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Pretzel Logic
Mondesire, Morris and mistaken identification—and you think the Eagles had it rough.
A Group of knuckle-dragging submorons otherwise known as Teamsters apparently decided that an anti-Clinton protester had forfeited his Constitutional Rights.
As bad as Eagles fans may be feeling this week, democracy fans in Philadelphia have even more to grouse about.
The first blows were delivered by newspaper publisher, NAACP president and all-around megalomaniac Jerry Mondesire, who feels, apparently, that Philadelphia voters are a bunch of ignorant, racist yahoos who cannot be trusted to allow the democratic process to play out unadulterated.
Mondesire made some noise earlier this year with talk of an all-black primary to avoid the bloodbath of the 1991 Democratic primary that saw black voters split between Lucien Blackwell and George Burrell, allowing Ed Rendell to walk away with the party’s nod.
Immediately, Mondesire seemed to back off that idea. After all, he was inundated with waves of criticism from pols and voters of all racial and ethnic backgrounds who felt that the entire Democratic electorate had a right to choose among John Street, John White and Dwight Evans—the three likely black Democratic mayoral candidates.
Last week, Mondesire, who really, really, really wants to be a kingmaker, started singing his old tune, albeit with a few new phrases.
So, instead of having a black primary to weed out the black candidates, he’s having the NAACP hold a ballot among all the candidates.
The difference is one of semantics.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, not surprisingly, comprises mostly blacks. And, even though Mondesire’s ballot will also include non-black Democratic candidates Happy Fernandez, Marty Weinberg and Lynne Abraham, and non-black non-Democratic candidates George Bochetto and Sam Katz, the effects will still be the same as an all-black primary.
At least that’s what Mondesire is hoping for.
Last week, he told CP political columnist Mary Frangipanni that he hoped the losing black candidates in his ballot would drop out of the race. He added that he hoped the winner of the NAACP ballot would be black.
You can’t blame Mondesire for wanting a mayor of his own pigmentation. And I am sure he was inspired by pasty white boys Vincent Fumo and David Cohen, who, typically, went behind closed doors to find a suitable pasty white boy mayor wannabe, in this case Marty Weinberg.
But I have a great deal of trouble with Mondesire, or anyone else, preventing voters from choosing candidates based on racial, religious or ethnic considerations.
I said it before and it bears repeating.
Hey, Jerry, let my people vote.
Democracy took a few more whacks on Friday night when a group of knuckle-dragging submorons otherwise known as Teamsters apparently decided that anti-Clinton protester Don Adams forfeited his Constitutional rights by holding up a sign denigrating the President’s penile peccadilloes.
Adams was pummeled by several Teamsters, who, like Adams, were gathered outside City Hall before, during and after Bill Clinton’s eat-and-run money grab.
After the incident, in a press conference, Teamster head knuckle-dragger Johnny Morris explained that he and his members were fed up with insults directed at Hillary and Chelsea Clinton and wouldn’t take it anymore.
Several days later, Morris changed his tune, saying that the Teamsters were merely coming to the aid of a Teamster spouse attacked by Adams.
I doubt the president cares much whether it was jackbooted thuggery or partisan polemics that sparked the Brawl at the Hall. He scampered away with a half-million in donations for the Democratic party. Why should he worry about democracy?
We, on the other hand, should care very deeply.
Taking an unpopular stand in the face of intimidation is not about failing to make “a good career choice,” as smarmy-mouthed mayoral press flack Kevin Feeley told reporters after the beating.
It is one of the reasons why this country was founded.
Something Johnny Morris and his knuckle-dragging submorons ought to think about the next time they wrap themselves up in a flag and beat the bejesus out of somebody.
Perhaps the biggest blow to democracy came at the hands of the Philadelphia Police Department, which was apparently too incompetent or too lazy or some combination of both to thoroughly investigate the case against Gregory Wilburn, the now-famous 16-year-old who was jailed for more than a year for a rape he did not commit.
Had the police done their job, they would have taken the victim to the hospital for DNA testing or attempted to match DNA in semen found on the 17-year-old rape victim’s panties against DNA from Wilburn’s blood. Finding no match, police would have set Wilburn free.
Instead, like Eagles receivers, the cops dropped the ball.
They didn’t take the victim to the hospital and they didn’t conduct the test until last week, when public defender Glenn Gilman apparently convinced police that they must adhere to constitutional provisions that give rights to the accused. Rights designed to prevent what happened to Wilburn, who lost a year of his life.
Meanwhile, a rapist is running around undetected. And the public’s fragile trust in the police department is eroded even more.
It all adds up to a tough week for democracy here in Philadelphia, the town where it all began.
It was enough to make the Eagles’ week look good.
