Last night Jon Delano had a piece on KDKA about Mayor Luke's most recent "response" to his growing Dennis Regan problem.
"Everything that occured, uh, in regards to this case occurred before I became the Mayor."Delano goes on to quote Mayor Luke:
Lately Mayor Luke Ravenstahl seems to blame the late Mayor, Bob O'Connor.Ah yes. It's all Bob O'Connor's fault as Dennis Regan was O'Connor's guy. So if Regan is a bad apple, don't look to Luke - look to Bob. That seems to be Luke Ravenstahl's story right now.
Claiming he-quote-inherited Dennis Regan from O'Connor.
Classy, no?
Delano goes on to point out that after Ravenstahl "inherited" both the office of the Mayor and Dennis Regan, he actually increased Regan's influence over city government. So shifting the blame back to the dead Mayor seems to be yet another stumble.
Things just don't seem to be getting any better or easier for our young Luke.
9 comments:
Its even classier to take credit for his successes (Redd Up) on the one hand while blaming him for your political missteps on the other. Yes, blame the dead Mayor for your mistakes less than six months after he's in the ground. But be sure to continue toting his widow around as an election prop. That's how a mature civic leader behaves.
Why doesn't Luke go sneak a cigarette in the boy's room with Student Body President Doug Shields and leave the real governing to Peduto?
Mayor Peduto, anyone?
Amd what's with the word verification??? I just had to type
"jhbhtpph" WHat freaking language is that???
Aint a word...call it "randome letter string verification."
woule it have been "classier" for Ravenstahl to have fired O'Connor's staff immediately upon taking the reins? seems to me, no matter what he did, he'd be under attack by the likes of you.
Ravenstahl is wrong on this, but it is only part of the problem.
The bigger problem is the public's trust in government. Do people really believe that public transportation cuts are needed when stuff like this is going down? And who gets the blame for the traffic jams that will follow those cuts? And how furious will the unions be?
I think it is a good time to be a Republican in Pittsburgh. But, because of years of neglect, they don't have anyone.
So the larger question is which Democrat enters the race and take advantage of the situation. Peduto certainly can do that, but so can about 3 other people.
Would it have been classier to get rid of the hacks upon taking the reins? You ask a very good question - what exactly is the acceptable grace period before shipping off the inexperienced B-team of hacks? (Heaven forbid any of the so-called loyal Bob-supporters would have the grace to resign)
How about initially diminishing their roles? Nope, Luke did just the opposite - he inflated their roles, Zober went from a $70k/yr. position as Regan's gopher to the $94k/hr. chief of staff w/o any HR or management experience (as exhibited from the McNeilly debacle - mad HR skills Urone!), Regan went from screwing things up behind the scenes to screwing things up front and center stage as operations director and would-be public safety director! Skrinjar??? Who would've lost a night's sleep over his termination? Cassidy??? Luke brings in his own secretary, but keeps the $70k Cassidy? And Bernie Lynch, whose entire staff resigned last week????
If not September 1, why not fire Regan in October when Luke found out about Regan's meddling in police affairs? Everyone expected tha this was the golden opportunity to renounce Regan; Instead, Luke protected Regan, embarrased McNeilly, laughed at Regan's treatment of women in the police bureau and blamed a dead guy for Luke's own failure to take the bull by the horns in October - & then announcing he was "proud" of his childish actions. Now that's "klassy" w/a K!
Fast-forward to January - 4 mos. have gone by - enough time to bring in a respectable group of professionals? Or are you having a tough time Luke, because no one wants to work for or with you, Urone or Denny? Gee, I wonder why?
Some people tend to think of Luke as this fresh-faced kid who is untouched by the machine politics of WPA...but he is anything but. He comes from a family (as most of you know) with broad and deep "connections."
In many ways he is the perfect storm of bad possibilities; he has the machine pullling his levers and gears...and he is too young and inexperienced to "be his own man."
While Luke has money and backing from Onorato, et al, this is Peduto's election to lose at this point.
Pilt
"While Luke has money and backing from Onorato, et al, this is Peduto's election to lose at this point."
Really? The majority of voters who will show up to the polls will likely be senior citizens and city and county employees. And the majority of these live in districts represented by people like Messers Motznik, Bodak, and Koch. If they throw their support behind Ravenstahl he will likely win.
Oh yeah, people are hinging all of their important decisions on the word of the gas thief...
Actually, more than a few most likely will listen to a gas thief; or a public works veteran; or [person of influence here]. I mean, if people listen to Bill Peduto becuase they trust his judgement, why wouldn't people listen to another city councilman/woman? They will likely look to thier councilperson for guidance, especially if that person is "one of their own (e.g. a former city employee)." Factor in self-interest and class resenment along with this and you've got a voter willing to go along with someone that others may consider to be less than perfect. They may even acknowledge that he/she's a bum, but they'll argue that he/she is their bum.
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