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Hal Pal is no Harry Parrish

Written on:October 26, 2015
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Sadly, I’ve been around long enough to have known Harry Parrish, Hal Pal’s dad, who was a Manassas City Councilman and then Mayor of Manassas before he was elected to the House of Delegates in 1982 where he served until he died in 2006.  I guess this is a “back then” kind of thought but I never remember Harry as controversial or supporting anything except what was best for his constituents which included focusing on transportation and schools.  Social issues were hardly a blip.  But the “new” GOP epitomizes Hal Pal’s campaign and his future with the state GOP.  It is built on amping up the electorate using hot button social issues such as women’s health and guns.  Hal Pal has demonstrated these interests through his vote for special use permits for women’s health clinics in Manassas as tie-breaker Mayor and the amazing financial support he is receiving from the NRA.  But Hal Pal thinks that he IS his father.  He has followed his father’s political paradigm and is, therefore, the natural heir apparent to state office.

But Hal Pal is no Harry.  No matter how soft spoken or gentlemanly he presents himself, if challenged, he will turn “ugly” as one constituent told me. He does not like confrontation which is unfortunate for constituents but good news for the NRA, the Bob Marshall crowd and other groups who will be pulling Hal Pal’s strings.  A puppet of the extreme right is how to characterize Hal Pal. And I suspect this is all part of Hal Pal’s “big plan” just waiting for Chuck Colgan to retire.  Certainly, Hal Pal is no Chuck Colgan who in spite of voting sometimes against my interests, at least had the integrity to defend his positions.  I guess that’s exactly what is lacking with Hal Pal:  Integrity.  None.  Zero.

While running for office, Harry was endorsed by the Washington Post.  Hal Pal should be examining himself and wonder why he could not earn that endorsement.  I’m sure that many readers will say, “Well, The Post always endorses Democrats.”  If you review just this year’s endorsements, you will find that to be untrue.  Hal Pal is no Harry Parrish.  He never can be.  We cannot trust Hal Pal because he has sold his soul to the GOP machine.  Hal Pal changed in order to go for the gold ring and leave us all behind. He has not earned the right to represent us.

Or maybe I was naive and never really knew Hal Pal.