A Special Edition of CHEAP SHOTS – Charlie Hall’s Politics Shed: The Last Word

The success of CHEAP SHOTS was assured when during the 1994 election campaign Jack Rue ordered the column to be ended as it was annoying important people. Of course, Rue was himself often mentioned in terms that may not have been beneficial to his campaign for Commissioner President, against Barbara “Babs” Thompson in the GOP Primary. Rue was an important and dynamic part of the magic that made CHEAP SHOTS successful and added greatly to the well-being of our wonderful Tabloid which existed from 1989 until 2010 when it was sold. A short eight months later the new owner wasn’t able to deal with management strife, a national financial crisis, an unbelievable switch from coverage of crime and government to fluff and stuff and poof, he shut down ST. MARY’S TODAY. Should that fine gentleman ever wish to resume publication, you can rest assured he will get whatever assistance he needs from THE CHESAPEAKE TODAY, as the Emptyprize and the phony baloney of the Hambone Gazette hardly inform the community or act as anything approaching real newspapers.

Charlie Hall: Thank God for this Country Boy – The ‘Whip’ of the Dorsey Machine

What many of them had in common was adherence to a political tradition in the Seventh District, often called “Dorsey-land” due to the tribe in local politics named for the late Judge Phillip H. Dorsey, and later led by his son, long-time St. Mary’s County States Attorney Walter B. Dorsey. Judge Dorsey had his allies and they were the Baileys, Bo, Eddie, Bernard and many more. Others who were influential in the Dorsey Machine, as the liberals who had their own machine liked to call it, were “lieutenants” of the political organization – one of whom was Charlie Hall.

To simply report that Charlie Hall just kicked the bucket is to do the man a great injustice, without describing the important role he played in the politics and life of one county of three-thousand in America.

Charlie rose from being a lieutenant to being a standard-bearer in that in 1974 he mounted a credible campaign for County Commissioner and lost the Democratic Primary to John Knight Parlett, the scion of a gas empire on the east coast.