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NewslettersMayor Rauch resigns amid controversy
Mon, 2008-07-21 17:58 — Anonymous
Embattled three-term Beaufort Mayor Bill Rauch resigned Monday, satisfying City Council's calls for his removal following an insider trading scandal and an accusation that he attempted to solicit a bribe. Read the story here.
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Bill Rauch said:
"Now there's the suggestion by some council members that I may be hurting Beaufort. If that even might be so, I won't be a party to it,"...Rauch is an idiot.
Donnie Beer said:
"I think he (resigned)because he loves the town"...Beer is an idiot.
Advanced Cell Technology will be bankrupt by the end of the month. I wonder what's going to happen to all of those investors that Rauch pitched the stock to? I suspect they will be left holding the bag or shall we say a worthless stock certificate.
However, as Judge Tupper would say: it's just a matter of practicality or is it just a practical matter. That's the word of the day folks "practicality", of, pertaining to, or concerned with ordinary activities, business, or work: practical affairs.
That's it! I've got it! I get it now. Rauch resigned because he loves Beaufort so much! It's all clear to me now. Whew! I feel so much better now that I understand where he's coming from. Man, I knew there was a answer in all of this, "it's because he loves Beaufort so much" Yep! That's it!
you are funny. the real reason he left as beaufort mayor is because he loves beaufort and dose not want to hummm he said that is why he left. i can not complain about his reasons for leaving but i can for his and oh bill boys well better not get into that would be another can of worms that had already been opened. lol
Critics, I'm sure there are several reasons why the former Mayor departed. But, for an individual who has survived a near fatal accident just 7 months ago, just maybe, it held the most weight in his decision. After completing over nine years as Mayor and just a few months away from the end of another term, the choice of departing should and would have been easy for many. Especially, when considering all other negative facets of the situation. I know there are some political critics who want to claim a piece of his decision to resign, maybe out of sheer arrogance, or perhaps the desire for continued political combat. In the past, they just loved being critical of everything the gentleman did. I bet his opponents also will never comment precisely on the Beaufort Gazette's recent timeline of his tenure, which was overwhelmingly positive. Many positives were accomplished by the mayor and city council during his watch. Yes, there also were negative "accusations" levied. But remember, even one of his staunchest opponents on the council admitted after the Mayor's decision to leave city government, that he was in fact a good Mayor. The former Mayor surely has the community's best wishes for the future and sincere thanks for his local accomplishments, which were well done. So, overall,I believe Beaufort is surely in better condition because of his tenure. And critics, please remember the former Mayor still can be proud to be atop the first and best government on planet earth,yes, "The Family". Now, isn't that what it is really all about ? GOD BLESS AMERICA !
...to try and pretty him up a bit, but he's still a pig.
Well, if you want to insult the former Mayor, that's your ability. All I was really saying is that maybe some people, not you in particular, should not only focus on negative accusations. According to many, there was also quite a few good aspects of his tenure. Even opponents on the council agree to that fact. Now a longstanding critic probably would not. But, then again, that's their decision. And the resignation, surely was his to make for the city, himself,and family. As they say, "It's all good"! Now if you know where I can find that pig and some red lipstick, I'll certainly deliver it to you for the task. GOD BLESS AMERICA !
...to Washington, DC ..."As you know" ..."As you know"
..."As you know"
Let it rest.......Maybe he's headed to a much needed vacation ! I bet, "It's all good"! And I wish he and his family really have an enjoyable time and future !
Nobody is all good or all bad, and our former mayor is no different. There are good things that happened during his tenure and there are some things that may not have been so good. Did he do the best he could for the good folks of Beaufort? Only he can answer that question. Was his best good enough? We can only answer that individually. How will history treat his leadership of Beaufort? Only time will tell. Has he ever behaved in an honorable manner? The answer to that question is yes. He resigned, and that move was good for Beaufort regardless of what his personal motivation for doing so might have been. It's time to wish him well with his future endeavors, and time to thank him for the good that he did do. It's time to put this behind us, move on, and focus on what really matters...the future of Beaufort.
Thanks for your honorable comments. Beaufort really needs them. And I add, it needs to be free of repetitive criticism, with no mention of all the good that was done ! I surely think it was very honorable for the good Mayor to resign. It was also a political as well as personal decision. But now, as you said, it's time to focus on continuing to move Beaufort forward.
Good old boys and girls looking out for good old boys and girls until they get caught. That is when they turn over a new leaf and find God too!! I am such a good person I will stop what I am doing that is wrong, all on my own, because I love Beaufort, Amen.
I was noticing how the Beaufort Gazette nuked previous articles and comments from people critical of the Mayor. Way to go Gazette.
On to ethics - as a life long conservative, I place a high value on integrity, ethics, honor, committment, honesty, as a start. Politicians have become scummier than they normally have been....with an "I got mine...you get yours attitude". Our government has excessive amounts of corrpution. Eventually the common citizen will rise up and put a stop to that.
The Mayor was NOT focused on the health and well being of Beaufort, but was instead worried about opening up accounts for his family for an inside stock deal. He was employed as the mayor during that time, and instead was moonlighting as a consultant in genetic engineering? That is laughable. And now he is resigning to assist with the McCain campaign?????? Going to have to call the McCain campaign now to let them know about this whole mess. If McCain employs the ex-mayor.....then that reflects badly on Senator McCain........
Washington DC is corrupt. And now we have a corrupt politician gravitating towards a corrupt town.....I guess some would call that career advancement. Fact is that he is lacking a wee bit in the ethics and integrity side of life.
By "nuked" I assume you mean deleted. No stories have been deleted from our archives, and there were no comments deleted because they were critical of the mayor. Anything that was deleted, whether it concerned Rauch or any other subject, was deleted because it violated the terms of service, to which everyone agreed when they joined this site. The overwhelming majority of comments about Rauch on this site are negative, and they're still here.
The blogger savethelowcountry, who openly despises the Gazette, has accused us of "trashing" Rauch (his or her word). Now you accuse us of covering up for him. Interesting perceptions, neither of which is accurate.
Sorry Mr Blust - that low blow doesn't go unanswered. Your journal is very selective in who it attacks, covers and ignores. It is selective in the information it uses and how it uses it. The most recent example was the article about 303 Associates and how your writer - and then your ass't editor went to pains to not state that Dick Stewart is 303 Associates.
As for Rauch - his actions have been deplorable. But yours are tasteless and full of acrimony.
From reporting on "rumors" regarding Catherine Ceips alledged affair - 30 days after she painfully buried her husband to your trashing Bill Rauch while he was fighting for his life in the Intensive Care Unit - you hide behind the journalists best friend - the public has a "right to know". Garbage I say.
Irrespectrive of what anyone thinks of these people - your sense of timing and decorum is beyond the pale. Only the worst of our local society agrees with you - and you obviously use that minority to not only defend, but to promote your tasteless actions.
Do I openly despise the Gazette as you claim? No. What I do despise is the press when it hides its massive bias behind sanctimonious cliams of objectivity and then when called on it - refuses to admit their inaccuracies and bad judgement. I will continue to call you on your actions when you hide behind these positions in defense of the indefensable.
I'll address some of these points and then I'm through responding to you. I lost a family member to a vicious disease today, and life is too short to be dealing with you.
The Ceips story was reported only after her name became part of the public record in Charleston because of the Scarborough divorce situation. That is FACT. We did not and do not report rumors. When a public figure - any public figure, not just arguably our most visible local politician - is mentioned in a legal document such as that, it is news. Even Ceips supporters told me that after we ran the story, which was written by The State newspaper. And yes, we were sensitive to the fact that her husband had died. We had knowledge of this weeks before and delayed running the story because of that - and we caught flak from many readers because of that delay. I wrote a long column after the story ran, explaining what led to our decision.
The timing of the Rauch situation was touchy after his accident, but the city initiated the announcement that there was an investigation of the mayor. Should we have not reported that? If I were a reader and I knew the local newspaper had failed to report that the mayor of the city it covers was being investigated, I would be outraged. You, apparently, were outraged that we did report it. When the city released the information, I felt - and still feel today - that we had an obligation to let the residents of this city know what was happening with the head of their local government. You call that "garbage." I call it a journalistic obligation and yes, the public's right to know.
I'm done.
It's no secret that I have had my issues with the Gazette, but I have never made any secret of the fact that I believe you to be an honorable journalist. I totally agree with your post and I agree that you have always made every effort to be objective with your reporting. I doubt that my opinions of you or the Gazette matter much, but I felt I should state them regardless.
You and your family have my heartfelt condolences for the loss of your relative, that sort of thing always hurts, and I hope your hurt passes quickly!
Your friend and nemesis,
Scooter
The Ceips story HEADLINE in your front page article said "rumors"!!!!
And the court record was a divorce filing - please, give us a break - these are the court documents you rely on??? Please!
And the politically motivated George O'Kelley (who lost his judegship because of Rauch's calling him on his handling of personal traffic violations) and his buddies on the City Council came out with their even more tasteless public statement and of course - the Gazette follows through. And no mention of even why O'Kelley might be motivated to bring out the statement when he was "acting" Mayor. Mr Blust - just what is reporting anyway? Again, please!
And of course, you will bring up the "obligation".
Taste and good judgement has no bounds.
But forget this issue - if you have failing family - deal with that. It is vastly more important than anything we are speaking about here. I hope all is well with your family.
I think I would ask them to vet him completely before any public notice comes out of his service to the campaign out of Washington. Thae last thing McCain needs is the publication of yet another story of another Phil Gramm-type character clinging to his coattails.
I am happy that the this man has has resigned as Mayor of Beaufort. It was a long time coming. Looks as if he went as long as possible without having to be a man with integrity and face up to his unethical and illegal actions in front of the Council and his constituents(which I believe he owed as much). His letter seemed a bit poor me ish if you ask me. He was no victim, he brought all of this on himself. He chooses to stuff and run in lieu of taking responsibility and moving on like a man. That is on him. I am happy he is going. I don't expect much good from this man elsewhere, just the same stuff in a different place.
land of the politically corrupt, he will be in good company,Good riddance. I too will question my support for McCain if he is allowed to work on McCain's election campaign.
Yankee carpetbagging fraud.
This guy is a failure on a lot of levels.
Being naturally smarter than everybody, he is leaving in disgrace.
If you want to help McCain (which doesn't say much for McCain), volunteer with
Obama's campaign.
The word,in case you missed it ,is DISGRACE.
Bet his brother in law appreciates the headlines , too.
Good riddance.
The saddest part of the Mayor's resignation to me personally, is that he is leaving before he is able to bring Ricky Skaggs to perform in the newly renovated USCB auditorium. A sad day to be sure.
I wonder if Donnie Beer will continue the effort to bring Ricky to Beaufort? I hope that it is brought up during the debates of the candidates.
Sorry SCBLUST.....but you are wrong. There were 2 seperate articles on this site announcing the Mayors resignation......and the earliest one with negative comments was deleted. When someone click on the link after the article was deleted it came up with a "not found" error message.
The earlier article with many more comments was deleted.
Selective journalism at its best.
Who is SCBLUST?
No stories were manually deleted, and there was no "selective journalism." There were two stories during the day - the first one, in the morning, when the mayor announced his resignation to us by e-mail and we put the story on beaufortgazette.com as quickly as possible, and the later, updated version when we had quotes from other council members. It's possible that when the second one entered our system, it replaced the first one and took the comments with it. I don't know the intracacies of the software. Our computers guys do. But your suggestion that we intentionally deleted the first story because of negative comments is flat-out wrong. Believe that or don't believe it; that's your choice. But I'm telling you that your accusation is incorrect.
If we were trying to protect the mayor, as I think you're claiming, there were more effective ways to do that than by putting a big headline across the top of our front page this morning saying RAUCH RESIGNS AMID CONTROVERSY. I took a call from one reader today who said we were piling on. You're implying the exact opposite.
If 100 people look at the same newspaper, they're going to see 100 different things.
As I originally stated....and to which you responded.....I said the first article on the Mayors resignation was deleted......you replied that nothing was deleted. Now you are changing your mind saying something may have been deleted.
My response to you was based upon your reply to me with the black and white statement that nothing was deleted. That was wrong on your part.
There was an early morning article in regards to Mayor Rauch resigning......that was supplemented by a second article....then the initial article with many more negative comments on the ethics of Mayor Rauch....was deleted.
It is clear to me, that someone made comments about deleting articles without researching the facts.
Since the Beaufort Gazette seems to want community involvement via BLOGS on articles....you would think the story would be added to, not replaced. Blogs by nature are a running commentary......as are most news stories as the situation changes.......the Appearance.......or perception.....is that the comments became uncomfortable, and the article (along with comments) was replaced by a "milder version". The article was replaced, the first article and comments were deleted, and that is factual. That is something you disputed initially.
This blog is where everything should be allowed to "hang out". The issue of space may come into considetration - and if that is an issue - the Gazette should tell us. If not - all should be here - including people's tough comments, criticism and comments on all things - including heavy criticism of this paper whenever it moves someone. Gazette personnel have proven to have fairly thin skin. Stunning for folks that like to "tell it like it is" with regard to everyone else. Blogs have their place - and being "nice" or having organization are secondary considerations if they are to work.
Well we have some major tax increases coming for the City of Beaufort. City Hall, Police Station, addition to Fire DEpt. and don't forget the Art's Center. But of course he won't be around to pay any of the new taxes.