Live Streaming Webcast/Chat Tonight with Jon Delano

You watched the Lefties last Tuesday and Thursday, now the Right has their say on their convention.

Tonight's guests:

Braden Parker - Braden's Corner of the Net
Blog: http://www.democrats-lie.com

Steve Maloney - Camp 2008 Victory
Blog: http://camp2008victorya.blogspot.com

Some of you may remember that Braden used to frequently comment at 2pj.

Go to http://kdka.com @7:00 PM to join in.
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KDKA Live-stream Webcast Tonight!

Once again KDKA's Jon Delano will host a live-stream convention webcast.

Guest bloggers tonight include John McIntire of MacYapper, Sue Kerr of Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents and yours truly of 2 Political Junkies.

Go to www.kdka.com and look for the link at the top middle of the page. The webcast will take place between 7:00 and 8:00 PM.

You can chat live to ask questions or submit your question for the queue right now by emailing Webteam@kdka.com .

Webcast Posted

Here.

For the record Maria did NOT call me an Oaf.

That would be John McIntire.

Uh, wait. I mean that it was John McIntire who called me an oaf.

Oh and Jon my name's spelled DeAngelo NOT Deangelo. I hope we can get it right next time.

LOL

Live Blogging the Convention at KDKA.com

From Jon Delano:

Tomorrow night (Tuesday), we will do a live-stream webcast on http://www.kdka.com/ with several political bloggers in Pittsburgh, beginning at 7 pm. My hope is to analyze the first night of the convention (Monday) and discuss what ought to happen on the second night (Tuesday) when Hillary Clinton addresses the convention. I hope you will join us both to hear what we have to say and, more importantly, to ask your questions or make comments that I will read to our guests from the blogosphere.

Guest bloggers tonight include The Pittsburgh Comet's Bram Reichbaum, Gab Bonesso, and 2pj's own David DeAngelo.

Guest bloggers on Thursday night to include myself and others.

Don't forget to go to http://kdka.com tonight @ 7:00!

You can also submit your question for the queue right now by emailing Webteam@kdka.com.
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McCain Will Say Anything...

To continue Maria's recent posting on Senator McCain's obvious and shameful pandering, here's the story from Countdown:

While it was Jon Delano who did the interview (see it here), Bob Mayo has some much needed fact-checking. Up until now, McCain had identified the defensive line of the Green Bay Packers to his torturers. Mayo even writes that in the made-for-TV bio, it shows up as a Green Bay Packers story. Then the busman started googling:

McCain became a POW in 1967. The legendary Steelers defensive line that McCain appears to be referring to -- The Steel Curtain -- wasn't in place until 1971. Mean Joe Greene --the first of the front four to arrive -- didn't join the Steelers until 1969, two years after the time McCain refers to as when he was first interrogated.

In 1967, John McCain was 31 years old and the Steelers were anything but super. They'd had only eight seasons since McCain was born in which team wins outnumbered losses. In the two years before McCain was shot down, the Steelers were 2-and-12 and 5-8-and-1. Discouraged fans back then called them SOS -- the "Same Old Steelers".

Mayo has an e-mail from Paul Lindsay of the McCain camp in PA:

Hey Bob,

On background as a McCain official - It was an honest mistake. If bloggers want to make fun of him because he forgot which team he used under torture, let them.

Hope that is helpful to you,

Paul

I can't imagine it was a mistake. If you watch Delano's interview, it's all very carefully planned out. The pander enters the discussion immediately after Delano asks McCain what's the first thing he thinks of when he thinks of Pittsburgh.

On the one hand, it's a teeny-tiny story. On the other, it shows Senator John McCain as willing to say anything even lie about his POW experience in order to garner votes in Pennsylvania.

McCain-McBeam 08!

When KDKA's Jon Delano interviewed presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain this week he "recounted how he would recite the Pittsburgh Steelers defensive line-up to his North Vietnamese captors."

McCain, the Republican candidate for president, says he naturally thinks of the football team whenever he thinks of Pittsburgh.

"The Steelers really made a huge impression on me -- particularly in their early years."

In fact, McCain explains how the team helped him during his time in a POW camp.

"When I was first interrogated and really had to give some information because of the physical pressures that were on me, I named the starting lineup -- defensive line -- of the Pittsburgh Steelers as my squadron-mates!"

Only one problem with that: in the past (and in his book and in a made-for-TV movie), McCain's always claimed that it was the Green Bay Packers lineup -- not the Steelers -- that he named to his captors.

Countdown made it their first story last night:


2 Political Junkies has learned exclusively that this seeming pander to the Steeler Nation was to be only the opening salvo of a multi-pronged campaign to win over the crucial swing state of Pennsylvania.

A remake of the McCain "My Christmas Story" ad was set to run in Western PA. In the new ad, instead of his captor drawing a cross in the sand,

he drew this symbol:

(A Philadelphia-themed ad had an image of a cheesesteak sandwich sketched in the dirt.)

Reportedly, the campaign was to culminate with McCain naming Pittsburgh Steeler mascot Steely McBeam as his running mate. (After numerous rounds of focus groups nationwide, it was found that the frightening, soul-stealing, universally-hated McBeam was the only one able to make McCain appear in comparison "upbeat and friendly" to so called low information voters.)

McCain-McBeam 08
(Artist Rendition)
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Local Stuff

1. For the record, we don't think that Jon Delano is "nuts" either.

2. While Bram and The Burgher link to The Trib's reporting on Lil Mayor Luke's latest paronoid power play management stylings, to give credit where credit is due, Early Returns had it first.

3. And speaking of the P-G, they have a poll where you can express your frustrations opinions on the Mon-Fayette Expressway (link to the poll at Progress Pittsburgh here) and The Angry Drunk Bureaucrat weighs in on the subject here.

4. Did we mention Chad's (Teacher. Wordsmith. Madman.) excellent opinion piece in the P-G or Anthony and Ms. Mon's hysterical collaborative video? No? Well, now we have.

5. Finally, can we note the irony of the petition to make the boyhood home of Pittsburgh native son August Wilson into a designated historic structure languishing in City Council's Planning, Zoning and Land Use Committee (falling through the cracks or sat on depending on who you talk to or who won't talk) at the same time that The Kennedy Center is celebrating his work with their "August Wilson's 20th Century" festival (the first time all ten plays in the Pittsburgh cycle are being performed together) and at the same time that Lil Mayor Luke was lauding Pittsburgh as "the hometown of Gene Kelly, Andy Warhol and August Wilson"? I guess we just did. (Pittsburgh City Council will hold a public hearing on the designation on Feb. 18, at 1 p.m.)


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Delano's take on tomorrow

In addition to his KDKA TV report, Jon Delano riffs on the mayoral race on his Delano's Den blog (expectations game, etc.).

For the record, I expect DeSantis to do well but not win.

[sigh]

Hey, Pittsburgh! Why don't you surprise me?
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I'll be hosting for Lynn Cullen today

Lynn's off today so I'll be hosting the show in her place.

AM NewsTalk 1360 (click here to listen online)
Friday, October 12, 2007
9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
PLEASE Call in at: 412-333-1360

Regular Friday guest, Jon Delano, will join me along with Bram Reichbaum for The Burgh Report and Sue Kerr for The Pittsburgh Women's Blogging Society.

I'll be hosting for Lynn Cullen next Friday

Lynn's off next Friday so I'll be hosting the show in her place (and my God have mercy on all our souls).

AM NewsTalk 1360 WPTT
Friday, October 12, 2007
9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Call in at: 412-333-1360

Regular Friday guest, Jon Delano, will join me along with others to be named at a later date.

What did he know and when did he know it?

I'm trying to get this all straight here.

According to an article in today's Post-Gazette, the agreement which the City signed to get the funds to purchase the Yukon SUV that Lil Mayor Luke used as his personal party mobile stated that:

...all equipment bought with the $59,942 grant "shall be used for only the purposes set forth" in two documents called the Buffer Zone Plans and the Vulnerability Reduction Purchase Plan.

However, we the public cannot know what those exact purposes were because Mayor Luke Ravenstahl is citing national security as an excuse not to release requested portions of the document or even say what was in them (thanks for asking P-G, now sue him for the info!).

Well, how very Bush Administration of him!

Anyone want to guess the likelihood that the agreement stated that one of the "purposes" of the equipment purchased (SUV) was to be a "conveyance for BBQ sauce and charcoal for the purposes of tailgating activities"?

I think not.

But it gets worse.

According to the P-G:

The agreement was signed in March 2006 by then-director for intergovernmental affairs Dennis Regan, who is no longer with the city, and witnessed by Yarone Zober, who is now chief of staff.

So, wait. You're telling me that Lukey's BFF Yarone and his former BFF Denny knew that the grant put a limited use on all equipment but they not only forgot to tell Lukey, they let him drive around in the anti-terrorist equipment?

Moreover, we know from Jon Delano's excellent report on KDKA that Police Chief Nate Harper apparently couldn't wait to get Lukey into the sweet, sweet ride even though he knew that it could not be used for personal recreational activities?

Looks like Sergeant Mona Wallace did use the chain of command to warn everyone from the very start that Lukey was not allowed to take the SUV for a his joyrides, but not only was she repeatedly ignored, she was reprimanded (later rescinded as they probably realized that another payout to a female whistleblower a la Commander Catherine McNeilly wouldn't fly).

Harper is certainly being used as the fall guy on this one, just as he was in the promotions of the police officers with a history of domestic violence, but:

Regan knew
Zober knew
Huss knew

...what are the chances that Lil Mayor Luke didn't know?

And, if Lil Mayor Luke somehow didn't know, what is it about our corrupt city government that no one can say no to anything that our Boy King wants?
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UPDATE: So now we see from The Burgh Report (who's been on this story like white on rice) that Yarone Zober who knew about the federal restrictions on the Yukon SUV actually rode around in it himself with Mayor Ravenstahl. Yarone Zober should be fired.
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Delano's Den

Hey, it's good to see Jon Delano blogging at Delano's Den again.

I noticed Jon's previous blog posting was on June 30. I hope that doesn't mean we're looking at a blog post every two months from now on, does it?

One Political Junkie ON THE AIR

An announcement:

I'll be filling in for Lynn Cullen this friday (August 17th). The tentative schedule is:

• 9:00 to 10:00 Jon Delano (it's a Friday Tradition over there at WPTT)
• 10:00 to 11:00 Impeachment
• 11:00 to 12:00 [nothing scheduled yet]

We're working on filling in the blanks.

It should be fun!

Delano's Interview with Melissa Hart

Posted on KDKA's website is Jon Delano's full interview with (god, I love writing this next part) former Member of the House of Representatives Melissa Hart. It can be found here.

Some early highlights:

Delano: Let me ask you, why do you think you lost in 2006?

Hart: I think part of it was, we didn't get to substance. The
campaign never really happened. It became an assassination more than a
campaign. And it's disapointing, I didn't run campaigns like that.

D: An assassination of you?

H: Oh, absolutely.

D: In what way?

H: Well, did you turn on your TV last fall? There was no opportunity
for any discussion. Any discussion that we had was drowned out by the
negative schlocky commercials.

D: You were characterized as being a supporter of President Bush and
former Senator Rick Santorum. I think the figure was 98% of the
time.

H: And what relevance was that? On what particular issues. No body
asked.

Let me step in here. Ms Hart's grasp on recent history is rather disappointing. One part that she is omitting, unfortunately, is something reported by the Rothenberg Report. I wrote about it here. As they say in the biz, she was "caught napping" until it was too late in that campaign. According to the Rothenberg Report (sub req, sorry) there was the pesky issue of some drum lessons that got in the way of her campaigning.

Let's remember that she refused to debate Altmire. Take a look at the ever astute Chris Potter (he of the CP) had to say last October 2006:

Mostly, however, he has attacked Hart for carrying water for the Bush Administration, especially where the war in Iraq is concerned. He has also castigated her for supporting free-trade agreements, which he contends hurt working people in the district.

So far, Hart has replied by saying ... well, not much, really. She's refused to debate Altmire. [Hart campaign manager Luke] Myslinski says a schedule conflict preempted one debate, and Hart refused to participate in one sponsored by the League of Women Voters because "Jason is a former member there." But Hart's campaign also declined a third debate whose sponsoring organization, the Beaver County Chamber of Commerce, has ties to a Hart campaign staffer. Altmire has offered to debate anyway, but Myslinski says, "If we did really well in the debate, he'd say it was rigged. We aren't putting ourselves out there like that." [emphasis in original]

And if that's too far out of the "mainstream media" (as the City Paper surely is) then there's this from the P-G:

Congresswoman Melissa Hart believes U.S. troops need to do more work in Iraq, while her Democratic challenger, Jason Altmire, suggests they should battle terrorism elsewhere.

The differences between them on the Iraqi war -- the Republican incumbent supportive of the Bush administration's approach, her opponent capturing the frustration with it voiced among some of the citizenry -- highlighted a side-by-side session yesterday. The two 4th Congressional District candidates took questions from Pittsburgh Post-Gazette editors and reporters.

It was a rare joint appearance by them, as Ms. Hart has thus far rejected several invitations to publicly debate her opponent. The pair were respectful to each other, sticking to issues rather than personal attacks. [emphasis added]

So let's not settle in too too comfortably with this idea that there was "no discussion" especially since it was Melissa Hart who was refusing to debate.

The Ethics Board to Mayor Luke: Come Talk to Us.

I think (though I'm not sure, perhaps someone can translate the Pirate-speak for me) that Bram has already written on this.

Let me try: Avast. Shiver me timbers. Weigh anchor. Hoist the mizzen or ye will be in Davey Jones' locker soon, ye landlubber. Yarrrr.

So anyway Rich Lord got the story today that the long-running and well established Ethics Committee wants a word with young Mayor Luke:

The city of Pittsburgh's Ethics Hearing Board expressed deep concern today about Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's attendance last month at an expensive charity golf event as a sponsored guest of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, but stopped short of declaring him in violation of the city Ethics Code.

And late this afternoon, Republican Mayoral candidate Mark DeSantis was (briefly) on Fred Honsberger's air to discuss the matter. Briefly.

Earlier in the day DeSantis released this statement:

I am hopeful that Mr. Ravenstahl will cooperate in the Ethics Board investigation. We need to have confidence in our leaders and the only way to accomplish that goal is to avoid the appearance of impropriety. I am renewing my challenge to Mr. Ravenstahl to pledge not to accept any gifts or gratuities. I agreed to the same pledge on July 5, 2007 and asked Mr. Ravenstahl to do the same.

On Fred's show, he repeated the pledge and added that "it's best for the mayor to cooperate fully with the ethics board" in order to "clear the name of the mayor and the mayor's office."

The subject of debates came up in the conversation between DeSantis and the Honz. DeSantis has challenged the Mayor to at least 8 debates adding that Dan Onorato and Jim Roddey had more than 20 debates when they ran against each other for the County Executive - so 8 debates is, well, somewhat modest in comparison.

In a letter from him to DeSantis, Mayor Luke has proposed 2.

On Fred's air, DeSantis characterized the letter as "oddly worded" and "troublesome" in that the "debates" that are described might not be debates at all, but would seem more like stylized speeches.

In the letter to DeSantis, the Mayor points out how important it is to have a debate "so that the voters have an opportunity to learn more about the candidates for Mayor and our respective positions on the issues." Then he offers the debates:

In an effort to further that objective, I have asked the League [of Women Voters] and KDKA to jointly program and host a televised Mayoral debate. Further, I have asked WQED to develop a forum wherein high school seniors, both private and public, could question the Mayoral candidates and observe a debate. I have also requested that WQED televise this forum.

DeSantis is right. It is oddly written. Is there a grammarian in the house? First thing, I wouldn't have split that infinitive in the first sentence as everyone knows that only Starfleet Captains get to split infinitives. Second, while the sentence might flow a little better if both verbs are in the same form, ("I have asked the League and KDKA to program and to host a televised Mayoral debate"), he could have simply simplified the sentence into "I have asked the League and KDKA to host a televised Mayoral debate."

That way, the "program" part is implied (and therefore unecessary). It also clears away the messy parallel verb forms AND the use of "jointly" to split that infinitive, bold as it was.

Enough of that. I am struck by the format of the second "debate." Luke wants high school students to ask the questions? About what? Granted he says in his letter to DeSantis:

While I recognize that most High School students are not of voting age, I believe they are critical to the success and future of this City. Afterall the Mayor is the Mayor for all Pittsburghers, not just those of voting age.

That is of course true but think about what that means for the purpose of a Mayoral debate. Instead of experienced journalists asking the candidates probing questions about the very serious issues facing Pittsburgh (and I'm talking to you, Jon Delano!) we're runing the risk of having some 17 yr old ask "Boxers or briefs?"

Maybe that's just safer territory for young Mayor Luke.

Newsmen with podcasts!

Today, Bob Mayo put up "a podcast of my Q&A with Mayor Ravenstahl on his decision not to rescind the controversial police promotions."

Jon Delano has many new links on his sidebar to video of many candidates in Pittsburgh; both local (DeSantis) and national (Giuliani, Obama and Romney).

Delano has the last word on Luke & Tiger & Oakmont

Jon Delano, who stirred up a hornets nest this week by delving deeper into a story originally broke by the Trib last month on Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's crashing of a private AMEX event with Tiger Woods, weighs in with an interesting overview on his Delano's Den blog.

Jon does not back down on his reporting stating that he and Luke "'agree to disagree' on the facts."

Like I said on John McIntire's radio show last week: you piss off the press at your own risk. I'm not saying, mind you, that Delano says that he's pissed. But how silly, as a politician, do you have to be to go from routinely lying to the media (almost expected) to lying about them?

At the very least Ravenstahl's, ahem, "misstatements" about Delano's reporting gave the story "legs." At his blog, Delano tells how it made a one-day story go on for a good week. At most, hopefully, it has finally crushed the overlong honeymoon Luke got from most in the local MSM.

Speaking of honeymoons, has Luke's grip on the average yinzer's heart got just a little slippery?

Whigsboy, who frequent posts comments to this blog, said at this post that the Mayor of Pittsburgh has been voted "JagOff of the Week" at ESPN Radio Pittsburgh 1250. The Junker & Crow show have listeners call in each Wednesday to vote for the biggest jagoff. Whigsboy said that our own Lil Lukey won, but unfortunately we can't confirm that since the last winning jagoff posted on their website is for June 6th.

We certainly hope that Whigsboy heard his radio right because it's a pretty damn funny story if true.

Delano's Follow-up

This evening, Jon Delano had a follow-up to his initial report about Mayor Ravenstahl and the Oakmont Country Club. You can see it here.

His reporting included something first blogged on here - that the non-Mayoral guests of American Express each paid $900 for the privilege of attending.

That $900 charge for the American Express' guests may come back to bite young Luke on the ass, in light of section 197.07 of the municipal code which states:

A public official, City employee or agent of the City shall not solicit or accept from an interested party, nor shall any interested party offer or give anything of value to a public official, City employee or agent of the city, subject to the following exceptions:

(a) Gifts from direct family members;
(b) A nonpecuniary award publicly presented, in recognition of public service;
(c) An occasional nonpecuniary gift of nominal value;
(d) Complimentary travel for official purposes;
(e) Admissions to charitable, civic, political or other public events;
(f) Admissions to cultural or athletic events not to exceed two hundred fifty dollars ($250.00) per calendar year in the aggregate and one hundred dollars ($100.00) per calendar year from any single person, agent or other interested party; or
(g) Complimentary meals and/or refreshments.

Seeing as by his own admission, he got in to the Oakmont Country Club, and seeing that for anyone else it would have cost $900 to be a guest, doncha think at the very least his actions should be investigated by the City's Ethics Board?

Now that there's possible ethics violations, it's not so petty, is it?

Luke Ravenstahl's Weasel Words

Yesterday on Fred Honsberger's radio show (transcript here), Mayor Luke Ravenstahl said this:

The Jon Delano story is inaccurate simply because I didn't force my way anywhere. I was at Oakmont on April 23rd. I did meet Tiger Woods. But his suggestion that I was asked to leave and not welcome is inaccurate and I really think that's the unfortunate part of the story and I'm not sure where it came from.

This got me thinking. Is that actually what Jon Delano said? That Luke "forced [his] way" into the Country Club? That he was asked to leave? That he was "not welcome" at the Oakmont?

Let's take a look at Delano's story.

[W]hen the mayor learned that Tiger Woods was out at Oakmont practicing, he had his office call the club to secure an invitation. The club told him politely, but firmly, that this was a private affair, and he was not invited. Nonetheless, the mayor got in his car, drove out, and tried to crash the club.

Sources say Ravenstahl was stopped by Oakmont’s security guards who told him the golf outing was a private event for American Express and its customers. But he talked his way into the club. [emphasis added]

I guess this depends on how you define "force."

And no where (and this is the big part) in the Delano piece is there any mention of the Mayor "was asked to leave."

Luke uses his invitation to lunch as evidence that he was welcome at the club:

[W]hen I walked in literally they invited me to sit down and have lunch. I think that shows you right there that I was welcome...

But Delano points out that he was invited for lunch - adding that the Tiger Woods event was private:

Once inside, Ravenstahl was recognized and invited to dine with members of the club’s board of directors where, once again, he was told the event with Tiger Woods was private and not open to him.

I mean, what were they (the Club's board of directors) supposed to do? Toss the mayor of the city of Pittsburgh out on his ear? Then there's Luke's weasel words:

[B]ut we were never told, at all, that we were not welcome on the grounds. [emphasis added]

Which is different, of course, from saying "we were not welcome at the party."

Looks like Luke knows he's done wrong and is trying to weasel out owning up to it.

Mayor Luke explains himself and I (try to) explain his explanations

While David may be fine with letting Luke Ravenstahl explain himself, I have a few comments.

LUKE: No, in fact, I called myself and spoke with an individual from Oakmont, from the USGA early that morning and he said he would check into it and get back to me. And I never had the opportunity to speak with him, but we were never told, at all, that we were not welcome on the grounds.

So let me get this straight: the USGA tells Lil Luke that they'll get back to him and then he goes ahead and shows up anyway? He just assumes that they'll say yes? Unless they had screamed "NO, NO, NO" to him, he takes that as a yes?? (Note to self: Remember to personally tell Luke that he's not invited to any party I throw because if I don't, he'll feel perfectly OK with showing up.)

LUKE: And in fact when we got here, I was invited in and sat down, had lunch and was given a shirt was given a badge. And really, you know, welcomed by the people at Oakmont.

Here's a clue: Oakmont did not want to make a scene by throwing your ass out. Generally if someone is rude and pushy enough to crash a party, the host doesn't call the cops if the crasher is reasonably presentable.

LUKE: I was told that Tiger would not sign autographs. And [not to] approach him and I didn't, in fact. I was introduced to him by Mike Tirico who is an ESPN Anchor, who was on the course that day. And he suggested that I meet Tiger. Reluctantly at first, I said I didn't want to cause any trouble because he was golfing. And he insisted that Tiger would be OK with it, so he approached Tiger on my behalf to introduce me.

But you did approach him, Luke. First of all we doubt that you took great measures to explain to Tirico that the USGA/Oakmont had specifically told you not to approach Tiger. By your own admission, you only told Tirico that you didn't want to cause any problems because he was golfing -- not that you were told not to approach Tiger. So you got Tirico to bother Tiger on your behalf and then YOU APPROACHED HIM (Tiger).

FRED: I guess the question is, why didn't you tell this to Jon when Jon asked for a comment?

LUKE: He didn't. In fact he was – I mean to think that this was April 23rd, what's the date today? June 10th, 11th or 12th . I'm losing track of my dates but we're looking at almost two months. And was never asked a question about it, was never approached on it. He called yesterday afternoon. I was unavailable. He didn't-

FRED: We know. We know you were unavailable (ha-ha!).

LUKE: Yea, exactly right and I apologize for that. But he didn't identify – apparently he was going to do a story on the billboards and how we're promoting the city etc for the US Open and never - until almost four-thirty yesterday called and asked my spokesperson about the Tiger Woods day. And obviously you know an hour and a half before the story aired.

So you now admit that Jon Delano did contact your office on this story. So why did you claim that he didn't this morning on WDVE? Do you not communicate with your communications people or did you, as is your pattern, lie?

FRED: I mean the interesting thing was your office issued a statement yesterday saying, look it's always been your life long dream, you being the Mayor, to meet Tiger Woods and people ought to be satisfied that you had the persistence to do it.

LUKE: Well again, I think my staff was just responding to the question that was asked and quite honestly they were caught off guard by the question.

Might they have been caught of guard because you fired your top communications/PR guy without having someone ready to take his place? Ya think that might have been part of the problem?

LUKE: And you know Fred, I think you know me pretty well. I'm not a pushy guy.

Oh, right. God knows that you don't have any history of crashing private parties.

LUKE: I mean I was certainly told that it was an American Express party and it was for their patrons and not to approach Tiger and not to ask him for an autograph and not to impose myself on the party and I didn't do that. So that was all. That was all that was suggested.

Yes, Luke. You knew it was a private party and you were told at the very least to wait until they called you back, but you didn't and went anyway and you DID approach Tiger. You didn't tell Tirico "No" because you didn't want to admit that you were specifically ordered not to "approach" Tiger. Here's the dictionary definition of "approach" since you seem not to understand the word:

To come near or nearer, as in space or time: Spring approaches.
Sports.
To make an approach, as in golf.v.tr.
To come or go near or nearer to: approached the tunnel.
To come close to, as in appearance, quality, or condition; approximate: The performance approaches perfection.
To make a proposal or overtures to with a specific end in view.

By your own admission, you first "approached" Tirico and then you "approached" Tiger after Tirico offered to introduce you to him.

LUKE: That's how it all transpired and you know again I wish I had the opportunity to tell the story before Jon told his version of it.

Oh for f*ck's sake, Luke. Again, by your own admission (finally) Delano contacted your office prior to airing the report. This is the exact same excuse you used with the NYC incident. It wasn't your fault that the reporters didn't ask you the right questions -- you said then what a shame it was that they didn't give you the opportunity to explain yourself.

It's the same damn pattern every time:

Lil Luke does something wrong/stupid. Then he lies about it/tries to cover it up. Then he blames the media, or the blogs or calls it "political."

LUKE: But hey, that's the nature of what we do in politics and [unintelligible]

If you ask me, the entire damn interview was unintelligible.

NOTE: I started this post hours ago and AOL freezed up on me and I lost it. In the meantime, I see that The Burgher has had some of the same thoughts here as well as links to non Pittsburgh blogs who have picked up the story on our Frat Boy of a Mayor.