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Wednesday, April 18, 2007

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.


8 Comments:

at 10:00 AM, April 18, 2007 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Figures you'd focus on Garry's closing humorous comment, which he prefaced by saying he was invoking an old Democratic pun. God knows some humor was welcome at that meeting.His speech was very well done and you could have quoted any number of other statements he made. You fail to mention that Thomas kept saying we had a Dem president. The best comment I heard was Tom Luken saying "the train has pulled out of the station", a reference to being railroaded.

 
at 11:42 AM, April 18, 2007 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Howard--your reporting that the "the anti-Berding movement had the lifespan of a backyard bottle rocket on the Fourth of July" is cute, but simply innacurate. Jeff received the recommendation of the Nominating Committee by only one vote. And he barely survived an effort last night by the Cinti Democratic Committee to reject the Nominating Committee's recommendations and NOT endorse Berding.

If Berding has this much trouble among the Democratic Party's core base (its precinct executives), then he's in deep do-do. You think the anti-Berding mood is simply going to die now? Did you not see the resentment last night among dozens--led by Tom Luken--who felt the process was rigged?!

I also have to complain about this blog's political coverage in general. All your reporter's focus on the trivial, and treat this all as a game. Can you be a little less lazy and cynical, and actually do more issue-based reporting?

 
at 12:06 PM, April 18, 2007 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wow. Calling Cranley bitter would be a major understatement.

 
at 2:22 PM, April 18, 2007 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wendell Young doesn't exactly come across like a guy who's prepared to solve the city's problems. He wasn't even prepared to for a Democrat precinct meeting. I'm not sure his brain could power a small light bulb.

 
at 3:39 PM, April 18, 2007 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Speech rankings from last night:

Sincere and authentic:

1. Garry
2. Harris
3. Young

tied for last -- the infighting incumbents. Get over yourselves, incumbent democrats, and work together.

 
at 5:53 PM, April 18, 2007 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Jeff, be careful. Wendell Young is a B(b)lack/African-American/person of color, and as such he is exempt from criticism. You must be quiet unless you want Chris Smitherman, Nate Livingston, Nikki Giovanni, Joy Rolland-Oba, Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson pressuring your employer to get you fired.

 
at 8:41 PM, April 18, 2007 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Crowley was also excellent I liked that he applauded the committee having incumbents also interview. Re:Garry's use of kick ass, I'm pretty sure I have heard Crowley end a rally for volunteers before a canvass with "let's go kick some ass" and it conveys enthusiasm, humor, and the fact that we're out there to win, which is a great way to send off the troops, or end a speech.

 
at 8:40 AM, April 20, 2007 Anonymous Anonymous said...

watch the carnage here:
http://www.cincinnatibeacon.com and click on the no democracy for Cincinnati story

 
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