Rewriting History

Arch Moore was a popular republican governor of West Virginia. He served two terms but ended his tenure in disgrace, convicted of several felonies and sentenced to serve time in the federal pen. When he came out after 33 months, the once simply confident and popular Moore struck me as now being unrepentant and arrogant as if he asked "How DARE anyone in WV question his actions." I thought we'd heard the last of Moore but more and more his name is being dropped in republican circles.

Make no mistake about this: Arch Moore was a crook. I don't care who tries to justify his actions with the tired: "Everyone in Southern WV was doing it." It matters little to me who else might have been guilty. Instead of using that example as an excuse, those who know of illegal actions need to report them and let's clean up the pitiful image WV Politics has.

I suspect part of the reason we're being subjected to a softer portrait of Arch is the political aspirations of his daughter, Shelley Moore Capito. Capito has on more than one occassion involved her father in the political limelight, even going so far as to having him sit with her in the VIP section during one of Bush's visits.

Now comes a new book: "Arch: The Life of Arch Moore, Junior" penned by former Moore staffer Brad Crouser. Crouser is a Charleston attorney and says he was waiting for someone else to write the book. Now, come on Brad. Didn't the fact that they WEREN'T writing it tell you something?

Crouser rewrote history. Taking Moore's self grandizing statements at face value without attempting to find opposition viewpoints. For that reason he is guilty of attempting to rewrite history and sanitize the term of one of the most corrupt Governor's WV has seen.

This statement of Crouser's, from WV Talkline says much of the prospective of the book:

"You know, when they call him a corrupt governor, in the strictest sense, he was not that. He was, simply, playing a cash political game that he should not have been playing,"

Crouser is deluding himself and attempting to fool the public. You might make it, Brian, with some of the younger members of the GOP, but those of us who have been around awhile still remember the bribes, the graft and Buffalo Creek.

Altho Arch still refused to admit he did anything wrong or take responsibility for his actions the truth remains: Moore was a crook and rightfully served time.

If Capito wants to further her political career, she should distance herself politically from her father, not attempt to bring him back into the inner political circle.