More Podcasting on Ed Coleman

When then-Republican City-County Councilor Ed Coleman left for the Libertarian Party, I felt 100% certain that there would be a political price for him to pay. Talking with party insiders, the general consensus was that he would probably be removed from one or more of the committees on which he served.

In fact, he was removed from all of them on Monday. Again- no real surprise. Politics is a bare-knuckled game, and retaliation, no matter how silly or childish it may seem, is a way of political life just as much as favors and back scratching is on the flip side.

I got a better sense of why Ed left yesterday, when I interviewed him again for the Libertarian party of Indiana's Weekly Podcast. This wasn't the first retaliation against Ed by the Republicans, nor the first time he was stripped of a committee appointment. Because Ed was speaking out on issues against the grain of his former party's leadership, he was stripped of committee appointments, and then assigned to different committees. To summarize Ed, he was advised that being reassigned was a warning, and that he should shut up and toe the line.

Here's the link to the podcast archive. Check out Podcast #011, released March 5. It is incredibly revealing in details about how local government works. Or doesn't.

I asked Ed if the members of the City-County Council read the ordinances they vote on. Interesting answer, to say the least.