Nice to see you again, friend…
One of this community’s brightest minds has returned to blogging, albeit not on his blog. Benjamin Kirby, formerly of The Spencerian, is blogging again about politics for St. Pete Patch.
His first post is — no surprise here — a tout of Rick Kriseman for Mayor of St. Petersburg. Like I said, nothing new there. Kirby has been an ardent supporter of Kriseman’s since he was in the Florida Legislature. If you did not follow Kirby on The Spencerian, then Ben’s laying out of the case for Kriseman’s candidacy is certainly worth reading. But what’s really worth reading is Kirby’s picking apart of Patch blogger Gene Webb’s defense of Kathleen Ford.
Because neither Rick Baker nor Bill Foster particularly cared for, Webb is now trying to find a home, politically speaking, with Kathleen Ford and Co. This is a disastrous decision for my friend, “Doc” Webb. Because, as he will come to realize, there is no there there! She’s just the leader of the C.A.V.E. people — the Citizens Against Virtually Everything. Being an obstructionist might work in the U.S. Senate, but it won’t work when you are dealing with firefighters and police, firefighters and police, sewers and streets. Being Mayor is about finding the yeses around every corner, not bogeymen.
Yet Webb has rallied to Ford’s side, railing on Patch about the “Beach Drive elite” and the “political power-brokers.” I don’t know what Gene is really getting at with those kinds of divisive comments. But he’s entitled to his opinion.
What’s he not entitled to are his own facts.
Here’s where I’ll let Kirby take over, while urging you to read Kirby’s column on Patch.
Now, I worked for the Juvenile Welfare Board, too — more than six years there. I heard the “they build prison beds based on third grade FCAT scores “line — I heard it a lot. It always sounded scary as hell, but it seemed difficult — at best — to prove. I was the Communications Manager there, and I don’t believe I ever included it in any materials I produced for public consumption.
Kathleen Ford should have known better. She might have at least qualified the statement with a line like I don’t know this to be true, but I have heard… Not perfect, but better.
What’s more, a particular blogger on this very site got it wrong in trying to defend Ms. Ford. And in fact, he deliberately misrepresented PolitiFact in doing so. You deserve better. We all do.
Two very different statements were made. The one PolitiFact referenced in Oregon describes a politician talking about raising reading scores early, and how that can affect everything in the life of a young person. This was rated, of course, true.
Kathleen Ford said that prison officials are “calculating how many new beds (they will need) based on the third grade, number of third graders…” And this statement is just false. It is an outright falsehood.
A recognition from Ms. Ford that this was wrong would have been nice. A recognition from the blogger on this site — Gene Webb — that he is wholly in the tank for Ms. Ford would have been appropriate, too.
Webb says: “The political power brokers and their minions just don’t know how to deal with someone who deals straight up.”
I’ll count myself a minion, I suppose. But I do know how to deal with someone who “deals straight up”. That’s why I’m wholly supporting Rick Kriseman, and you should, too.
