Pennsylvania
Related: About this forumMontgomery County Commissioners Clash During Thursday Board Meeting
There was name-calling and accusations as Montgomery County commissioners traded insults during the monthly board meeting. Dr. Valerie Arkoosh, who is a democrat, and Joe Gale, the only republican commissioner, spent much of Thursdays meeting sparring over several issues, including mask and vaccine protocols.
This COVID nonsense, mask outside, mask in the building, you must be vaccinated, is all political theater and it is wrong. And Im not going shut up and just go on to get along. Im going to go on and provide those checks and balances, Gale said. You all should be ashamed of yourselves. And that concludes my comments. Go on with your dog and pony show.
Gale also called Arkoosh a dictator and accused the commissioner, who is a democrat, of purposely leaving his name off of certain county proclamations, while also excluding him from group photos.
Arkoosh responded, with some tough words of her own.
I want to be very clear, and I am just speaking for myself, but I wont stand next to you unless it is statutorily required because youre racist, you are a COVID denier, you refuse to pay any attention to the science or the facts, Arkoosh said. And I will not dignify you by putting my name next to yours or standing in a picture next to you when you continue to stab this kind of nonsense. Im just speaking for myself.
Link: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/go-on-with-your-dog-and-pony-show-montgomery-county-commissioners-clash-during-thursday-board-meeting/ar-AAOMapt
Not much else at the link. Montgomery County flipped from Republican to Democratic control several election cycles ago. It was also one of the first counties in PA to shut down during the COVID Pandemic.
Goonch
(3,819 posts)Probatim
(3,036 posts)"this is my first try. Am I doing it right?" Joe Gale, during the photoshoot.
puddy3480
(5 posts)I live in Montgomery County and watched this live. Joe Gale embarrassed himself and acted like an infant. Moping, arms folded. At one point, Val Arkoosh received a flash flood warning alert on her phone, and proceeded to remind people about staying safe and not driving thru flooded roadways (important esp since we received a ton of flooding from Ida). Gale lashed out saying "what now we need Government to tell people not to drive into floods". Unreal.
BumRushDaShow
(143,459 posts)You also had an EF2 tornado tear through Ambler, Upper Dublin, and Maple Glen (about 5 miles from where I live in Philly) due to that same storm and there was some freak hail event that happened too, during a different storm.
Joe Gale is an idiot.
Welcome to DU!
gopiscrap
(24,203 posts)BumRushDaShow
(143,459 posts)He was doing that nonsense all last year during the meetings - I was streaming their meetings last year being I live on the border with Montco where I am in Philly, have a sister living there, and also shop there, so I watched both theirs and Philly's pressers - initially daily and then biweekly and finally weekly (then they stopped them for a bit but have picked them back up recently).
There are only 3 Commissioners there (and as a note - Gale replaced Tweety's brother - Jim Matthews - in the (R) seat) and he spent what few times he actually decided to speak, making a complete clown of himself. Arkoosh had always been dilatory to reacting to his nonsense and basically kept her demeanor when responding to his crazy rants. But it looks like she has had it.
Now that he is running for Governor along with a literal clown car full of other deranged GOP contenders, he is "campaigning" for office with free advertising during their meetings.
And note that Arkoosh herself is running for PA U.S. Senator, but since the County is left to be run by the "adults in the room" and Gale ain't one of them, she and Ken Lawrence have to focus on that.
Montco is the 3rd largest County by population in the state behind Philly and Allegheny (which includes Pittsburgh).
Here is the stream (archive). His garbage starts at 13:10 on the video and her retort comes at ~17:54 -