More Of This, Please

I think it's been a while since I've said anything about the Memphis Flyer's John Branston. He's been using his column, "On the Fly," for some much-needed sceptical editorialising. He seems to have grown more comfortable in this role in recent months, taking on pretty much every aspect of our City government and the Commercial Appeal. I sometimes wish he'd go farther in naming names and connecting dots, but I welcome what he's doing.

This recent column provokes some curiousity in me, though. Joh writes:

Make no mistake. The name of the game now is "Get the Mayor." As in, get him out of office. Things are that bad between the mayor and the City Council and a growing legion of Herenton opponents.

City councilman Jack Sammons and his pals at The Commercial Appeal have called for a "Watergate-style investigation" of the mayor's role in the selection of lawyers and underwriters for a $1.5 billion TVA bond deal with MLGW. They have likened the mayor to Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton. And they probably thought twice about Saddam Hussein.

Both the councilman and the newspaper are far too experienced and cautious to go Watergate based on an anonymous e-mail, as was reported last week. Anti-Herenton lawyers, bond firms, and MLGW officers have been loading them up with "evidence," you can bet on it. The next step will be a demand for a federal investigation, assuming that prosecutors (who have been putting the screws to defendants in two other political corruption cases for more than a year) are not already in the early stages of one.

Astonishingly strong stuff for local print. But is this just the speculation it appears to be, or is there something more backing it up? I'd like to know. I suspect it's just wishful reading between lines.

My take on the investigation is almost opposite Branston's. I think, based on the evidence, that the investigation is harmless misdirection to pre-empt more serious inquiries into more dangerous areas. The mayor's trip to Little Rock back in July was only tangentially commented on by the CA. I remember the article, as Herenton left town on the day Governor Bredesen came for damage inspection after the Summerstorm, leaving County Mayor Wharton to handle things himself. Bredesen seemed miffed, but the CA seemed to let it slide then.

What Herenton did has been, in most quarters, identified as business as usual for any political leader in his position. Fundraisers are part of the game, as distasteful as they may be to voters and pundits. Herenton's later actions in directing the financiers to include that firm, along with others, was completely consistent with his previously stated desire to include more minorities, even at the expense of local, big-pocket firms. Amazingly enough, I don't think there's much "there" there in this.

I would be far more interested in what Herenton was thinking in proposing a junior finanace administrator to head MLGW. No disrespect to Mr. Lee, but his qualifications are so ludicrously lacking you are forced to ask "Why?"

My theory? Herenton has long wanted to gain more direct control over MLGW. Lee would be one way to do that. But I also lean to the idea that Herenton would still like to sell the utility. Having his man in the pilot's seat would assure that MLGW is pointed in that direction. Lee is a stalking horse.

Back to Branston's article. He makes clear that the CA and Herenton have parted company. I'll be the first to admit I don't read the Flyer regularly or fully (Sorry guys!), so I might have missed something Branston's already said, but when did this happen? Herenton has been the CA go-to guy for years. They rarely miss an opportunity to praise his leadership. Has the new Peck administration at the CA changed that? How so? I'd like to hear more on that count.

Yes, the paper has been reporting and fueling the flames of the Mayor / Council fallout. But I sense a definite leaning towards the Mayor and against the Council from them. Even with snarky articles like this one, which criticised the Mayor's severance package from his old City Schools Superintendent position in comparison to MLGW's Morris. It ended with this eye-opener:

It's a package Herenton "probably shouldn't have gotten, but one that the board all too graciously approved," former school board member Mal Mauney said Tuesday.

"Some of the board members and I were so happy that he was leaving that we were willing to make more concessions," he said.

Whoa! Nasty indeed.

It's a tangled web at City Hall. I think the investigation threat is taking the battles to the next level, indicating Sammons' and others' willingness to get very down and very dirty. I suspect, after 12 years, Herenton has a lot more to worry about from any investigations than most City Councillors do. He knows it and that's why things have quieted down since the threat hit the table.

I'd still like to see John Branston go into more detail about the shift in direction he sees from the Commercial Appeal. Of the people who can comment publicly, he'd be the one.