being recognized please feel free to make your case as a posting.

Here's the price breakdown:

Local (Indianapolis only) :       x
State (Indiana) :                     2x 
Federal (National) :                           3x

In other words, if the DEMl price is $1.00 it will take 2 more of this stock to purchase 1 share of DEMf.
Don't worry if it doesn't make sense right now it will make sense once you see it in action.
Stock price influence will be limited to published reports from media outlets.

Again, we'll gauge the strength of each political party based on the collective behavior of their local, state and federal elected officials and raise or lower stock value occordingly. 

And while this type of model may not be as accurate as a poll, it will provide an interesting snapshot of party strength and popularity at the various levels of government without being tied into a particular region or officeholder or polling firm. 

Finally we want to thank all of you who have made this blog possible, especially you Carl.

Carl Confuses "Ethically" Challenged With "Ethnically" Challenged In Comparing Himself to Rudy Guiliani

OBSERVATIONS:  In an interview that was excrutiatingly painful to listen to Republican Prosectuor Carl Brizzi (CBRZ) seems to be totally oblivious to how deep in excrement he's really in (currently chest-high). We're just wondering if he has  forgotten that everything he says in public up to this point is now public record? 

He fails to understand that his words today undermind his argument to remain in his office by announcing that his prosecutors have successfully prosecuted 3 individuals a few days ago as proof that his performance as a Prosecutor is untainted. Sadly he ignores the fact that it is because of his "naivete" and "arrogance" that "he" is news and not his office's prosecution rate.

We also found his word-of the-day "naive" (we prefer the other n-word - nefarious) an clear indication of someone who is either totally clueless of the situation or terribly disengenious to what he knows is the truth.  With this interview it appears that he has all but declared an all out war GOP establishment including Mark Massa (MMAS) the Republican candidate for Prosecutor, Governor Mitch Daniels (MDAN-  Mark Massa was his former chief counsel), the State and Marion County Republican Party by suggesting that calls for him to step down is nothing more than a publicity stunt designed to install Mark Massa as an incumbant.  Regardless if he steps down or not, he has just fed the Democratic Party their tagline for the next few months.  Propably not the best way to use one's dimishing political capital...

Now one of us is beginning to think that one of our regular readers may be on to something by suggesting that Brizzi is playing the only card he has left to shakedown the political powers for a guaranteed paycheck for the next few years.  We can only assume that at age 42, it will be at least 10 years or more before Carl can collect his 30k pension and with his legal bills mounting its a drop in the bucket considering the mouths (children and attorneys) he has to feed. Better come up with a plan "B" Mr. Brizzi.

Finally we chuckled to ourselves as he tried to compare himself to former New York Mayor Rudy Guiliani.  Carl the accusations of your critics is that you are ethically challenged not ethnically challenged.

As if that wasn't enough Brizzi Briefs, Indianapolis Star Matt Tully allows the saga to continue in his column today.  We still beleive that Carl will be out by the primary as the GOP can ill afford to have him in the public eye going into the next 6 months. 

Finally we would like to remind Carl the old legal advice from good ole' Abe Lincoln  "He who represents himself has a fool for a client." Think about it.

ANALYSIS:

UP:  TCUR $165, ETRY $155

DOWN: MMAS $80; GBAL $110,  MDAN $160

Carl Brizzi and Tom John Now Engaged In Messy Public Divorce. IPSE Is Wondering Who Get's Custody Of Abdul*?

OBSERVATION:  We found it amazing how one little blurb in yesterday's Indy Star Behind Closed Doors section can expose so much about the character of our Marion County's political players.  While we couldn't find the article online we did read about the little he said-he, he-said between embattled GOP Prosecutor Carl Brizzi (CBRZ) and Marion GOP Chairman Tom John (TOJO).  Here's an excerpt:

Carl Brizzi:  "Tom John is one of the most ineffective chairmen that our city has seen in decades"  and had faced dissatisfaction over his leadership. "Tom John lives in a glass house, and he ought not to be throwing stones".

Carl Brizzi: "This move by Tom John underscores the fact that he's not very bright."

Asked to respond Tom John said first that he'd been shopping for curtains for his glass house. Then his real reply. 

Tom John:  If you want to call me ineffective when on my watch, we've won the council majority and we've won the mayor's office, and we took what was an 18,000-vote loss in he governor's race in 2004 (in Marion County) and turned it into a 48,000-vote win in 2008, then have at it"

Tom John: I understand his being upset with me, but I do what I think is best for the party and the city." 

Wow.  There's so much here to comment on that we don't know where to start so we'll leave that up to you.  What we do know is that this can't be good for the local GOP party and certainly not for GOP candidate Mark Massa (MMAS). What we also find troubling is the total absence of leadership from Mayor Greg Ballard (GBAL) in putting an end to this embarrassing display of chest-thumping. 

Perhaps there's truth to the rumor that he (Mayor Ballard) has neither the stomach nor brains to act in his own political interest.  We expect that right now someone from the other side of Market street is making a phone calls to get this reconciled even as we speak.

* The Abdul reference in the title is a little add-on given to us by a reader who stated that both consider him their very close friend and confidant.


ANALYSIS:

UP:  TCUR $155, ETRY $145

DOWN:   MMAS $90,  GBAL  $115,  CBRZ $0

Evan Bayh For Governor In 2012? We'll Believe It When We See It.

OBSERVATION: Yep we picked up this little nugget up from the Talking Points Memo courtesy Terry Burns at ITIM.  Last time we spoke about the good Senator on this blog we withheld our analysis until the dust settled a bit.  Now that it has and he's making his intentions known to the nation we can weigh in with our collective feet. 

While we think that a Bayh redux is an intiguing idea, we made inquiries to a few of our politically astute friends asking them what they thought and were surprise at their answers. Almost to the one (both Republican and Democratic), they felt it was an eloraborate ruse. Most felt that it was the safest way for the Senator to keep his name in the public eye just so he can be a viable alternative for the Presidential election 2012 without appearing to directly attack the sitting President. And while they didn't rule it out many beleive that Evan allowed the comment to go public to keep someone else from gearing up for a run. No one would name a viable Democratic alternative but it still made sense.

Most believe that 2012 is not nearly enough time for him to separate himself from his any of his votes for or against the President Obama.  As one of our friends snarkeddly replied "You won't be able to look at one (Obama) without thinking of the other (Bayh)".   According to their analysis a run for the Governor will yield a crushing defeat for Bayh particularly after his past vote on Obamacare (again right or wrong it is still a hot topic) and upcoming votes on Cap and Trade, Immigration, Card Check legislation.

So after careful consideration we will place Senator Evan Bayh EBAYon the IPSE trading board in the candidate industry. Now if any of you out there believe any different then please feel free to share your tthoughts here. No theory is too wackyor conspiracy too loony...

ANALYSIS:   

UP:  EBAY $110, ITIM $120

DOWN:

Unslated Bart McAtee Hits Airwaves: Is This A Sign Of Interesting Times Ahead for GOP?

OBSERVATIONS:  Well something must be going right for unslated GOP Sheriff candidate Bart McAtte (BMAC) (hat-tip to OGPL) as he has hit the airwaves with his first campaign commercial. What makes this all the more troubling for the GOP is that he is not their chosen one, that title belongs to Dennis Fishburn (DFISH).  So what are we to make of this news?

Let's review: You have a Chairman (TOJO) with a less than stellar reputation with the rank and file Party members and totally worthless as a fundraiser, who until recently was closerthanthis with all but indicted Carl Brizzi (CBRZ) Marion County Prosecutor who refuses to step down even after the request from the guy who has the blessing of the Govenor. Now you have a unslated candidate with enough cash to boost name recognition to move numbers enough that he could win by a squeaker.

And assuming he pulls it off an upset how then does the GOP mend fences in time to headoff juggernaut of the unchallenged Democratic candidate Col. John Layton (JLAY).  Well taken collectively this information suggests to us that the Marion County GOP is heading for a disaster of biblical proportions this November and these results could set up a resurgence of the Democrats in 2011. If you are Ed Treacy you are probably doing the cabbage patch dance right now.  So, what do you think?

ANALYSIS:

UP: BMAC  $125, ETRY $135, JLAY $130, OGPL $185

DOWN: DFISH  $90, TOJO $15,
 

Is This the End of the Brizzipalooza? We Think His Stock Value And The Odds of Him Remaining Prosecutor Are the Same: Zero

OBSERVATIONS:  Over the last few days there has been a slow whistling sound has been the hot air leaking out of the Brizzi hot air balloon. Yes the Brizzipalooza is ending and leaving wasted campaign funds, cynical public and a GOP party tries to clean up a eight year mess that would be the envy of a Big Ten frat house in less than eight months. 
.
Lately we've also been watching this site with interest as it has provided a blow by blow account as first one drinking buddy, then another are backing slowly away from the loud obnoxious friend they road to the party with just hours earlier.  

We aren't even going to try to understand his "shocked and surprised" statement. From our point of view most people who know of Carl's antics are "shocked" that he can still manage to embarrass himself in new ways and "surprised" he can't see that the party is over and there's a difference between cheers and jeers.  And when your best buds are publically throwing you under the bus well its time to paraphrase a familar departure for those who have worn out their welcome "Carl, you don't have to go home, but you gotta' leave here."

Our prediction: Brizzi will be out of office by Race Day, as of today now his stock value is 0.

UPDATE: We couldn't leave out this story from ADIN. So how long can this continue? Only Carl knows for sure.


ANALYSIS:

UP: TCUR $145; MMAS $100; TOJO $20; ADIN $110

DOWN: CBRZ $0,

IPSE Advice: Never Turn Your Back On A Bulldog Or Underestimate An Underdog GO BUTLER!!!

Saturday's Comic Relief....I'm Just A Bill....2010 Style!