In the PUP, there's a thing called the "Big Tent" philosophy - which dictates that everyone, even those with diverging opinions, has to be under the tent for the party's many compromises and appeasements to get into blue magic. And that's why its news tonight that two men who are way inside that tent are in an ugly dispute in the courts - and it got so bad that one of them was sent straight to jail last night…that's right, to Kolbe! Winston Smiling says that Steve Nembhard borrowed six thousand dollars from him in February of 2008 - and he hasn't gotten it back. Not only that, Smiling says Nembhard has made a number of empty promises and given the court assurances that the money was on the way - but none of them materialized.
Smiling says that Monday morning was Nembhard's last chance to appear in court and make good on his promise, when he didn't he was sent straight to prison. And that's where he spent last night - but Smiling told us today that Nembhard got released this afternoon after paying three thousand dollars - half the amount he owed.
And while you might think, one PUP friend would be pleased to see another get out of jail, Smiling is not a bit happy - he says it was all or nothing - and he wants Nembhard back in jail until he gets paid in full, no bull. So Smiling told us he's going back to court tomorrow to enforce his position. According to friends of Nembhard we have spoken to Nembhard has paid five thousand dollars - not three - as of today - and the court has given him until the first September to pay the outstanding one thousand dollars. And while that dispute goes from a private simmer to a public steam - sources within the PUP suggest to us that the dispute has more to do with a fracture within the party than it does with a few thousand dollars. Steve Nembhard called us just before the news - saying that Smiling became angry last year when there was a dispute over a donation that Nembhard had secured on the party leader's behalf with a northern businessman known to both Smiling and Nembhard.
Nembhard says it is also a product of an internal difference about an executive post for a third party. Petty squabbles but now a major public rift and we'll see where it goes tomorrow.
