Democrats say the darnedest things

Each of the nine Democratic candidates for Cincinnati City Council got three minutes last night to make their pitches to the party's assembled precinct executives at the Laborers union hall last night.

Here's a sampling:

John Cranley, on his unsuccessful 1st Congressional District campaign last fall: "While I regret the results of the election, I don't regret calling Steve Chabot for being the fraud that he has been for this community."

Minette Cooper, on why she won't use the term "public safety,'' as other candidates are wont to do: "When you talk about public safety, it sounds like you are putting up shackles. Safer neighborhoods is what we need."

Brian Garry, at the conclusion of his maiden speech as an endorsed Democratic candidate: "Let's kick ass! We're going to rock! We are going to win!" (The official Brian Garry campaign press release, which popped into our e-mail about midnight, quoted from his speech, but omitted the punt-in-the-posterior part.)

Cecil Thomas, on why five is more than 50 percent of nine: "Democrats should be running this city. If you got five Democrats on council, a Democratic mayor, a Democrat as governor, what's wrong with us if we are not running this city?"

And there was the moment when Wendell Young, the former Cincinnati police officer who is running for the second time, got up and announced that he "hadn't expected that I would have to make a speech." Beg your pardon? No Democratic candidate since Andrew Jackson has ever walked into a room of Democrats and not expected to make a speech. Good thing that Young remembered his stump speech from 2005; he repeated it verbatim for last night's crowd.