A new video and a separate recording have emerged that show Rob Ford back on what may be a crack pipe and getting drunk in a downtown bar, where he utters a few choice words about low-polling rival Karen Stintz.
Despite uttering some slurs about Italians, the bar tape is not insurmountable for the Ford campaign. As described by the National Post, "The tone of the room as Mr. Ford utters the words is light and peppered with laughter. It’s entirely possible that the men being addressed by Mr. Ford are of Italian descent and saw the mayor’s use of the words are mere friendly banter."
The new drug video is another matter, and Ford has prudently decided to take a leave of absence from his reelection campaign and the mayor's office. However Ford's lawyer insists the mayor will "for sure" stay on as a candidate for the Oct. 27 mayoral election.
How long that lasts and whether he can come back remain to be seen. One thing for certain is that the only way of counting out Rob Ford is if he takes himself out. People who were certain of his demise after numerous incidents that would have killed the political careers of others have been disappointed to see Rob Ford reemerge strong time after time. It's too soon to say whether this will be another of those times or if this finally is the last straw for Rob Ford.
But he does have a shot at a comeback, mainly because of a factor that he put in crude but accurate terms that were revealed in the surreptitious recording made of him at a downtown Toronto club.
Ford told his drinking partners for that evening that, " I’d rather lose to Olivia Chow than lose to anyone, man, because you know what? [The city’s] going to get fucked so bad, they’re going to say ‘thank you.’ "
About that, Ford is dead right. Toronto would indeed be right and truly screwed if Olivia Chow were to become its mayor.
The former NDP MP is hopelessly incompetent and comes across as a near-idiot. Chow's proposals include high taxes which will deliver effectively nothing for Toronto's taxpayers other than increased living costs. As the other main mayoral hopeful, John Tory, correctly put it, she is "hidebound to the unions" in this city and they and her special interest friends would be the only beneficiaries were she to win the mayoral contest.
However there is another way Ford could be mayor following the October 27 election. That is if Rob Ford's brother Doug, currently a city councilor representing Etobicoke, enetrs the race in his stead.
Doug Ford is Rob's campaign manager, is a proponent of the same policies, and has both the Ford brand and organization in place. If Rob can't continue the race, then the best hope for Toronto is if Doug takes up the baton and carries it to the finish line for him.
15 comments:
A few points;
I've been saying for months now that Hizzoner is genetically incapable of going much longer that a month or so without doing something so enormously stupid that it paralyzes reasonable people everywhere with shock and awe.
And so it is again. And will be if the current game plan holds.
There are basically three truths about rehab;
1) It almost never takes the first time. Rob Ford is, at a bare minimum, a less fuckable Lindsay Lohan, and she's through the spinner seven times now.
2) 30 days is what the industry calls a "buff and shine" and is not to be taken seriously.
3) Recovery experts are almost universal in insisting that even a serious patient avoid unnecessary stress for at least a year, which is something that governing and highly contested campaigns aren't celebrated for.
Basically what that means is that a "tan, rested and ready" Rob Ford emerges on June 1st ... and is found in a puddle of his own puke by Canada Day.
Whether he it or he's too dumb to know it or not, that boy is done. From the comments of even hardcore Ford supporters over the last dozen hours, he's out of second chances. I expect that he'll shed fifteen points in the next few days. His campaign will be broke by the end of the month, if it isn't already. No sane person is buying a ticket on the Titanic at this late date.
The consensus seems to be that Doug is the brains of the family. The consensus is wrong. Rob has far better political instincts and is more personally likable than Doug. I've also never once heard Doug express and an original thought, and his public enabling of his brother has only made him look ridiculous.
There's something else that hasn't been mentioned yet that might be of some importance to the family - this happened in Kathy's basement the day that she was seven hours late for a court hearing.
Since she's on probation for shoplifting, the family's priority might be keeping her out of jail.
It'll be a good long time before you see someone named Ford on the ballot in this city again.
Although Karen Stintz might get a temporary bump (pardon the pun) out of this, this race is now between Chow and Tory. The sooner Ford Nation gets that, the more likely it is that Chow can be beaten.
The more I think about it, the more important the location of the crack video becomes.
Probation violations are not like criminal trials. They are at the sole discretion of the court. Of course, none of us have seen Kathy's probation conditions, but it can be safely assumed that they include not being around controlled substances or known criminals.
And according to the magnificently hawt Robyn Doolittle of the Globe, someone who looks an awful lot like Sandro Lisi was at Friday night's festivities.
Lisi, having already been convicted of sundry mayhem and charged with yet more, is on bail, and I'd be shocked if his conditions weren't similar, if not identical, to Kathy's.
Brazen 2 has already said that they're looking into the new tape. That being the case, I suspect that someone who looks a LOT like Sandro and Kathy Ford can expect a visit from the coppers, if they haven't already.
If one or both of them roll over, if only on Etobicoke Slim's dealer, this could start a chain o events that will be fantastic to watch.
However, the fact remains that by allowing himself to be photographed smoking crack twice in just over a year demonstrates that Rob Ford is too stupid to be an adult, let alone mayor.
That Michelle Monaghan-lookin' Robyn Doolittle is with al Starzeera
I'm surprised you don't know, Richard - Doolittle left The Star and joined The Globe & Mail a while ago.
Not anymore. She started with the Globe after Easter weekend. She also wrote the crack story, which make her not only hot, but a crack reporter, besides.
Excuse the pun. I couldn't resist.
http://robyndoolittle.com/blog/the-saddest-best-day-ever/
Oh, no, I haven't been following Ms Doolittle's career. Other than stalking Ford, I wasn't aware there was all that much to it.
Come to think of it, she might be the only person alive to have seen Hizzoner hitting the pipe on two separate recordings.
And when the mayor happens to be a human factory of fuck-uppery, I hardly think that it's stalking to follow up on that.
I think at this point, we've learned that just because Bob and Doug say something, it doesn't necessarily make it true.
Christ, I hope we've learned that.
You just like her 'cause she's cute. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
According to a new Forum Research poll, Doug Ford is even less popular than his brother Rob and when his name is substituted for Rob's in a voter intention survey he's at about 20% so it looks like the old switcheroo is a non-starter. Rob Ford may be an alcoholic and drug addict who hangs out with criminals but he actually comes across as a nicer guy than Doug who has none of Rob's charm. http://www.thestar.com/news/city_hall/2014/05/23/rob_fords_approval_rating_sinks_to_new_low_doug_fords_even_worse.html
Doug hasn't done any campaigning for himself, so I'm not sure how instructive that type of polling is regarding such a hypothetical. Rob has been out of the campaign picture for a few weeks, and should he return and do some, I would anticipate a change in those numbers.
Plus, I'm disinclined to take anything the Toronto Star has to say about the Fords at face value unless there is plenty of independent verification.
I dunno, the Star has a pretty good record, vis a vis Robbo. Of course, you'll bring up Newtonbrook again, but even that conceals the basic fact that Ford was canned for losing his shit.
As for Dougie, he's he's been Rob's main (and often only) surrogate for years and his numbers suck. I assume this is because he parrots Hizzoner's nonsense, despite being sober.
"I'm disinclined to take anything the Toronto Star has to say about the Fords at face value." It turned out the Star was right about the first crack video, and about Rob's drug use and alcoholism, and about just about everything else they've been saying about the Fords and that the Fords were lying all along until they couldn't lie no more. Based on the evidence I think it's the Fords whom you should be disinclined to believe.
On Ford-related factual matters, al Starzeera is about 50-50 at best. They are so hysterically biased against him editorially that it has bled into their news coverage.
I have heard inside reports from the newsroom about how insane the hatred for Ford is there. Which isn't to say biases don't exist in every newsroom, but when it reaches the levels it has at The Star, it hardly makes for good, accurate journalism.
And it's not an "either/or" - both the Fords and The Star can be full of crap. I just happen to find the Fords' crap less insidious than The Toronto Star's. Probably because the Fords have less guile than The Star's editorialists and reporters. And the Star's sanctimonious hypocrisy is more tedious than that of the Fords.
If you're going to take the position that the Star is " hysterically biased" and their accuracy is "about 50-50 at best." it seems incumbent on you to point out where they've been wrong.
Also, it seems to me that no lasting good has come from Ford's jihad against the press. In fact, that seems to be where his death spiral started.
Ford, in his capacity as mayor, shows up ripped at the Garrison Ball. His own staff confirms to the Star on background that he has dependency issues. Etobicoke Slim calls the Star pathological liars and dares them to sue.
Within six weeks, a crack video from weeks before the Garrison incident turns up. Things promptly fall apart, and Rob Ford ceases to be taken seriously by serious people.
He's Gary Hart without the sensational pussy.
Oh, there's plenty the Star screwed up, including their report that he asked staff to delete emails, which never happened.
And while they didn't explicitly say that Ford DID grab Sarah Thomson's ass, they sure as hell implied it was true. Despite everything, I have a hard time believing that story, and there are credible witnesses who said that it didn't happen and that Thomson told them she planned to "set up" Ford.
There are others, but Jeez, Skippy, I don't think it's incumbent on me to obsessively chronicle every stupid thing the Star puts in print. That would be a full time job.
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