By Mansfield Frazier
Nothing makes a more calamitous sound than a holier-than-thou politician tumbling down from off their lofty perch. The amount of schadenfreude being expressed around Cuyahoga County (even among loyal Democrats) in regards to the crash and burn of the career of gubernatorial candidate Ed FitzGerald (who, for years, was known derisively among many workers in county government as “FitzJesus”) is astounding … if not necessarily all that surprising.
In retrospect, we should have seen this one coming … he was in way above his head in this governor’s race. If there’s a chink in your armor you can best believe the political pros — who operate at this level and know to play hardball — are going to find and expose it.
The thinly concealed glee around the County Administration Building stems from the fact that when FitzGerald became county executive he — and his staff of insiders — took themselves far too seriously. They thought nothing of making enemies and stepping on folks because they considered themselves bulletproof; but what they actually happened to be was arrogant.
A habit of all shrewd politicians is they get to know the names of all the janitors … and make sure they speak to them every time their paths cross. Politics 101.
Upon meeting FitzGerald for the first time (as he was gearing up to run for county executive) I came away with the distinct impression that, since about age eight or nine, when he tightened his rep Catholic school tie around his neck in the mirror each morning he said to himself, “Good morning Mr. President.” And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.
The promise of our American style of democracy, held out to every child as part of their birthright, is that if they work hard and play by the rules they can one day have the opportunity to be elected to the highest office in our great nation. Of course, until Obama came along this was not true for children of color, and, is one of the primary reasons Hillary’s probable candidacy is so critically important: By electing a female president we will finally have put the dream within reach of all Americans — women included.
But in this era of hyper media scrutiny — where every human foible is magnified to the nth degree by political operatives of both parties — we may be heading into a time when no sane person would want to subject themselves and their families to the fishbowl existence required of all who aspire to elective office. Like Caesar’s wife Pompeia, they “must be above suspicion” … which sets the bar awfully high. Who among us doesn’t have a skeleton or two rattling around in their closet somewhere?
Find me a person who doesn’t have something in their past, and you’ll have found a person that never has done much of anything in their lives; someone who has never taken a risk or thought outside the box … someone totally incapable of effectively assuming the mantel of leadership. We may soon be represented at all levels of government by mediocre party hacks. Statesmanship is dying, if not already dead, in America.
But with that said, the level of arrogance displayed by FitzGerald is absolutely mind-boggling; the last time I was behind the wheel and realized I didn’t have my wallet on me (which contained my driver’s license) I broke out into a cold sweat; my sphincter muscle was as tight as a drum as I immediately rushed back home to get my wallet, sweating bullets all the way.
And truth be told, if this were anyone else besides a gubernatorial candidate — say Juan from Mexico, Billy Bob from Appalachia, or Ray-Ray from down on Central Avenue — some prosecutor somewhere would be busily toting up the times it could be proven that they drove. Soon they would come up with charges so they could levy fines … or demand jail time in lieu of the money.
If the provable number of times FitzGerald drove over the years without a proper license were stacked up one on top of the other (as the system simply loves to do with poor people), he’d either wind up as broke as the Ten Commandments; indeed, broker than a West Virginia orthodontist — or he’d be open to be sentenced to serve more time than Jimmy Dimora.
And what if a county worker had been caught driving without a valid license? The poor soul would have been tarred, feathered, and run out of their county job on a rail.
If there’s one takeaway from this entire weird incident it’s this: Be careful about allowing Pandora’s Box to be opened … you just never know what’s going to pop out.
And as for the email FitzGerald and his wife sent out regarding the state of their son’s cancer … I’m not going to touch that issue with a ten-foot pole.
From Cool Cleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier’s From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available again in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author by visiting http://NeighborhoodSolutionsInc.com.
11 Responses to “MANSFIELD: The Rise and Fall of Ed FitzJesus”
bob
I cant pic Ed being THAT ‘blank’ to pull THAT or ANY such dumb stunt but HEY….LIKE to give benefit of doubt BUT…. I can see pulling over for a FEW minutes TRYING to look at the GPS or map or whatever but BUT….CONSIDERING ALL THE PAST BS IF ANYONE SHOULD be aware of ANY problems and bad PR then it SHOULD be “Ed”…AlWAYS assume eyes,ears,social media,etc.is around…that 3rd or 2nd shift electrician was….. NEVER know when gonna have something like THAT occur,etc.
DRIVER LICENSE thing IS MORE bizarre…
DEMS? WELL…HEY….I DONT know WHAT to say… ALWAYS SEEMS caught up in this crap…. NEVER heard,read of HAGAN getting into BS like that…. DIMORA in class ALL by HIMSELF…Hook,line,sinker. HIDEOUS…
INTERESTS GOT A LOT of what they wanted and SEEMED to have NICELY HAD IT ALL tied up for them and very likely got the Dem candidate wrapped up tooo…UNREAL….
Republicans are gonna be viewed as the brains,job and money makers and Gipper’sGhost is gonna be resurrected and carried forth thru our hallowed halls of whatever while DEMS portrayed as idiots,etc.etc. REBUBS almost dont need a ad campaign… REALLY self inflicted,etc. NOTICE that last sentence….
bob
Obama? YES..and I AM a white 50 yr old blue collarish guy…LOT of BS went on and down and FINALLY THIS “HOPE” did come along CUZ Republicans,biz crew literally allowed lot of this BS to well YOU KNOW….CAME home to roost and GOT A LOT of justice via Consumer protection agency,etc.etc.
Eds Prez ambition thing… COMPARED to WHAT had run around HE is almost like… quite frankly I COULD say a LOT about well certain Names,interests surrounding and lobbying ANY gov officials down there on Lakeside,etc. and RATHER THANKFULLY LEAVING the scene,selling out,etc. MAYBE could say kept stuff SOLVENT,FIXED,etc.etc.but PAID a price in lot of ways and not sure if really worth it ….MAYBE laid groundwork for this great uber wunder Downtown resurgence….Or…
1980 and Reagan and AFTERMATH? LOT of THAT got fueled by this utter semi implosion of it all and THAT crew KNEW how to… LOT of the stuff hitting OUR area THEN and even now was gonna happen…but IT SURE got SUPERSIZED,HYPER and all that…created all this vacuum and well HERE WE ARE…
bob
HAD a REAL POLITICAL cleaning of the house there and THEN SOME…. PS… THIS BUDISH fellow…QUIET as a TOMB…time will tell. OR SMART OPERATOR…TIME will tell… Far as rest of it. Guess do best can,place your bets,let fly,hope,pray and Oh wellllllll HEY…..
bob
HILLARY IS SMART, …..and BALL BUSTER. DOUBLE EDGED sword there…PROBABLY continues MOST or all of Baracks work. HECK…SHE started health care reform thing..Ok HER version….WHO wants to revisit old battlegrounds other then Civil war tourists…. PS…by the way… ONE FUN novelty news tidbit.. muskets..SHARPS muskets had a BUILT IN COFFEE grinder gear in wood stock! Gotta have the java or chickory….enough of THAT along roadway….Talk about ingenuity,desparation…. hey…Saw that in a Civil war Times mag…Sad when man is at his best when doing worst…
bob
Ed and County crew….til HIS whatever with Irish lass HE knew inherited this WHATEVER and ALL THAT… imagine being a FEMALE worker and LITERALLY this italian Don Juan Lover Leap trying to chase any and all around the water cooler…. POTENTIAL FOR THAT kind of hideous whatever was always there…
bob
HAVE to ask if whether certain interests got soo peeved had eyes,ears in said County building or hired ‘pros’ who soused all this out and well kinda passed it on….or FINALLY SOME whatever pulled a Deep Throat…OR BOTH… all this big money with all this rah rah stuff and well WHAT supposed to think…. I REALLY WANTED to kinda say that all before but….
bob
Oh…PL Jones? NO idea…PORTRAYED as this pseudo stooge…NOT sure ‘exactly’ HOW HE got into commissioner job…OTHER then articles… VIRGIL BROWN? Hey…definite Name. CENTER named after Him… MORE IMPORTANT UNelected officials…LOT of BAGGAGE there that sorta came home to roost… IF want to take ANY solace in a bizarre way a FRANK J is EITHER MOST clever practical politician equal to a Lincoln OR MAYBE HE got semi fed up with System or Democrats and went with interests,other… NO idea if interests threatened to just close up&/or SHRINK presence rather drastically and leave this pseudo mess or empty space behind and let a realtor figure out what to do with it… certain HUGE mega motion control,bearings/electrical outfit who wrangled a deal on SOME FAR out EAST side mega acreage ‘campus’ off of like 271 or THAT area comes to mind….
QUITE frankly to be fair to these pols,etc. I TRULY believe LOT of folks take attitude of learn the 3 Rs and off to truck driving school, LPN classes,dog groomer, learn tarot card reading,pizza peddling and life is good….PS.. watch cred cards,amble off to likes of Metro HHS , buy used or lease cars, rent/buy a rent a wreck home so not eaten alive by taxes,etc. and cram as many halfway trustworthy fam members as can…WELL LAST one a TALL ORDER…. FOR ALL THE PROGAMS,collleges,etc. out there WE should be doing great and IN A WAY WE are BUT……
bob
Ed..or others…GOT RID of LOT of problems LIKE AMERITRUST…DONE with it…helped clean the decks…INSTEAD of THIS CONTINUING ONGOING hideous odyssey agony that festers… INTERESTS mollified,divided,stay OFF landbank rolls,etc. IF spillover to minority community and rest of city then HEY good… ALWAYS THOUGHT HE should have stuck with Executive job…MAYBE felt trapped or HE felt COMPARED to rest of NON EXISTENT STATEWIDE crew HIS chances JUST as good…. HECK… R E A G A N won !!!!…. WAS a time when folks would have been STUNNED, LAUGHED HEADS off at idea of this B actor with Grecian hair,etc. UNDERSTIMATED…LIKE a Lincoln..(EVERYONE likes a winner…WHO has busts of a Buchanan or Pierce. Ok MEN of THEIR times)…
HAD likes of TRAFICANT…. IF ANYONE led ANYONE on… HOW many of THOSE YOUNGSTOWN steelworkers,etc.gonna hang onto their homes? LOT depends on OWN dynamics… pension to other… HARBINGER there…. NOT sure if media sympathizes more with Republicans,dismayed, MUZZLED by OWN biz crew,etc.
bob
OTHER then rec centers,etc. HOW viable WERE the Pickneys and rest? HAVE to wonder… FORBES accused of being money grubbing bag man… TIME will tell on East Cleveland…. WHO wants to step up to do CITY work on contract AND then STAND in bankruptcy court begging for % or 10 cents on the dollar….THIS never ending lawsuit and countersuit that DRAGS and THIS final settlement espec.if Cleveland proper takes over…. MAY resolve,take hideous stuff OFF the books in every sense of the word but TRY peddling THAT….
bob
ED as this cynical LAST ditch ploy to appeal to REST of OHIO or EVEN REST OF CUYAHOGA COUNTY aka white cornbred blah blah blah…Yeahhh… like METZENBAUM HIMSELF once said I HAVE to offer up SOMETHING to these people… suspect the crustiness and fact HE HAD MADE HIS pile of money appealed… maybe in perverse way a LAWMAN LAST thing HALF or THIRD of OHIO wants CONSIDERING what goes on… just control worst of mayhem and rest shakes itself out…. hardly Camelot there….
QUITE frankly OHIO AND COUNTY dem crews almost had NO choice…. TRY selling tilt a whirl wind turbine Ellison or the others to voters…. QUITE frankly I THINK if voters had a choice PREFER FED takeover or even a State one but THAT last one JUST opens up a whole can of and quite frankly good old Frank J would do whatever to keep city solvent and sane enough and let Yuppies do whatever in old hoods can semi save….LAST worked for Cimperman…STAY tuned. HE may TRY again…. YOUR Johnson…NO idea….
RETIREMENTS packages,other to eliminate positions and CONSOLIDATE hoods,etc. yeahh FINALLY…. DOWN to whatever industrial commercial surviviors,gov benefit programs and other such….
bob
PS…different websit..