“Whatever else he may be, he is not a gentleman.”

COMMENTARY

MARK SCHUMANN

Press Journal columnist Russ Lemmon’s political hero, Charlie Wilson, must have made the Scripps pundit proud this morning when he stood up and jabbed his hand at Mayor Richard Winger.  Wilson, who let it be known recently that he is running for a seat on the city council and hopes to be the next mayor, showed not the slightest hint of respectful disagreement.

Winger, who has served the City for more than two years on the Council, and who has worked tirelessly, first to understand the dynamics of the proposed power sale, and second to conclude a deal that would be fair to the City and its ratepayers, had just concluded his report to a gathering of Republican men.

In contrast to Winger, Lemmon and Wilson have failed to understand the complex deal.  For his part, Wilson has vowed to wage his campaign on a single issue – his conviction that the way to conclude the sale is to risk millions more in public money challenging the Florida Municipal Power Agency in court.

Like his patrons at Florida Power & Light, Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers and the island weekly, Wilson is convinced the way to get what you want is to apply political pressure.  The approach has often worked for the heavy-handed utility giant, but this time around the laws that govern contractual relationships stand in the way of FPL’s plan to force the sale by flexing its considerable political and financial muscle.

It will be interesting to see how the city council campaign unfolds.  It is hard to imagine how Wilson’s behavior could be less civil.  An observation journalist Erick Sevareid once made of President Lyndon Johnson comes to mind.  “Whatever else he may be, he is not a gentleman.”