Whew! No friend of Alex Mooney, or the Tea Party either for that matter

Yesterday, I reported that former state Senator Alex Mooney had thrown his name into the hat (or joined the horse race) for either the chairmanship of the MDGOP or first vice chair.  There have been lots of theories about how Mooney lost the race for his Senate seat when virtually all of Frederick County went Republican on November 2nd.  I know little about him, but I have some friends who greatly admire Mooney and others who greatly dislike him.

Well, a letter writer, Tim Ferguson, is clearly in the dislike category.  His theory on how Mooney lost was  published today in the Gazette.   I can’t speak to the veracity of Ferguson’s charges, however I take offense to his suggestion that newly elected Tea Party candidates will suffer Mooney’s fate.  Whatever Mooney’s style has been it is no predictor of the future success (or lack of success) of Tea Party elected officials.

I’d like to comment on the Senate race just held in District 3 between Mr. Young and Mr. Mooney. Alex and I served as colleagues from 1998 to 2002, so I got to know him very well. I think it’s fair to say that he was an original member of the “tea party,” long before the tea party became a wing within the GOP. I was always a Constitutional conservative, but Alex was even “right” of me.

If his recent race is an omen of what is to become of current “tea party” members who have just been elected, then I’ve already concluded that once the electorate gets to see them serve a few terms, the tea party will crash and burn just as Alex.

Why do I say that? Because of all the politicians I’ve personally dealt with, Alex is the most dysfunctional and diabolical politician I ever knew. He even played his friends like they were marks in a big-time con game. He never let up, and he never apologized. He considered politics a game that knew no bounds of decency or professionalism — although he always feigned shock and dismay when people called him on it.

In a year when the GOP couldn’t lose, his long trend of bending the rules finally caught up with him.

Read it all.  Makes me wonder if Ferguson is friends with Mary Kane (the “horse” with the best odds for the MDGOP top spot), or just flat-out doesn’t like Mooney.  Kind of interesting timing though—more than a month after the election, but the day after Mooney announces his bid to head the MDGOP.

Update! Here are the latest odds from Michael Swartz at Monoblogue.