Thursday, January 11, 2007

Just a Quick Reminder

In the wake of the decision by a federal judge to restore Catherine McNeilly to the rank of Commander in the Pittsburgh Police, I thought I would offer a brief reminder of something that I wrote just a few days ago:

Any rational politician could have seen that granting [Ms. McNeilly] whistle-blower status in the wake of Mr. Regan's resignation would have made the story go away, minimized the political damage of the whole situation, and led to best result for everyone concerned.

That whistle-blower designation is probably looking, in retrospect, like a damn fine idea to some on Grant Street this evening. They could have stopped this debacle in its tracks six weeks ago, but instead they are the ones who gave this story it's legs.

Of course, it's probably too late to stop this train wreck now. This morning will almost certainly see the Ravenstahl administration's misguided attempts to come out swinging, and a swarm of vows to fight on. But the smarter thing might just be to let this one go, and do whatever it takes to get Ms. McNeilly to settle this case. If the Mayor and his administration continue to fight, this story will just keep dominating the news all the way from now, through the primary, and into summer.

We'll just have to see if the Ravenstahl folks have learned anything from this fiasco. Sadly, it's not something that I would bet my money on.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

You'd think that, with all the PR people he's got on his staff, interim Mayor Ravenstahl would be getting some good advice.

He's not getting what he's paying for, his PR posse's making alot of $$, but Luke's not getting much bang for his bucks.

Freebie for the Ravenstahl PR posse:

PR Triage 101
Made a mistake? Own up to it pronto, in public statement "I'm sorry, have learned, will correct, blah, blah" then move on.

Like magic, abracadabra! the story disappears.

Anonymous said...

Public Relations staff does not necessarily equal political prowess.

Bram Reichbaum said...

I'm working on a theory that burying the bloody hatchet already would have inside-baseball reprocussions that Ravenstahl must think would actually outweigh his PR concerns. Without knowing that drama, I can't automatically dismiss sympathy for that hypoethetical predicament.

You know, if Peduto loses, he gets to continue leading the opposition on Council. If Ravenstahl loses, he gets to ...

Anonymous said...

Through his words and actions over the last few months, Luke has made it clear that his loyalty to Denny Regan is more important than his duty to govern. He will throw the police chief, the entire city law department and anyone else he needs to under the proverbial bus for the sake of protecting his new friend/cancer/albatross Denny. The million dollar question is: Why?