Archive for October 3rd, 2007
Metro Council: The more things change …
… the more they stay the same? That’s a familiar axiom, but I hope it doesn’t ring true this time around. Nashville’s two most prominent elected officials, Mayor Karl Dean and Vice-Mayor Diane Neighbors, have ushered in new (and welcome) approaches regarding the Metro Council. Dean’s promise is to have a better working relationship with the city’s legislative body, and Neighbors’ is for shorter council meetings.
The Scene’s Jeff Woods labeled Neighbors’ early approach to running council meetings the “Best New Political Idea” in this week’s Best of Nashville issue:
“You don’t need to be sitting there for an hour-and-a-half of presentations on a public hearing night and not have yours to come up until 11:30,” says our new vice mayor, Diane Neighbors. She figures she can save time by asking council committees to tackle more of the vetting of proposed ordinances. And all those pointless memorializing resolutions? No need to take up time with those on Tuesday nights, Neighbors says.
Michael Cass reported on Dean’s initial efforts to reach out to the council last week:
Mayor Karl Dean went to the Metro Council chamber Tuesday to set a tone of cooperation with a group his predecessor was sometimes accused of neglecting. Speaking at the council’s first meeting of the new term, Dean said he would “look to you for guidance” as he tries to understand the needs of Nashville’s neighborhoods and build on the city’s recent momentum. I commit to working closely with each of you from the beginning,” the new mayor said in a brief speech. “My goal is to be accessible. While we may not agree on everything — and we shouldn’t — we should be able to sit down and talk about anything.”
I think both of these moves are welcome approaches that will promote responsible government, and I hope they continue. I think there’s a decent chance they will, but I’ll also be curious to see if they still pass muster six months from now. Here’s hoping they do.
Slinging the digital dirt
Lisa Robbins makes a good point in this week’s Nashville Scene, the annual Best of Nashville issue, under the entry “Best Political Tragicomedy: Li’l Bob and The Blog Ranters:”
Take heed, future candidates. Send a memo to supporters: “If you wouldn’t shout it on a street corner holding one of my signs, don’t post it online!” It’s sad to watch a candidate flame out at the end of a long career playing the criminal-loving-tax-crazy-liberal-from-Massachusetts card. But the mangy dogs barking taunts in the background? You gotta laugh at that.
How much of a difference, either way, did the Clement commenters make in the overall election? Probably not that much, but judging from the generally representative vitriol that Robbins quoted in her piece, they can’t have helped Bob’s cause.
This raises interesting questions: How much can a candidate rein-in this kind of activity online? How long until one candidate resorts to having anonymous posters slamming himself or herself online, to make it appear that his opponent is the one slinging the digital dirt? [H/t to Sean for steering me to this week's Scene.]
