As various MAGA spokespersons made clear, the partisans of former president Donald Trump have nursed dark suspicions that the highly public romance between songstress Taylor Swift and Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce is but a cover for coming propaganda in favor of Democratic president Joe Biden, whom Swift is reliably known to favor.
Those conspiracy-mongers should have been at a local Super Bowl party hosted by Criminal Court clerk aide Barry Ford, a Democrat, and attended by several other prominent Democrats, including DA Steve Mulroy, Shelby County diversity official Shep Wilbun (a veritable encyclopedia of NFL history), and state Representative Joe Towns.
Ford, a diehard fan of the San Francisco 49ers, had decked out his house with 49er paraphernalia and, joined by several others present, arguably a majority, made his 49er partisanship obvious.
Alternatingly, he kept up a running lament that Biden, whom he enthusiastically supports, hasn’t been making enough public appearances to maximize his reelection chances.
For Ford, anyhow, what Biden does clearly loomed larger than whether Swift and Kelce say “I do” or don’t.
And, like most Americans, he has no trouble keeping his politics and his sports fandom separate.
Perhaps, too, those concerned Trump partisans should just have some patience. Taylor Swift’s song litany largely consists of spirited “gotcha last” rebukes of her erstwhile and subsequently discarded boyfriends.
• Meanwhile, two matters dealt with in this space last week drew clarifying responses. First was a pair of statements from City Hall regarding our disclosure of prospects that Memphis native Maura Black Sullivan might be in line to become the city’s chief operating officer. (These responses arrived in time to be posted in the online version of our report but not in time for the print edition.)
“I can confirm that we had early talks with Maura Sullivan about a different position with the Young administration, not the COO/CAO position. We have a strong leader currently acting in the COO role who has my full faith and confidence.” — Mayor Paul Young
“The role we initially discussed was a high level position on the Mayor’s cabinet. And while talks about that position haven’t continued, we do have an ongoing dialogue with her and many others who we consider allies in the work of creating a stronger Memphis.” — Chief Communications Officer Penelope Huston.
One is left to wonder: What other “high level” position has been the subject of discussions with Sullivan, who is currently employed as COO of Metro Nashville Public Schools and who had previously served as COO for Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke and, before that, as deputy COO for former Memphis Mayor AC Wharton?
But so be it. It is certainly to be hoped that Mayor Young, who has had his problems so far squaring things with the city council, ultimately succeeds in getting the staff he wants.
• Also in our mailbag this week is the following clarifying statement from DA Steve Mulroy concerning the County Commission’s passage, reported here last week, of a measure desired by the DA that equalizes the pay scale for county and state employees on his staff.
“I’m a state employee, so I’ve always been at the top. So parity was never a concern for me.
“Using county dollars, the county gave a salary supplement to supervisors of all stripes, even state employees who were supervisors. I took those supplements away from the state supervisors, on the rationale that county money shouldn’t be going to state employees who were already getting paid way more than comparably experienced county counterparts.
“Out of fairness, I included myself in that, and took away my county-funded supplement, forswearing all county funds, and relying only on my state salary.
“A TV reporter the other day asked me if I was going to restore that supplement to myself, now that the County Commission has acted. I said, no, my pay cut stands.”