Thursday, July 5, 2007

It's All Just A Vast Right Wing Conspiracy


Or Maybe The Conspiracy Is On The Left

Or maybe it’s the Fourth Estate (correction compliments of Mark Rauterkus) who is unfairly “targeting” him. Or Peduto. Probably it’s all of them. Probably it’s everywhere. Probably everyone is out to “get” poor Little Luke and bring him down.

On Marty Griffin this morning, Luke launched his counter-attack. He said….

o Jeremy Boren, the Trib and “the Republicans” are just out to “get” him. (Editorial Comment: It's always nice to have one or two Republicans around in the city to scare people with.)

o Jeanne Clark was not speaking for NOW, she was the mouthpiece for Bill Peduto and his interests. It was Bill who gave her talking points before the public hearing.

o His schedule and what he does on a daily basis is not for the consumption of the media. (Editorial Comment: !!!!!)

o UPMC paid his $9,000 golf tab.

o He wondered why Mark DeSantis didn’t attend the public meeting himself if he thought it was so important. (Editorial Comment: A bit of "na-na-na-na-na", don't you think?)

o He never intended to go to the public meeting. No mayors ever attend City Council hearings .... separation of the branches of government and all that. Besides, he was never invited. (Editorial Comment: Not true. A letter requesting his appearance was sent to him by the city clerk. The Women's Commission also requested that he attend.)

o He felt the domestic violence issue was so important, he met privately with many women's groups prior to the public meeting.

o If he had “skipped” a meeting where he was supposed to be just to play golf …. “Well then, yea, you got me,” he blustered. (Editorial Comment: Is he referring to situations like the one where he blew off his meeting with The Hill just so he could drink and party in NYC? Oh wait, that was skipping an official meeting to “drink and party” NOT to “play golf.” I’m sure there is a hair-splitting difference there somewhere.)

Marty also spoke to Mark DeSantis and Jeanne Clark who offered their comments:

o Jeanne Clark said she’s not a “mouthpiece” for her husband, nor her son and certainly not for Bill Peduto or any other man. She said NOW is presently talking to attorneys discussing their options. She also said she was never "invited" to his private meeting and it was made clear to her that this was an "invitation only" event.

o Mark DeSantis just laughed. Yes, he reminded Luke that Mark DeSantis was not the mayor … Luke Ravenstahl was! And then he continued to laugh out loud.

Griffin himself chimed in saying that both Luke and his office have repeatedly lied to him. Marty was first told Luke didn’t attend the public meeting because he was in fact meeting with Chief Harper. Marty was then told Luke was in Harrisburg. Both of which were untrue.

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An un-friggin, mind-boggling PS to this story: Marty reported that Luke was spotted on the golf course, hitting balls, right after his “interview” on Marty’s show, 'splaining his golf escapades.

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An additional, intersting PS to this story: "Deb" was one of the callers on Marty's show. She is a city employee, a friend of Luke's, a friend of the family, knows him so well "he's like one of her own children." Deb opined that the problem is all of us don't give Luke the respect he deserves. I think we've heard from Deb before.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

LR's running out of people to blame: Nate Harper, Republicans, the media, Peduto, etc. But I have a suggestion, Jeanne Clark's very active on the local political scene, she's supported many candidates over the years, maybe LR could start listing them too as instigators who are opportunistically using Ms. Clark as their mouthpiece?

RE mayors typically not attending public hearings being (sorry) 'par for the course' - is it a usual occurence for police chiefs to attend public hearings, or did Harper attend b/c of the serious & urgent nature of this hearing?

LR's splitting of hairs is getting ridiculous, he told Marty that he hadn't told him he was on the golf course, b/c Marty hadn't asked him that. No, Marty didn't ask him about a specific place, b/c Marty didn't know, he asked "Where were you?" Should the media offer a multiple choice list of answers? "Mr. Mayor, were you: a. changing a flat tire, b. riding in a millionaire's jet, c. separating your colors from whites in preparation for laundry day, d. stalking a golf celeb, etc."

Remember Mr. Mayor, when you point one finger at somebody, your other fingers are pointing back at YOU.

Maria said...

Char,

I didn't hear Luke claim that he wasn't invited -- but he didn't mention that he had been invited (which he was).

Maybe I heard a different interview though, but in either case, looks like Lil Mayor Luke sure has a problem with the whole concept of "invitation."

He certainly did with the Tiger Woods/AMEX thing...

Mark Rauterkus said...

FWIW, the press / media is called the "fourth estate."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_estate

We do have issues with the 4th estate, of course.

Good post however.

Anonymous said...

LR is a snake in the grass. He is always potrayed as the "kid", "give him a chance", but he is a political animal through & through. I've watched him in city council (channel 13 Tues & Wed. 10AM) and he's a prick. When he fell into the prez. position ass backwards he did everything to hinder reform in council. That was the time that Twanda was exposed but he voted to keep city council the old school way. He makes me ill. I'd vote for the devil before him.

Char said...

Mark,

Thanks for the correction. I've made it.

Maria,

You know, I relistened to the clip Marty has on his site and didn't hear two things I swear I heard when I was listening live. One was where he said he was never invited to the public hearing. And another was so shocking to me that I wrote it down when he said it. I wrote down that he said "My schedule and what I do on a daily basis is not for the consumption of the media." !!!

Don't know if things get edited down a bit ... but I swear I heard those things.

Maria said...

Ok, the interview that I heard was with Larry Richert on KDKA.

Mark Rauterkus said...

If I was mayor, I'd make sure my schedule was public in the highest way. All my meetings, appointments, schedules and dates would be open in a Google Calendars.