This story was to be about Lancaster Mayor Charlie Smithgall winning a brand new 5thEstate.com award, the "Loose Cannon". The Mayor shot his mouth off and called the hoteliers, who are fighting the immoral hotel/motel tax, "economic terrorists"! While the Mayor was very gracious when receiving the award, he refused to apologize for this over-the-top comment and added that "we are in a hostage situation"! The new award is for government officials who can't control their tongue.

It must run in the family.

The Mayor and his wife are both Republican committee people whoattended the county Republican Convention on February 19, 2002. Also attending the meeting was 5thEstate.com supporter and concerned citizen, Bernie Schriver (a former county GOP Committee member). In the spirit of what Paul Thibault calls "maliciousness and mayhem", Bernie Schriver handed Mrs. Smithgall a flyer as pictured on the right.

After receiving one from Schriver, Debbie Smithgall crumbled and threw the leaflet at Bernie and went into the Willow Valley Hotel.

There, speaking loudly at the back of the room of 400+ witnesses, Mrs. Smithgall said to the Mayor; "Give me the keys! I'm telling you - I wanna get out of here! I can't deal with that man handing out those papers! I'll take that gun out of your pocket and blow that Son of a (rhymes with witch) away!" When the Mayor couldn't quiet her, he herded the screaming, yelling, arm-waving wife out into the hallway. Not even the invocation of the Lord's name in Jim Bednar's prayer, blessing the evening's proceedings, could prevent profanity from blasting from her mouth like 12 lb. balls from a Civil War cannon!

But it gets worse. Moments after his wife was cussin' like a sailor and making death threats against Schriver, his Honor drove his SUV up to Schriver. With the passenger window down, the Mayor called out to see one of the leaflets Schriver was handing out. After Schriver handed the paper through the open window to Mrs. Smithgall, she again crumbled the paper and PUNCHED Schriver in the middle of his chest!

This is one of the reasons you need 5thEstate.com. Why didn't you read about this in the print-news-monopoly, Lancaster Newspapers? If a physical assault by the Mayor's wife isn't news, then nothing is news. But wait, the Mayor was involved as well. Charlie knew about his wife's uncontrollable rage. Charlie knew of her threat to shoot a citizen. Further, Charlie was carrying a gun according to his wife. Knowing all of that - was it responsible for the Mayor to drive up to the man whose life was just threatened by his wife?

What if the roles were reversed and Schriver had threatened Mrs. Smithgall? OR, what if Schriver had punched Mrs. Smithgall? It's unfathomable that the spouse of such a high elected official would utter such a threat. Will it stand? A complaint was filed with West Lampeter police the following day.

"If we want better government, we must first act to restore civility to the public arena." That's what Paul Thibault said a month ago - but that was aimed at people who did nothing but exercise their free speech. Speech that Thibault did not approve of. If Thibault used inflammatory language to describe people's free speech "mayhem" (hacking someone up) how will he look at the violent actions and terroristic threats of Debbie Smithgall? After all, it was Thibault who said: "We must not remain silent when a few break the rules of civilized discourse or political interaction to get their own way."

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