Curses! Foiled again!

He was about to get his chance, he was. Before him lay a golden opportunity, one that may not come again. Maybe he could have taken a clue from Richard Nixon and delivered a Ragsdale version of the "Checkers" speech. Maybe he could have channeled Martin Luther King, Jr. (appropriate considering his latest adversary) and painted the audience a vision of going to the mountaintop (Sharp's Ridge?) and seeing the Promised Land, a Knox County free of scandal.

Maybe he could have said or done a lot of things to save himself, but he won't get that chance - Cynthia Finch has seen to that.

Finch has stolen whatever thunder the Mayor might have produced without the aid of Mother Nature in his response to the audit tomorrow by demanding her job back. Finch says she didn't resign. Finch says she did nothing dishonest. Finch says she is a victim of racial (and perhaps gender) discrimination. And if you don't believe her, well, just ask her lawyer, he'll tell you.

Whatever else we may say about this Mayor before the curtain closes on his performance, he has surely staged the most entertaining political theatre in these parts since Cas Walker kept us in stitches. 

But - please Mayor - no encores. Just leave quietly, exit stage left, and take Ms. Finch with you. There must be a circus somewhere that could use your acts.