Another theory on Hershey and the anti-public school pledge

It's been six days since Gervais first told you that the newest member of South Carolina Education Oversight Committee, Sanford appointee Julie Hershey, was a listed as a signatory of a pledge that states:

"I proclaim publicly that I favor ending government involvement in education."

Six days is a long time, but by no means is it a record. Sanford appointee Karen Iacovelli remained on the EOC for eight full days after the blogosphere noted she was a listed as a signatory of the very same anti-public school oath.

Gov. Sanford's spokesman, Joel Sawyer, has suggested that Hershey's name was "planted" there, four years ago, by a very patient political foe. I liked Sawyer's explanation a lot.

Still, something told me there was another explanation out there.

Finally, it came. This one is from a blog by a guy named David J. Cassidy, who starts by lavishing some praise upon Gervais:

"Once again the author of an odious South Carolina blog has taken it upon himself to vet nominees for the Education Oversight Committee."

Cassidy then reveals he is an insider with a special "insider explanation" for how Hershey and Iacovelli ended up as signatories to the pledge, against their will and without their knowledge. It all has to do with Marshall Fritz, a man who sometimes confuses cordial conversations with public proclamations:

[W]e began to notice that some of our most important coalition members had also signed Mr. Fritz' petition, undercutting our claims that the campaign was not only in the best interest of children, but also in the best interest of quality public schools. When we contacted these petition "signers" we found again and again, that our coalition leaders had a cordial conversation with Mr. Fritz, had found that they agreed with many of the persuasive arguments he makes, but were not ready to abandon public schools and were surprised to learn that their names had been added to his list of petition signers. Like Mrs. Hershey and Mrs. Iacovelli before her, many requested their names be removed.

I see.

Maybe if I was from one of those places where book-readin' wasn't frowned upon and people used words like "odious," I'd ask Cassidy to explain why Karen Iacovelli was on the TV news reportin' show saying we should consider "scrapping the system" if she never signed the pledge against public schools.

Maybe if I had those kind of smarts in my noggin', I'd turn off the Hee Haw reruns and ask why he didn't tell Mrs. Hershey about her name being on this here pledge sometime during the last four years, before she was appointed to the EOC.

But, since I was born and raised here in the Mustard Belt, where we're taught not to do much thinkin' and whatnot, I'm going to take Cassidy's explanation at face value.