Summer is on the horizon with legislative campaigns in full gear. That means the city is sizzling in Democratic primaries for August 9. OIB will have a host of commentaries about the candidates both pro and con. We kick things off with the Lieutenant Columbo of fiscal observers John Marshall Lee who keeps coming back for more information. In this commentary Lee asserts City Council President Tom McCarthy who’s challenging incumbent State Senator Marilyn Moore is not fit to serve in the legislature based on his local legislative record. Connecticut’s 22nd District covers all of Trumbull and portions of Bridgeport and Monroe.
Would municipal governance in the City of Bridgeport over the past decade or two have provided much different results to citizen voters and taxpayers than today if there were no Finance Board, no Internal Auditor, and a system of $9,000 per year Council stipends? Not one bit. That is today, and has been for years, our status as a City. And, Tom McCarthy, elected a Council member by his District constituents and President by at least five Councils in the last ten years has knowledge of all of these subjects but fails to speak publicly about the consequences.
· Regarding a Finance Board, not part of the Charter bodies established in Bridgeport for over 20 years, fiscal checks and balance are left to a Budget and Appropriations Committee appointed by the Council President. In most years the B&A has no fiscally qualified members but the Council President has usually not seen fit to insist on outside, qualified, independent expertise to review operating budgets during a year or to structure a legislative approach to the operating budget suggestions of the Mayor. Nor has the Council President outlined a budget monitoring role for the Council during the year with research into those fiscal issues both operating, capital and Post Employment Benefits that have caused and continue fiscal weakness. The City Council has maintained an Other Services line item approximating $90,000 in most years that remains 95% unspent at year end, provides a regular surplus variance, but remains uncut in the next budget cycle.
· Regarding the City elimination of an Internal Auditor about eight years ago (though there still is a position termed Assistant Internal Auditor) a Purchasing Ordinance passed by the City Council required the posting of an Annual Report by the Internal Auditor and an Audit of purchasing process every three years. In 20 years it has not happened. This failure has been publicly presented to the City Council but the Council President ignores a completed review of the Ordinance, as well as any comment on inaction.
· Another City Council Ordinance authorizes equal annual stipends to each of the Council members for the reimbursement of Council related expenses. Currently though a debit card quarterly advance of 25% of the $9,000 annual limit is what happens instead. The system changed about four years ago though the Ordinance governing stipends was not revised. Under the original Ordinance terms the stipends were taxable income to the Council member except to the extent that proof was regularly provided that they were genuine expenses to be reported to the City and not for political or charitable purpose. Many of these dollars have been used each year by Council members to attend regional and national conferences where matters of urban importance are raised. In recent years a total of over $400,000 has been spent for travel, registration, hotel and food expenses by City Council members with less than a handful of meaningful reports of learning by said representatives or other material demonstration.· Council stipends were initiated at a level of $10,000 per annum total at one time and one Council cut them to $5,000 total as a show of solidarity with taxpayers subsequently. $180,000 has been budgeted for many years to accommodate 20 representatives at $9,000 with no cutbacks yet scheduled though less than $120,000 is spent annually, leaving another Line Item with a predictable surplus variance around $60,000.
· In 2012 when the Council was staffed with a Legislative Assistant who was in the chain of authorizers of stipend expense, that person asked to see the stipend accounts so that he inadvertently would not authorize an amount above $9,000. This action caused the Council President to initiate a cut, not in the amount of stipends, not in the amount of Other Services but in the staffing for the City Council. McCarthy called the removal of this $46,000 per annum employee “cost cutting” but this was only half the story as he simultaneously recommended a “legislative assistant” position for the City Clerk’s office which never had one before. In sum, there was no cost cutting, just some protective grandstanding by the Council President, further crippling research, questioning, studied responses to rushed initiatives by the Executive and other such assistance to an overtasked Council. A review of Stipends at the time indicated that McCarthy himself had skirted over the $9,000 line personally because of no check and balance mechanism in place.· In June 2013 with the new administrative debit card stipend process beginning, President McCarthy provided his Council members with a last chance to use taxpayer money for charitable and political advantage. He outlined a process to them of requesting per a City purchase order, such order to be charged against the Other Services line item in the Council budget, up to $2,000 per representative. No public meeting. No posted agenda. No minutes of such matter. But there were more than 50 purchase orders from 15 of the 20 Council members who submitted paperwork. Nearly $30,000 of taxpayer funds were thus spent ILLEGALLY, I have suggested and continue to, in late June of 2013, a year of Council primaries and fall elections. But even though the checks were cut in late June, they did not appear in the DRAFT June monthly financial report. (They did appear in the FINAL June monthly report requested in December 2013 by a rookie Council member who had been appointed to the Budget and Appropriations Committee. The report was released based on the annual audit in mid-January 2014, and also again in January 2015, but there has been strong resistance to seeing the similar FINAL report for June 2015.)
While McCarthy has held office as Council President, serving on other City wide positions and having an “eagle’s view” of city fiscal process, he has been no friend to City property owners and taxpayers as:
· No review of past capital bonding projects is made available routinely to the Council or the public, despite a School Building Committee, chaired by a Council member who is also a City employee that has seen over $700 Million of projects pass in the last two Mayoral terms.
· The City fund balance has dropped from $55 Million at the exit of the Financial Review Board to a single figure or less by June 30, 2016 because of the Finch’s final deficit foisted upon an unprepared City Council in 2015? Each annual budget comes with a one-page narrative about the importance of the City “fund balance” being maintained at no less than 8% and no more than 12% of the operating budget, which would mean $44 Million to $66 Million in 2016-17. We are far off the mark.
· McCarthy is not a cost-cutting leader and has shown no inclination to spell out future outcomes for current authorizations, budget approvals, or consent for other fiscal matters.
· He has watched the Grand List decrease without public comment knowing that reduces the City asset base as well as taxpayer values. Indeed when Government Accounting Standards Board required pension assets and liabilities to be included on City financial statements, he has had no comment that acknowledges the City’s underwater, or “in the red” conditions for City balance sheet and operating budget.How can we look at this track record and think that a decade or more of this type of behavior deserves a “second chance” in the State legislature? Will other communities with Finance Boards, active Internal Auditor positions, and without the “conflict of interest” history of Bridgeport’s City Council where City employees serve and vote on fiscal issues feel that Tom McCarthy represents the best and brightest representation based on this track record? Time will tell.
JML, as usual you are right on point and I’m in total agreement you.
No Moore McCarthy!
Thank you, JML.
Under McCarthy’s eight-year-plus watch as City Council President, Bridgeport has found itself in a $20 million budget hole this year. Led by McCarthy, the City Council approved next year’s budget unanimously. That budget raises the city’s current mil rate an unprecedented 29%–from 42.198 in the 2014-2015 budget to 54.37 for the 2016-2017 budget.
After passing the budget unanimously, McCarthy and six other members of the City Council (two who represent my district of the city) voted against the mil rate increase. Pure political tomfoolery.
If Tom McCarthy comes looking for your support to become your State Senator, print out and have these questions ready for him by your door:
• How can it be OK for Bridgeport City employees to vote on their own department budgets as members of the City Council? This is a violation of the Bridgeport City Charter and good governance practices, is it not?
• How come you, Mr. McCarthy, approved last year’s budget when it left the city in a $20 million hole? Didn’t do your homework? Duped? Just went along to get along? How have you provided a “check and balance” on the executive in Bridgeport? How would you do so in Hartford?
• Why in a recent year did your salary for your city position increase $15,000? Why was that raise not made public until the next year’s budget came out?
• Why in a recent year did you spend more than the maximum annual stipend for City Council members of $9,000 with impunity? Are there any public records of your expenditures? Where did those dollars go?
• What about the $600,000 driveway in Stratford that Bridgeport paid Manny Moutinho to build to, yes, Manny Moutinho’s coastal estate? You are the co-chair of the Airport Commission that approved that, yes? Has your commission issued a final report on “Driveway-gate?” Or was that impossible since former Mayor Finch had reportedly received thousands in campaign donations from Moutinho and his family?
… (more to come)
At a meeting in 2010 (11?) between Bridgeport neighborhood representatives, Bridgeport elected officials, and representatives of SHU (including two vice presidents and the Dean of Students) concerning the problem of disruptive/dangerous behavior of SHU students in Bridgeport neighborhoods, I witnessed then-Councilman/Council President Tom McCarthy discuss the acquisition of access to and use of Veteran’s Memorial Park for SHU recreational needs. The essence of the conversation was basically the city would give SHU whatever they wanted from the city in regard to the use of Veteran’s Memorial Park. Now we’re seeing the fruits of that conversation. SHU will soon have tennis courts and playing fields at its disposal in the park and will thereby regulate the use of the park for much of the time during any given day. BRIDGEPORT RESIDENTS WILL BE OFFICIALLY RESTRICTED FROM THE TENNIS COURTS AND PLAYING FIELDS WHILE THEY ARE BEING UTILIZED BY SHU FOR MOST OF THE DAY AND EVENING AND WILL BE LITERALLY CROWDED OUT OF MOST OF THE REST OF THE PARK DURING THESE TIMES. BRIDGEPORTERS WILL LOSE CONTROL OF THEIR PARK TO A NEIGHBORHOOD-BUSTING, CITY-SERVICES-STEALING, TAXPAYER-ROBBING ENTITY, ALL BECAUSE OF COUNCILMAN MCCARTHY’S LARGESS TOWARD SHU WITH BRIDGEPORT TAXPAYER ASSETS!
DO WE WANT THIS MAN AS THE STATE SENATOR FROM THE 22ND DISTRICT REPRESENTING BRIDGEPORT IN HARTFORD?
*** Nice squeaky clean political white young man vs an older gray-haired not as well known black woman, both from Bpt. Which one do you think the average Trumbull and Monroe resident will vote for, for State Senate? ***
McCarthy is just as bad for the 22nd as Finch was for Bridgeport. I wonder how the suburbs feel about only being a means to the end game of this person becoming Mayor of Bridgeport.
I think it’s great Marilyn Moore has a fan base here on Only in Bridgeport. Not a fan and I am sorry after she won the primary over Musto, I had to be inconvenienced with her signs on my front lawn for a couple of months. This constituent is not impressed with Moore. I say no Moore and I am supporting Tom McCarthy. I am not even interested in the insults of the readership of this blog. My opinion. She sucks! Her advisors suck and the only good thing about Moore is her connection to Ed Gomes whom I highly respect. She did not ask for my support and my vote and happily I will not have to decline giving them to her. I did however receive a Dear Constituent letter. I think Tom McCarthy will do rather well. I hope he will be on the same line with Hillary Clinton in November. This is of course my opinion and I respect those supporting Marilyn Moore. I believe her to be a most eloquent speaker and at one time I thought she would make a fine Mayor. The first African American Mayor in Bridgeport. I do not believe that anymore so I say no Moore.
BTW There will be a fundraiser for Tom McCarthy next Tuesday at Marty’s Pizza. Just thought I’d share. Good Luck to all the candidates. It is only an election, not war.
Mr. Auerbach,
“It is only an election …”
And it’s only a 29% mil rate increase, not a war.
And it’s only substandard governance and gross, Charter-defying conflicts of interest and a $20 million budget hole, not a war.
Do you have any facts to argue against the policy- and conduct-related critiques of Tom McCarthy?
Of course, you supported Musto when he was in the State Senate. Musto wouldn’t let the conflict-of-interest bill get to a vote in the State Senate when he represented our 22nd Senate district. And so it is not so surprising Mr. Musto himself was a delegate supporting McCarthy over Moore on May 19th at Testo’s in Bridgeport. Want a Musto retread, vote McCarthy.
Note: Before Senator Marilyn Moore, the conflict-of-interest bill had never even gotten to a vote in the State Senate.
Thanks to State Senator Marilyn Moore, a bill passed the State Senate unanimously that would have ended this conflict-of-interest in Bridgeport. Unfortunately, the bill was kept from a vote in the lower chamber. But she and others–most in our current delegation–are working to get that bill passed in the next session.
Mr. Spain I think Mr. McCarthy’s educational level and ability to build bridges will be his assets in the Senate.
I think Bridgeport will be the recipient of more money. Of course that is my opinion. If the local politicians like him, that’s good. Mr. Spain, as a delegate nobody asked me to support McCarthy. I have always believed he represented Bridgeport well. He knows how to build consensus on the Council. I liked his support of Mayor Finch and Ganim. Tom McCarthy has been an elected official for years. He did not come out of the woodwork and run for Senate. Let’s agree to disagree. I am not asking you to support McCarthy, I am only speaking to constituents in my district who are affected by this vote.
Mojo, your attempt to imagine a racist bone in my body is a joke. I do not even see Moore as an African American. I see her as a politician. I wish there were more African American men and women running for office. I cannot change that. I thought after eight years of a President who had African roots, more would get involved. To me it is a non-issue. I vote for many things. I neither vote for nor against a gender or minority. It just isn’t in my nature. I have supported many African American women and men in Bridgeport. They read this blog and to be honest, I find it sad they do not comment or come to my defense. However, I know many people and they know my nature. I am not supporting Tom because we are both Christian and Irish–I am neither!
“He knows how to build consensus on the Council.”
Oh brother!
McCarthy’s done so with a massive supermajority of Democrats, currently 20 to 0, which was the vote for passage of the budget that increased the mil rate 29%. Ask Enrique “Rick” Torres, who was a voice in the wilderness on the the City Council when it was 19 Democrats to 1 Republican (Torres).
Have you read and understood anything John Marshall Lee wrote?
My question is this:
Do you think there’s anything factually inaccurate or incomplete in what John has put forth, in this post on OIB, regarding McCarthy’s unfitness to serve in the State Senate?
Stevie A. is batting 0 for 5, Pete.
Steve, it must be so difficult to “overecome” those feelings from two years ago about Moore for Senate signs on your lawn. If that is the extent of the facts supporting your opinion in this case, as always you are entitled to it, but the negatives I have explained above of Tom McCarthy as our Council legislative leader for about a decade are far more dismal and daunting, in my opinion. Do you care to take my observations on, one by one for the further education of OIB readers? Lennie provides this singular forum for discussion on serious matters, like who will represent us, since neither the City Council as a whole nor its parts allow DISCUSSION or DEBATE. Our public hearings provide no call on our representatives to answer questions, to inform the taxpayer/voter who takes the time to attend such events. Tom McCarthy has never sought to change this style of “hearing.”
Ultimately this one-way attempt to communicate by members of the public is disrespected by those on the panels of these hearings. And it is further disrespected when the administration selects one or two people from the public who otherwise would have had no reason to attend or speak in favor of a measure to deliver the “executive” message as happened the other evening at Tisdale School. That lack of respect for people who are looking to become informed, looking to learn, willing to participate but see their initial efforts thwarted each time, leads them to stay at home, feeling powerless, at times very angry, and losing respect for elected representatives and the system.
Tom has worked that system from the inside, from the top, with a healthy City paycheck and with no appreciation for how his form of “leadership” trashes progress in governance. Is he so popular people will overlook his sins against his fellow Council persons? What special fiscal ability will he have to bring home more bacon for Bridgeport than Marilyn Moore? Where are the other McCarthy supporters, Steve, who are free of the DTC, not with City Board or Commission membership, who are looking for “excellence” for the City who can make a case for or against? Time will tell.
Sorry JML, my disgust with Marilyn Moore is so much more than lawn signs, it is her attitude and disrespect and general loathing of myself. I do not need to take it any further. Whether her disrespect of a slap on the knee at a meeting pointing to Musto and saying that’s your boy, to going to Foster’s Headquarters to wish her well after the loss of MJF in the primary. She disgusts me. Let’s leave it like that. Oh yes, I also happen to respect Tom McCarthy. It is always better voting for someone than against one, so no Moore. Enough, stop your droning it is like nails on a blackboard!!! 🙂
Oh well, Mr. Auerbach, now we understand. For you, it’s like personal. You have been known to insult people in campaign headquarters, calling them terrible names, and that’s okay with you, right?
Regardless, thank you. This helps to explain why you are utterly incapable of presenting any policy-related information or argument to justify McCarthy replacing Senator Moore for State Senate, or to counter the claims of regrettable substandard policy and conduct McCarthy has engaged in and/or overseen while on the City Council, contributing to our city government’s $20 million budget hole and 29% mil rate increase.
Our city’s $20 million budget hole is nothing, of course, compared with the “disrespect of a slap on [your] knee” that you allege. Good grief!
Pete Spain, let’s agree I do not know you. Let’s agree of course I am aware you have advised people I know. Let’s agree none of your candidates ever benefited from your pearls of wisdom. Let’s agree on this blog you’re often condescending comments have been meaningless. To have the audacity to say I have insulted people in campaign headquarters, you had better state the facts because I find that comment highly offensive and untrue. I said let’s agree to disagree–what is it you do not get? I will be working against Moore, you do what you have to do. I am supporting Tom McCarthy and apparently he has a lot of support. It also means a lot to me that Tom McCarthy had gone to another state in support of Hillary Clinton. Yes Mr. Spain, that means a lot to me. I am not sure who Marilyn supports and quite frankly, I do not care. She is not my candidate. Now, I expect you will advise her accordingly. Me, I will not lose sleep over the ordeal. In my circle, we are Clinton and McCarthy supporters. For my debates I take on Republicans twice a week. I do enjoy playing devil’s advocate most of the time. I do want Tom McCarthy to win. I expect he will and hope to help him achieve that.
Pete, when you take your information to Marilyn Moore for her to explain to her constituents, they will fall asleep. Tom McCarthy was meant for bigger things than the Common Council and unlike Moore, he knows how to campaign and get votes.
Perhaps we will see you at Tom McCarthy’s fundraiser. This Tuesday in your neighborhood. It would be a pleasure to meet you.
Steven,
There you go with that word “droning” once again. What are you revealing now, that you have a personal, even visceral feeling that Marilyn’s attitude towards you personally is one of disrespect? Furthermore she has the time and energy to “loathe” you personally?
Most readers know you are the center of your universe, and we give you a pass on that, attempting to find nuggets in the rest of your cheerleading. However, are you saying at some past gathering you presumed it was appropriate for you to reach out and touch a woman around her knee in order to get her attention so you could jeer at her with a remark about “Musto being her boy?” I can see how that presumption on your part, if I understand you rightly, may have been received in an entirely different manner, both the physical touching and the verbal addressing of Musto as ‘boy.’ Wasn’t Musto at that time “as educated a man” as you claim McCarthy is today? Wasn’t he a bridge builder as you indicate McCarthy is likely to be, though he knows of no bodies of water he has to cross with a bridge so I doubt your unproven opinion of Tom, but I am open to such evidence as you are willing to produce.
Steve, please stop reading my entries if they cause you such pain. Switch from a chalkboard image to a “whiteboard” and read the written words and ponder, without such a rush of feelings. The OIB tide on McCarthy is running against you on this one, the same way it happened when you were dancing around twirling your tassels and shouting into the Finch megaphone.
Perhaps what you ought to consider is to write an article for OIB on reasons “why it is better voting for Tom McCarthy for Democratic State Senator than against incumbent Senator Marilyn Moore in the upcoming primary.” Look at Tom’s legislative record, the initiatives he has led, the upgraded training, professionalism and activity of Council representatives through his leadership, especially his fiscal abilities (for the taxpayers that is, not for himself personally) that are necessary at this time in Hartford, and finally for the lessons he has learned and record of accomplishments from his employment in labor relations that apply to issues in Hartford. Will you do that for us as an original piece? Not that you answer any of my questions anyway, attention to which might remove the unappealing sounds you hear. Time will tell.
JML–I am the Center of my Universe. You are the Center of yours. Let’s leave it at that. We do not support the same candidates. I respect your choice. Please respect mine. I really do not care to engage in the same redundant conversations over and over and over again. Please. We will see you on the campaign trail and it will be lovely. Life is good and politics is my entertainment when I am not on the social circuit. You and Mr. Spain do not like my opinions? Think how I feel talking to staunch Trump supporters. I have learned only one thing in politics. You cannot please all of the people all of the time and it has always been true!
BTW JML–Please take your better half to that new restaurant next to Barnum Public House. You will enjoy!
Why are you so mean-spirited?
Dear sweet Zena Lu,
I’d urge you to read all the posts. You may be unconscious but you may notice JML, Mojo, Pete Spain and usually Bob Walsh, Ron Mackey and Donald Day are not happy I oppose their candidate. I most of the time say it is my opinion and I respect theirs. And they go on these diatribes I am not interested in. I am supporting Tom McCarthy. I have invited everyone to another Tom McCarthy fundraiser this Tuesday in Black Rock at Marty’s Pizza. I also said it would be a pleasure meeting you there. I am not mean-spirited. However, if you are a Moore supporter and choose to see me that way, it is okay. I have learned if you are in a group and you are not comfortable with the people, chances you are in the wrong place. I do wish all candidates good luck and hope Tom McCarthy is victorious given the incessant negative, embarrassing and insinuating commentary Tom has received over the past year. So Zena Lu, I am not mean-spirited, just passionate about my candidate and I genuinely dislike Marilyn Moore and that is only because of the way she has treated me. That is of course my business.
The things you write and say, the lack of respect you show and the way you treat people are all not okay.
Zena Lu, if you had enough respect for yourself to use your real name, I would care about what you had to say. I do not care about your personal opinion of me. Not at all. So save your anonymous commentary for someone who is interested in you judgement calls. I am not!
You must be pretty special to be one of the few Lennie Grimaldi allows to continue using an anonymous handle. Personally, I do not like even responding to bloggers who are incognito as if they were somehow more important than the rest of us. You are not!
*** Steve, you seem to follow and support local liberal political rubber-stampers quite a lot! Wonder why and what exactly you’re looking for in general from them. Also what exactly is it you don’t like about Moore, maybe because she did not send you a personal political postcard or is it because she’s black? ***
Yes Mojo–probably because she is black. I am voting for the cracker. Marilyn Moore had better have a better platform than I am the only black candidate. She is no Margaret Morton that’s for sure.
Tom McCarthy is no Margaret Morton either. Why aren’t you working on the essay that will present ALL OIB readers with the reasons McCarthy is destined for “bigger things” Are you working on it yet? I provided a reasonable outline above of questions that might be considered material for a State Senate run.
What have you said already? You like Tom. You respect Tom. Tom has a certain educational level he has attained, certainly. But how is it he has not worked with that legal education for economic and professional advancement? And certainly there are more than a few lawyers in the State legislature already, though I think you were referencing the educational attainments relative to Bridgeport’s representative body, perhaps? And then you have introduced Tom McCarthy the “bridge builder,” a most important role in politics, but where do you see that practiced in Tom’s repertoire today? Or where do you see that skill in Democratic Town Committee sessions? Are you into constructive roles to describe Tom or “construction” roles because Tom does seem to exhibit some skill as operator of a steam roller after the asphalt has been laid? Where oh where is the “bridge building school” in Bridgeport? Time will tell.
Steve, when and where did Senator Moore say that and perhaps you could video tape her speech saying that.
There are ways to state a position without hurling insults, bullying, being inflammatory and just flat-out mean. Resorting to that type of tactic does absolutely nothing to get a point across because the point drowns in a sea of emotional rip currents. The only things that make it to shore are resentment and animosity. Utterly useless.
Zena Lo , my point was made and even though I am tired of responding to this bullying against me, I am pretty tired of it. Zena Lu, are you Jack Hennessy???
Steve,
I forgot to offer you one further suggestion for consideration. When you do your promo piece on Tom’s career, please remember to recount all the positions Tom McCarthy has become responsible for as a committee member and what the results have been.
*** Start with A for Airport Commission
*** If you wish to skip B for Bridgeport Budget, OK
*** Continue with C for City Hall Committee that stewards City property, spend some time there. What do you see?
Time will tell.
JML, I am not looking for suggestions, however you Moore supporters had better get busy. I may also add I am not a surrogate for Tom McCarthy. Just a supporter. I neither speak for him nor is he to be held accountable for anything I say. I do not claim to be associated with the Tom McCarthy for Senate. Well that’s not entirely true. See you all Tuesday at Marty’s.
Steve,
Those of us who counterpunch verbally with you already understand you do not “hold yourself responsible for anything you say” much less Tom or anyone else you “shake, rattle and roll on about.” And if you don’t like suggestions, why do you keep promoting eating places that may begin to feel a “word or two” from you may get people to avoid, rather than try a new situation? Maybe some dislike suggestions as much as you seem to.
You voice your own opinions about lots of things, but City spending and fiscal responsibility are not in your comfort zone even though you are a taxpayer.
You also have first-hand knowledge and third-rate opinions about the school system but you will not share the fact, the fiction and the foolishness who have to rely on ‘system indicators,’ and something beyond anecdotes, with us who have less daily experience in the classroom than you. Not very generous of you, IN MY OPINION.
What about Public Safety? Do you have an opinion on that subject where about 1/3 of taxpayer funds are budgeted going forward in FY 2017? What do you think of the multi-year crime statistics decrease, even while the police have been ‘understaffed?’
Keep the restaurant comments coming as they are relevant in a way your political opinions have been … NOT!!! When you look in the mirror (or the eyes of close family) and ask why others treat you in such wise, remember you are not Mr. Trump and are being held to a higher standard of public comment than he has been thus far. Fair or foul? Time will tell.