Anthony Weiner makes a strong argument for New York after resigning from a New
York congressional district in disgrace for exposing himself on the internet
and then gathering enough support to make a run for mayor. His ability to
ignore the obvious, made Miss Piggy sound absolutely truthful when she
defended herself with the now famous phrase;
"Moi?"
San Diego has an excellent claim also. After electing Bob Filner as mayor,
despite his history of harassing women, including a Navy Admiral, while a congressman for the San Diego area. Bob's denials were as realistic as a sheepish
third grader blaming her dog for her undone homework. Of course his plea of
guilty to a felony and two misdemeanors after resigning also supports San
Diego's claim to the title.
Honestly, I don't know much about Toronto. The press tells us it's the forth
largest city in North America. I presume
that's based on population numbers, but I'm not sure. It might be based on the
gall of its mayor, Rob Ford.
It's my understanding, Mr. Ford had a well know history of drinking and
debauchery and was elected possibly because of this history rather than in
spite of it. Apparently, the fine folks
of Toronto were sick and tired of the elitists conservatives and wanted a man of the people. To be fair to Toronto, I
don't believe they equated debauchery with smoking crack. I suspect they just had a healthy respect for
anyone that could drink Canadian beer and smile afterwards.
Still, Toronto earns consideration in
our little analysis just for electing Rob.
But, Mr. Ford is not going down without a fight, he adamantly denied
everything until his police department released evidence of his crack
dalliance. Then it was, "Well yes, I tried it, but how many of you
stinking journalist have smoked pot." He didn't actually say stinking
journalist, as far as I know, but the look was on his face made it clear he was thinking it. Now he is threatening to sue his staff for
discussing his clearly private activities with constituents that happen to be representatives of the repressed sex
industry.
I don't want to be unfair to Canada, or Toronto. I've always had a great
respect for the country and the city, but when CBS news showed a film of Mayor
Ford selling bobble-heads of himself and signing autographs at the same time,
while in the lobby of the Toronto city hall, I have to believe that New York and San
Diego are safe from being the most embarrassed city.
As a
long time un-aligned voter, this little dialog was not intended to be political
in nature. But, as I wrote it, I realized that there were certain similarities
between our star players. Weiner and
Filner were, unfortunately for the party, Democrats. While I can't say that Rob
Ford was, or is, or ever will be, a member of the Democrat party, I can say
Democrats often claim to be the anti-elitists, anti-conservative party, which
was Ford's claim to fame.
So, it made me think, should my Republican, conservative, friends feel superior
and self-righteous because none of their brethren were highlighted in my
diatribe. I don't think so! Just think of Todd Akin, Republican from
Missouri, that argued "legitimate rape" would not result in a pregnancy, while he tried to back-peddle, the
stupidity was out there. Or, some of the absolutely bazar things Michele Bachmann has said.
Both
sides have extreme people and extreme ideas. Extreme people have no real value,
with the possible exception of raising money. Extreme ideas can lead to a
better future, but only if reasonable people, from all sides, LISTEN to each
other and make a good faith effort to find common ground and search for the
common good.
Why is
it so hard?
