A blistering editorial in the Record-Eagle on Wednesday lambasted Elmwood township residents Don Barrows, Noel Flohe, and John Stanek for their refusal to honor a jury's verdict that they apologize for their anonymous smear of township supervisor Deri Smith.

Barrows, Flohe, and Stanek were convicted last November of sending a misspelled, anonymous mailing smearing Smith in 2004. Smith was elected to the supervisor position in Elmwood in 2004 as part of an effort to reform the township's ingrown and dysfunctional government, the same election in which Flohe and Stanek were swept from office. Barrows, Flohe, and Stanek were active in the 2006 effort to recall Smith, as were several of their close allies who remain on the Elmwood board.

The Record-Eagle editorial tells it like it is, characterizing the three defamers as "poster boys for the type of secretive, vindictive, back-room government that infests the Grand Traverse region, particularly in local townships." It asks that "the Larry, Moe and Curly of political espionage" remove themselves from future politics in Elmwood township, a position we heartily endorse.

~ Steve