Salvaggio and Vegas: is mud wrestling next?

Some of the best political theater in town these days involves pastor-high school district board member Chad Vegas (pictured) versus Mark Salvaggio, the longtime city councilman who retired a few years back. It started when they went after each other, via long strings of email, over state Sen. Roy Ashburn's decision to vote with the Democrats to break the logjam and pass the state budget. (for the record Salvaggio found Ashburn's vote courageous while Vegas labeled him something akin to a modern-day Judas. The vitriol was searing, and one email triggered a response and on and on. So now they're at it again, this time with Salvaggio posting a long email (with me copied in) calling out Vegas for not voting to extend Cobra health benefits to four high school teachers. That got the attention of Californian columnist Lois Henry (read her column here. ) Here's an excerpt from Salvaggio's latest salvo:

"I read Lois Henry's recent column. She called you petty, harsh, snake-belly mean, and unable to look upon a personnel matter before the Board on a human level. Henry was right. I would add this: you are a Christian, a Christian pastor at that. Where is the love of Christ in your heart? Saying "That's neither here or there to me" shows a huge lack of compassion, compassion our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ demonstrated and imparted to us as believers. You said, " I'm not going to contribute to over-inflating the size of government." Does that mean you are going to vote against the federal stimulus money the Kern High School District may receive in the near future, or any other federal funding augmentation?"

Stay tuned. You know there's more to come.