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Give Rob Ford what he wants: release the video
Oozing deceit even as he professes sincerity, Ford exhausts the patience of all including the kindly octogenarian who urged him to take a leave, saying “the city will survive.”
Mayor Rob Ford apologized to the city during his weekly radio address on November 3. He did not offer to resign, and says he intends to keep working at his job.
By: Rosie DiManno Columnist, Published on Mon Nov 04 2013
Call his bluff, chief.
Because this mayor thinks you don’t have the nerve — even though you’ve got the video.
The last refuge of scoundrels: a half-assed apology, never really explaining what the apology is for.
A dare flung at Police Chief Bill Blair: Show me, show everybody, the crack video. Even though Blair’s top investigator has already publicly invited Mayor Rob Ford to come and have a look.
“Chief, I’m asking you to release this video. Now.”
For the love of God, give this goof what he wants.
But about the blanket apology? Forgiveness for transgressions cited and many others ignored? Put that mock mea culpa in your pipe and smoke it, Rob.
Not a word about the content of the crack video that’s finally resurfaced, if only for the eyes of police investigators.
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Mayor Rob Ford leaves CFRB NewsTalk 1010 after making an unspecific apology on the Ford brothers' weekly talk show on Sunday. zoom
Not a word about the endless lies, denials and evasions over these past six months. Not a word about his alarming relationship with riff-raff druggie slimeballs both accused and convicted — The Mob That Lives in Their Parents’ Basements.
Not a word about what was in those bags and manila envelopes buddy and occasional driver Sandro Lisi put into the mayor’s hands, in the mayor’s vehicle, during clandestine meetings.
Not a word about explosive court documents released last week.
Rob Ford’s statement on Newstalk 1010
Rob Ford’s interview on AM 640
Rob Ford apologizes for public drunkenness, but won't step down
Not a word about turning his city hall office into a mosh pit of drunken bacchanalia during late-night carousing on St. Patrick’s Day 2012, which was only disclosed in an incident report surrendered under a Freedom of Information request Friday.
Not a word about how he expects to continue with business as usual, in a political environment where even his closest allies have peeled off, where doubtless more shock-bombs will be detonated as media lawyers petition for release of redacted portions from search warrant information that had Mayor Rob Ford in its crosshairs.
The disingenuousness is staggering.
It cannot possibly play well with anybody outside the most lickspittle members of Ford Nation, which clearly doesn’t give a flying fig how Toronto’s mayor conducts himself. They’re waging a completely separate war from the chaos swirling around Ford, a rear-guard action against perceived elitists and latte-sippers and lefties, the bane of their mean-spirited existence.
Two hours of Jabberwocky Abbot & Costello — Rob and Doug Ford — gave us on their radio show Sunday, dialogue more absurdist than anything written by Harold Pinter or Tom Stoppard.
Rob: “I’ve just got to maybe slow down my drinking.”
Doug: “You’re as honest as the day is long.”
This was satire, right?
A handful of callers tried to cut through the self-serving dross and got nowhere: What are you talking about? What drug was in the glass pipe? What exactly are you apologizing for?
“I thought I made myself clear. … I’m apologizing for some mistakes I made in the past. I gave you a couple of examples ... being inebriated on the Danforth, being inebriated a 2 o’clock in the morning at city hall, running around with a half-full bottle of brandy . . . ”
To which Doug added a typically deflective yip: “Rob Ford doesn’t come in half-corked every day.”
It is to either laugh or weep.
Ford may have a drinking problem. But that is so hugely not the issue. Yet that, narrowly, is what the mayor addressed.
He’s getting a driver. Well, that settles that, then.
“I’m the first one to admit it I’m not perfect. … I have made mistakes and all I can do right now is apologize ... to my family, the citizens, the taxpayers of this great city and my colleagues on Toronto City Council.
“Unfortunately, I cannot change the past. I can just move forward and learn from the past, which I assure you I am doing. …
“I want to move forward.”
Of course he does.
No leave of absence to deal with his issues, certainly no resignation, and damn the consequences.
We have a mayor who was the target of an elaborate police investigation; a mayor who — as Blair has confirmed — appears on a video smoking what appears to be crack cocaine; a mayor who reels around town hammered to the gills; a mayor who hangs with the most unsavory of sleazies, even writes character reference letters for them on City of Toronto letterhead submitted in court.
Yet his apologists call into question Blair’s professional integrity, for announcing that there is a tape, cops have it — and at least one other — and it shows precisely what the Star reported way back in May?
Inexplicably, Ford still insists he can’t comment on a tape he hasn’t seen. Why? Who’s stopping him? Answer: Nobody.
“I asked Chief Blair to release this video immediately, now. I want to see it now,” he told 640 AM. “I’ll be more than happy to do a press conference tomorrow morning if it’s out in the next hour or so. …
“It is what it is. Whatever it is, I don’t know. I haven’t seen it.”
And: “When I see it, I’ll explain it … but I want everyone to see it.”
Blair was not in Toronto yesterday and may not yet have heard Ford’s challenge.
It took a plain-speaking, kindly octogenarian to offer the most valuable advance during this gonzo radio performance. “I’m 81 and I was a great supporter of you and your campaign. But I want you to listen to me. … I want you to take a medical leave. The city will survive. … You need it and I want Doug to quit being your enabler … please, your family deserves better.”
Ford “sincerely, sincerely” apologized.
Sadly, Rob wouldn’t recognize the truth if it bit him on his ample backside.
He claims to be “sincerely” sorry, yet oozes insincerity and duplicity.
This isn’t about the notorious tape or the booze or the bullying or the recklessness. It’s about the vast ethical void of a man who has nothing left to wield except his own deeply flawed character.
A city shakes its head in dismay.
Mayor Rob Ford is exhausting. |
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楼主: 辣翻天
狗仔卡
发表于 2013-11-4 21:17:12
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