title:  Florida GOP Official Tried To Murder A Teen With A Claw Hammer, Refuses To Resign
text: Back in May, Republicans in Broward County elected Rupert Tarsey secretary of their GOP affiliate. Little did they know they had actually elected Rupert Ditsworth, a former student at LA s Harvard-Westlake School, a $40,000 per year preparatory academy in California. More than a decade ago, Ditsworth attacked a fellow student at H-W, Elizabeth Barcay, hitting her over the head at least 40 times with a claw hammer after a date to Jamba Juice gone awry, before dumping her out of the car and fleeing.After the attempted murder, Ditsworth s parents enlisted a psychiatrist to try and suss out why their son may have beaten a girl within an inch of her life. No word on whether the shrink was any use, other than that Rupert still claims he was defending himself and went on to work on the Trump presidential campaign before running for election to the Broward GOP.So that s a no.Now Florida Republicans are understandably freaking out. The Fort Lauderdale area is largely Democratic, and having a party secretary who once split open the skull of a high school girl tends to cast an organization in a dim light.Tarsey, as Rupert is now known, doesn t see what the problem is. He sat down for an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com at his $2 million beachfront condo: Why should I resign? I did nothing wrong and I was elected. This is just party politics. Tarsey insists his name change has nothing to do with his horrific attack on a defenseless young woman with a deadly weapon.  I m estranged from my dad,  Tarsey says. Perhaps the broken skull, nose, and leg that the girl suffered at the hands of his 6-foot-2 son explains why dear old dad may have created some distance between them.The chair of the Broward GOP, Bob Sutton, was apoplectic: We were blindsided. He s a member of the Knights of Columbus for Christ s sake. And he came highly recommended by the former chair.We had no idea what his background is. We want him out but he is refusing to resign. He deceived us. It looks like he even used a reputation management firm to make sure we wouldn t find out who he is. It really is a shame that Republicans aren t better at figuring out that members of their party are horrible monsters. Perhaps if they started with the racists, sexists, and homophobes, they might get better at spotting the guys with the claw hammers in their closets.Featured image via screen capture