Conspiracy thinking, Lancaster style

In his latest letter to the editor at my newspaper, Jeff Melcher, leading opponent of the Lancaster School District’s $215 bond issue, shows he’s either had to much to drink from the Kool-Aid of people like Nancy Moffett (no, I didn’t mention her by name in my original warning to you, Jeff, but you apparently didn’t read between the lines well enough), or else I misread Melcher and he’s a more natural ally of people like that than I thought.

No matter.

I’m going to touch on two points Melcher makes.

First, he notes that RBC Dain Rauscher, the district’s bond financial counsel (and outside counsel on financial matters for several years) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Royal Bank of Canada.

And?

I infer that Melcher thinks that means RBC, or the Ottawa government, is going to annex Lancaster ISD, or some similarly nefarious idea.

Are they also going to annex all the other school districts which they counsel (and which you noted they counsel)?

And, by that logic, President Bush ought to already have surrendered to Beijing, as Chinese buyers of U.S. bonds and T-bills have financed Bush’s illegal war with Iraq. I’m also going to take a stab that, from what I know of Melcher’s politics, he supports that war, meaning we have some inconsistency in thinking and reasoning here.

Finally, on this issue, Jeff, such nativism is unbecoming, if not downright distasteful.

Second, he says that Corgan, the district’s architect for 2004 bond projects, provides PR help for Lancaster, and other client school districts, and also lobbies agencies like the Texas Association of School Boards.

First, Jeff, and I know your conservative enough to support capitalist economic models, there’s nothing illegal, or even unethical, about lobbying an agency like TASB. In fact, if Corgan is a publicly-held firm, it would arguably be a faiulre of fiduciary duty to shareholders NOT to lobby TASB.

And, I have no doubt that Corgan isn’t the only such firm to either do PR for school districts trying to get a bond passed or to lobby TASB. If you think they are, I’ve got Arizona swampland at discount rates. Or Canadian Rivieras, if you want RBC Dain Rauscher financing.