Wednesday, March 11, 2009
40 Jealous Whores / Hannan / Politics Megan Barry Strikes Out on High, Hanging (Learning) Curve
Posted by Caleb Hannan on Wed, Mar 11, 2009 at 1:49 PM
Barry is smart, likes green things and isn't afraid to call b.s. when the Mayor slips a fiver to his friends. In Little League terms, she's the kid who has to bring her birth certificate to every game just to prove she's legal. Last Tuesday, though, Barry was one of 24 council members to vote in favor of a stormwater bill that unfairly burdens the little guy. In other words, she went down looking.
S-Town Mike was the first to shed tears over Barry's failure in the clutch:
I am particularly concerned that last Tuesday (Barry) did not see the priority of supporting an equitable system of paying for stormwater run-off. It seems that she has left it up to other progressives to lead on municipal issues that affect average Nashvillians. I am disillusioned and disappointed in her, not that one person's frustration with a council member amounts to a hill of beans in Nashville politics. But there sure as hell is nothing wrong with expressing dissatisfaction at unrealized promise.Turns out, Barry agrees. Sort of.
Barry says that she'd initially asked Councilmember Emily Evans ("the water guru") which way she should vote. After Evans told her the Mayor's plan was fine, if flawed, Barry promised finance director Rich Riebeling she'd side with his boss. Evans introduced an amendment after Barry gave her word. Unfortunately, Barry chose to keep a promise rather than use common sense, a virtue with which she is similarly blessed.
"I learned a really valuable lesson with (the stormwater bill)," she says. "Don't pledge your vote until you have tons of information."
Agreed. Now swing the bat, dammit.
Comments (13)
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Umm ... do you realize Megan's husband is a contributor for the Nashville Scene? Pretty ballsy post.
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CH thinks she can't pull the trigger on a two-strike bender, but I assure you that when it counts she can lay down a sacrifice bunt and in the field she'll turn the double play every time. (I have no idea what that means, but in my experience you can't really go wrong with a well-placed baseball metaphor.)
So let me get this straight -- Mrs. Barry was told that the stormwater plan was flawed, and her response was to dash over to Rich Riebling and promise him she'd vote for the flawed bill. How in the world do Nashville voters manage to elect these mediocrities?
Hope you never run for office Tom Riddle. The challenge for voters is not to elect people who never make mistakes, we all do and theirs can be very public. The decider is do they learn from them and admit when they screwed up? Megan Barry just did that.
I appreciate Ms. Barry's keeping her word. But what about keeping her word to the people who elected her? Did she not promise them first? I hope she will learn from this and will hold my judgment in reserve until I see how she votes on the LED sign bill.
Keeping your word is important but not at the cost of screwing your constiuents.
Sorry CH we ain't buying it and neither should you. She pledged her vote for the mayors bill when there was no amendment offered. When the amendment was offered she could have abstained and still kept her word or voted for the amendment and when it failed voted with the Mayor and still kept her word.
This is not the first time as Stown Mike knows and he has a reason to be skeptical.
Sue - If Mr. Hannan got his facts right, and I'm assuming he did, Mrs. Barry was told that the stormwater plan was flawed, and she responded by promising to vote for the flawed bill. That's not a mistake -- it's a dereliction of duty. Anybody with a lick of common sense would've asked "what are the flaws?" and "what improvements are needed?" rather than pledging a "yes" vote to Riebling. I repeat, how do Nashville voters manage to elect such mediocrities?
Tom, I think a little clarification would help.
Barry did the right thing by going to Emily Evans first. Stormwater was her pet issue, hence the nickname. When Evans gave her the go-ahead, she didn't dash over to Riebeling--the finance director came to her to see where she stood on a bill the Mayor's office was pushing.
Think I gotta side with Suey here: the mistake is only a sin when it goes unrecognized.
Some you win, some you lose, some get rained out (which produces a lot of stormwater).
Caleb - OK, Riebling dashed over to Mrs. Barry, Mrs. Barry didn't dash over to Riebling. I don't doubt that your account is correct. Nonetheless, if Emily Evans said what she is reported to have said, i.e., that the bill was flawed, then Mrs. Barry was derelict in her duty by pledging to vote for the bill. She, in essence, said, "Mr. Riebling, I will vote for your flawed bill." The correct action on her part would have been to say, "Mr. Riebling, I cannot vote for this bill as it is currently written" and then offered improvements. She might not have gotten all the improvements that she asked for, but she didn't even make the attempt. We deserve better than that.
Ms. Barry isn't the only one that got burned. I think the "new" ones all may have learned to be more careful in their vote promises and wait and see how it plays out. "Bait and switch", "smoke and mirrors", "keep your enemies closer than your friends" and "politics makes strange bedfellows" aren't political terms for no reasons.
