20 January 2005
Leona Czolgosz
Run, Tony, run
Oh, I don't mean for re-election as Mayor. You can do that, too, if you want.
But run, run, run. Run fast. Run far. Run furious. Run like you want to win the Turkey Trot. Run like the wind off Lake Erie at LaSalle Park on a dark January night.
Run away from the business community that says on the front page of our daily newspaper that it is trying to find you another job.
I thought the three greatest lies were:
1. I'll love you in the morning.
2. The check is in the mail.
3. I'm from the government and I'm here to help you.
How about: 4. I'm from the Buffalo-Niagara Partnership and I'm here to help the Mayor?
What kind of business community talks publicly about trying to get the Mayor a new job and complains about how unsuccessful they've been? (Ones who've been watching The Music Man, not reading The Art of War or The Prince.)
What kind of business organization allows its government affairs assistant, Kevin Schuler, to be quoted as saying about their unsuccessful (there's that word associated with the Partnership again) initiative to find an opponent for the three-term Mayor: "There's not anybody there. There is no great hope out there who would get Tony out so they could say 'I'm in.' " (Kevin, say something like that in Chicago about "Richie," and you'll be singing castrato at the Lyric Opera.)
What kind of newspaper allows its political reporter, Robert J. McCarthy, to run an essentially unsourced story about the future of the Mayor on Page One, when almost assuredly, its publisher and some of its advertisers (especially those who are "Understanding What's Important") know all that is going on?
Really.
And here is the greatest irony...Hizzoner's headhuntery, Kevin's kvetching and McCarthy's meanderings, if they do anything, will do one thing: Encourage the Mayor to run for re-election.
"Find ME a job? Screw all of you," the Mayor will say, swinging his elbows.
And he'll take his million dollar (and more) kitty, buy a passel of TV ads, talk about his wife and kids and big fishing stores and how important it is to get along with the Control Board. He'll win North Buffalo and the West Side, and do well enough in enough of the rest of the City to be Mayor for another four years.
Once there was the time when the business community, for better or for worse, led. Read Lauren Belfer's City of Light to learn how it worked at the turn of the last century.
Now what's important isn't leading. It's the appearance of leading, even if that appearance means the exact opposite of the intended action occurs...running in front of a parade, leading it in the wrong direction and wondering why the people don't follow.
Copyright 2004 by Buffalo Report, Inc.