Mighty Tony at the Bat
From a million throats and more there rose a lusty yell;
It rumbled through the Valley, it rattled in the basin;
It knocked upon the mountain and recoiled out to the east,
For Tony, mighty Tony, was advancing to the bat.
There was ease in Tony’s manner as he sang his song of solar power;
There was Measure B upon his lips, and green in all his words,.
And when, responding to the jeers, he swiftly filed suit,
No voter still could doubt that greed was at the heart.
And when the votes were tallied, shouts of joy erupted in the air,
As Tony stood a-watching in haughty grandeur there.
His smirk of certainty faded as the shock became so clear,
“That ain’t our style. Strike one,” the voters blared.
Without a hint of shame great Tony said, “So what?”
And took his place at bat again and ignoring the rising tumult,
;He took a second swing with the Son of B,
The frightened 15 took heed of the uproar, and said “Strike two.”
The sneer is fixed on Tony’s lip, his teeth are clenched in hate;
He calls on Austin for advice on how to shake the money tree,.
A little song, a little dance, a little seltzer down their pants,
We shall get all the green they got, he proudly tells his boss
Oh, somewhere in this troubled town the sun is shining bright;
The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light,
And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout;
But there is no joy in City Hall — mighty Tony has struck out.
The moral of this poem, is not to be so very arrogant — Wikipedia
(With apologies to Ernest Thayer)
If Thayer understood the circumstances, he’d be okay with it.
Cute rewrite of the famous Thayer poem, but it misses the mark by implying that the pre-strikeout Tony was ever “Mighty.”
I would’ve gone with an L. Frank Baum-inspired ditty.
Is that “green” as in solar or dollar bills?
Our Mayor needs to take a course in Leadership. Or just look at a photo of the sign on President Truman’s desk “the Buck Stops here.”
Instead the Mayor chooses to ignore history, common sense, personal responsibility, and instead is attempting to “pass the buck” and blame others.
The most recent example is the blame game being played out in the DWP rate increase/green washing fiasco.
The Mayor may be able to legitimately claim ignorance on all of his problems. After all why should he know about the City Charter and the roles and responsibilities of the Mayor?
What the Mayor probably missed while traveling out of town is the fact that in the last round of charter reform implemented a decade ago, the the number of exempt (from civil service protection) managers for DWP. To be more specific, the DWP Board of Commissioners, the General Manager and more than 11 managers either serve at the appointment of the Mayor or are exempt and can be removed from their post.
While trying to shift blame to either a system or out of control managers, I need to remind the Mayor that the buck stops with you. It has been very evident that in your handling of both DWP and the City’s budget you have derelict in your duties and you are answerable to the voters!
To blame the DWP managers reminds me, that desperate people do desperate things. I`m afraid this is one of many to come.
Trutanich put the stamp of confirmation on Tony`s Administration. “FAILURE”.
Just to add, the policy, direction, and responsibility for delivery of those policies and goals lies mainly with the Mayor with some oversight allowed by the City Council.
Kate, when did the mayor blame the board and GM for anything? I have no clue what you’re talking about.
I agree with Kate. In the past month(s), the mayor’s press releases implied he was not directing Freeman or the commission. They were his puppets and then his scapegoats. While he didn’t outright say it, asking the commission to reconsider their vote, replacing Freeman with the intent to have more “accountability” and the like are finger pointing tactics in my book.
‘Seems like the job descriptions need to include “do the mayor’s bidding and take the blame if that bidding fails (or if the action is an unpopular one).”
The man will throw anyone under the bus, even his most loyal subjects.
This has been the modus operandi of Antonio Villaraigosa in both his personal and professional lives. He makes promises to romantic partners, friends, constituents, and anyone who will listen — to give them what they want to hear. At the time he makes the promise, he has no idea if he will ever keep the promise — it all depends if later to keep the promise will be convenient to his next ambition.
Whenever caught in a lie or a broken promise, he first attempts to deflect with charm and smiles while inside he is thinking how inconvenient it is that the “victim” of his promise actually expects him to carry out his commitment. It could be as simple as remembering to bring home a gallon of milk, to remaining a councilmember for his full term, to planting a million trees, to saving the South Central Farm, to making 20% of LA’s energy sources green.
Each broken promise is followed by jocular humor and if that does not work, throwing the victim out the door and moving on to another place he has not wrecked. Ask his former wife, his children, his ex-friends, his Northeast believers who he no longer acknowledges, his employees, his constituents. They all know his lack of sincerity and follow through.
The good news is soon he will have wrecked so much of the City that he will leave and move on to another set of “victims” in another place. We all look forward to that day.
Seems like the job descriptions need to include “do the mayor’s bidding and take the blame if that bidding fails (or if the action is an unpopular one).”
This has been the politics behind every GM position since Riordan altered the charter. During his first stint, Freeman was fired by Riordan for the same reason – he refused to go along with Riordan’s plan to invest in more coal energy.
As far as DWP, it’s also the reason why they’ve had 9 general managers over the last decade. If he wants to keep his job, the GM is just an extension of the mayor, hired and fired at his discretion, and there are no checks and balances. Which is why most GM’s are either fired (Freeman) or quit (Nahai).
Anonymous on April 25, 2010 4:13 PM I get your point. I think blaming the Charter is a simple out for what’s wrong. Yes, the present one has enabled each mayor to politicize departments and GM’s to where they are part of a dirty game of musical chairs. At least, with the existing Charter, we know the blame falls directly on the mayor. The old one made for a dysfunctional fight between the mayor, council and their lobbyists. Someone like Freeman would be guaranteed his post indefinitely because of what it took to remove a GM. It was so chaotic that one wouldn’t know who to blame. There’s bad with both approaches and I’m not sure what the solution is, except maybe campaign finance reform or something. At least, given the right reform (public financing), there would be hope of removing the high paying contributors from the equation, at which point the Charter could be revisited.
Kate, when did the mayor blame the board and GM for anything? I have no clue what you’re talking about.
nvm Kate, I found the Zahniser article