Let’s Talk Local Politics
Babbie references Thomas Ravenel’s Post and Courier interview, published on Sunday, and notes inconsistencies in Ravenel’s statements.
Jay Lowry looks ahead for the Charleston Fire Department:
Tremendous change will take place within the command structure and firefighters who have had to sit by and watch a few people with trade skills move up will now get a chance to be a part of the future. However, it won’t happen overnight.
It is unreasonable to expect a situation a decade and a half in the making will suddenly become different overnight. Firefighters have to have faith in the Routley Panel and the process. While faith in leadership is something new for firefighters recall how just six months ago no one thought anything would change. Now, in the last week, the City administration has chosen the wisest course of action.
Shrimp ‘n Grits on Mayor Riley:
A tipping point in the threshold of political credibility and trust was crossed last week when the unspoken covenant between the mayor of Charleston and the citizenry he is elected to serve was boldly and blatantly smashed in a public display of audacity unseen for over three decades in the Lowcountry. Politicians often are accused of misrepresenting the facts, cherry-picking facts to suit their purpose, or using facts out of context as they spew forth political hyperbole to support their positions. However, until last Thursday, even in the Riley Administration, there has been the public perception of some truth or factual basis for the rhetorical spin always emanating from City Hall. Deep down in the core of the Mayor’s previous diatribes, he could at least find some shred of fact, albeit misrepresented, distorted, or twisted, to support his contention. Last Thursday he boldly crossed the line – Mayor Joseph P. Riley, Jr. lied to the press and the citizens of Charleston in a display of intellectual deviousness that would make a suffering schizophrenic proud.
Heather @ May 19, 2008