Muzzled on the campaign trail

Progressive, The, Nov, 2004 by Matthew Rothschild

It reported her account that Geddes had put a flier in employees' envelopes that lauded the Bush tax cut.

Here's what the flier said, according to the paper: "Just so you will know, because of the Bush tax [cut]:

* I was able to buy the new Hammer Mill.

* I was able to finance our receivables.

* I was able to get the new CAT skid steer.

* I was able to get the wire cutter.

* I was able to give you a job."

And it also said, "You got the benefit of the Bush tax cut. Everyone did."

Gobbell realized she was in trouble on the morning of September 9, she says. "The first time I found out something was wrong was right after first break when we were going back to "work," she tells The Progressive.

"The plant production manager told me, 'Phil says take that sticker off your car, or you're fired.'

"I told him, 'Phil can't tell me who to vote for.' "

The plant manager, Dennis Cantrell, told Gobbell to go tell him that herself, she says.

"So I go in there and I said, 'Phil, did you tell me to take that sticker off my car?'

"He said, 'I sure did.'

"I told him, 'You can't tell me who to vote for.'

"He said, 'I own this place.'

"And then I told him he still couldn't tell me who to vote for. And he told me to get out.

"And I asked him, 'Am I fired?'

"And he said, 'I'm thinking about it.'

"And I asked him again, and he hollered, 'Get out, and shut the door.'"

Gobbell says she asked the plant manager whether she should leave or go back to work. And he told her to go back to work, she recalls.

"I hadn't been there a minute when Cantrell came back and said, 'I reckon you're fired.' Phil told him to tell me that I could either work for him or John Kerry." How did she react?

"I took my gloves off and threw them in the garbage can and took my purse and left," she says. "I really couldn't believe it."

After the Decatur Daily story appeared, "my plant manager Cantrell called me at home and talked to me a little bit. He said they were trying to work things out," she says. "They were getting calls, and they were trying to settle it down, and they were wondering what it would take for me to just drop it, move it over."

Gobbell says she was supposed to go in on the morning of September 14 to talk with Geddes and his lawyer, but they weren't there.

Later that day, the phone rang again. This time, it was Senator Kerry. Gobbell has since been campaigning with the Senator.

Matthew Rothschild is Editor of The Progressive.