A tale of two events ... and a "hmm"

I wasn’t at the Mayoral Forum last night, I can’t say what happened. And I assume the Mayor is still the front runner in the race, after all, this forum won’t even be presented to the public on TV, and the audio portion is not going out over the limited airwaves of DUQ until October seven. But what I take away from the newspaper accounts is a “hmmm” moment.

In the book (and movie) “Presumed Innocent” the attorney Sandy Stern scores a home run with his cross examination of a pathologist, but scores a “hmmm” moment earlier in the trial with his cross examination of the former district attorney. He catches Raymond Horgan in an act of hypocrisy, in this case of accusing a trusted subordinate of bad behavior he himself engaged in.

From the Post Gazette’s coverage of last night’s forum:

“In the first debate of Pittsburgh's mayoral election, Republican challenger Mark DeSantis repeatedly said he would listen to the people in formulating city policy.
He said it so often that it drew a laugh at one point from incumbent Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, who, for his part, said he already listens.”
…
“Mr. DeSantis throughout said he would go to the people to hear what they want regarding economic development and building in the city. He took a jab at Mr. Ravenstahl's absence this week at a North Side meeting on the new casino.
"If you're going to call a meeting and engage in dialogue, you have to be there and hear what the residents have to say," Mr. DeSantis said.
Mr. Ravenstahl blamed his staff for a flier that erroneously implied he would attend the meeting. He was on a business trip to Boston at the time.”

The Mayor already listens, unless he is on a trip to Boston, or took a trip to New York, or played in a charity golf tournament. He blamed his staff instead of assuming the blame himself for an error. The Mayor also said he would put his one year record up against any previous Mayor. I assume he didn’t mean to dis Bob O’Connor.

Last night I went to Off-the-Record VII. I had never been before, it was enjoyable to see news celebrities and politicians make fun of themselves. Ken Rice can tell a pretty good joke or ten, and he is certainly enthusiastic if not always on key when he signs; he gets points for real effort. Dan Onorato … well, he was surprising nervous for a politician, when he was telling jokes. It was really quite endearing. Samantha Bennett and Dennis Roddy can mostly carry a tune (him maybe less so). Because the title was “Blogged to Death”, my wife expected the audience to be chock full of bloggers. I thought I might have seen one or two bloggers before hand, and I meant to approach people afterwards, but my wife was getting cranky so out we went. If you were there and wondered about the guy with the gray beard and the bow tie (but not guy with the tux, who wears a tux to satirical theatre?), that was me. Just like the picture.