On the WREG Channel 3 website today, it was announced that former Memphis mayor Willie Herenton had withdrawn from a scheduled debate with his Democratic primary opponent for Congress, Steve Cohen. Herenton told Channel 3 he objected to two of the panelists who would be asking questions: WREG commentator Norm Brewer and Commercial Appeal editorial page editor Otis Sanford.
Herenton committed to the debate last September, but has had a change of heart, telling Channel 3 that he didn’t think Brewer or Sanford would be “fair” with him.
This makes me unable to resist pulling out the Saturday Night Live routine, “Really?”
Really, Willie? Are you worried that they might “unfairly” ask about some of the wackadoodle moves you pulled last summer, when you resigned, and then didn’t resign, and then did again, after getting your pension in a lump sum? Are you afraid they might ask about why you threatened to RUN FOR MAYOR AGAIN in the fall two weeks after resigning? Did you think those questions might make you look a little, oh, I don’t know … NUTS?
Oh, was that unfair? Really?
Or maybe you were you worried they might ask about the mess you left in the city’s legal department? Or the shady contracts you signed with various vendors? Or the real estate deal for the bus station property? I could go on, or would those questions not be “fair.”
Really?
I’ll tell you what’s not fair: You not giving the voters a chance to see you respond to questions they have a right to know the answers to.
The public did learn something important about you, however: that you’re not man enough to stand up to honest scrutiny. And, they learned that despite all your macho posturing, W.W. Herenton is not very tough at all. Really.
