Hizzoner Changes Course on Finger-Pointing

2/15/2008

Over on Glass City Jungle, there s an advance look at a Toledo Free Press story about the communication breakdown between the Toledo police and the Toledo mayor s office. The weekly says TPD Capt. Ron Spann, who died earlier this month, may have been responsible, and quotes the mayor:

His incapacitation contributed, in all probability, to information maybe not flowing as normally as it very possibly might have, Finkbeiner said.

Here s what I find interesting: Carty told me his administrators were blaming Ron Spann the very first time we spoke about this whole mess, which was early Saturday evening, the day after he sent the Marines packing.

In fact, here s the tail end of the update to my original Saturday post :

[P.S. I know just what you're wondering. You're wondering: Well then, who deserves the blame for this oversized mix-up?

If I told you how the blame game for all this is shaking out within the city administration, you just wouldn't believe it. But I can't, because it was told to me off the record -- sorry, this joke is mine and mine alone. Suffice it say, there is indeed finger-pointing going on among the mayor's underlings, but not all the parties are in a position to defend themselves....]

Late that same week in another conversation we had, Hizzoner referred to this again, but reiterated that it absolutely had to remain off-the-record because he did not want to be the cause of any additional grief for Ron Spann s family.

But that s not what s interesting. Here s what it: That Carty is now willing to utter the name Ron Spann in public is the surest sign yet of the mayor s growing political desperation.

Someone asked me via e-mail recently if this entirely avoidable and pointless mess will not prove to be the proverbial tipping point in Hizzoner s political career. For a guy who has almost been as politically Teflon-coated as a certain beloved former president, I gotta say that, yes, this time, it all might stick.