Eby Goes Snazzy

If there was an award for the Fanciest Media Packet By A Cincinnati City Council Candidate, it would probably go - so far, at least - to John Eby.

They're shiny red folders, arriving in bright red envelopes - four or five to this office alone. Inside, there are business cards, a CD with photos, a piece of the literature he's dropping, a press release, a media guide with everything from his daughters' names and ages to his answers on an AFL-CIO questionnaire and a six-page transcript of an interview with The Dean of Cincinnati, who apparently requested an Eby yard sign.

In the transcript, Eby says he apologized to David Crowley for referring to him earlier this year as "Osama bin Crowley". The remark was in connection to Crowley's initiative to get council to vote against President Bush's troop surge. Eby, an Army veteran, says he sent the e-mail with the reference in it while he was angry and that he "responded inappropriately on a personal level." He says he apologized to Crowley and sent an e-mail to the other eight council members, apologizing to them too. He was trying, he says, to draw attention to what he saw as the real issue at the time - council's inattention to the real business of the city.