When young, ambitious, unpopular Benny Jealous was forcefully “elected” president of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People four years ago, he pledged to go grocery shopping around the clock until he found sexy causes that could bring the moribund, outdated NAACP back onto America’s front pages.
We are told that when he was “elected,” by trademark Democrat muscle, he was so virulently disliked that there was no applause.
My golly. Can anyone in Newspaperland think of a Culver City analogy?
I flashed to Scott Malsin’s dramatic but hollow Silent Movie resignation at the end of last Monday’s City Council meeting.
Although Mr. Malsin is a good man in many senses, he is egotistically consumed. This glaring character detriment flattens the genuine good he has initiated and accomplished during six years in office.
Every person who lives his life in public requires measured dosages of self-confidence. You must believe you can perform your tasks better than anyone else. Every morning when driving to my office, I telephone my sister, and she will tease me about attending self-assertiveness training classes.
In Mr. Malsin’s Farewell to the Troops address, he said “many” people have urged him to run for what is generously being called re-election when filing opens Monday morning.
Do I Hear a Cheer?
Trouble is, the “many” must have been tippling down at the Backstage or frolicking at the beach because none was in Council Chambers.
Would it be fair to say not one Malsin supporter was in the room? Stunning.
This should give even a creative politician pause.
Besides a disproportionate, undisciplined ego, Mr. Malsin has displayed a propensity for game-playing — dishonesty — since last June.
Offstage, he was confiding to certain persons that he would calculatedly resign from the Council on Dec. 12, a cunningly chosen date that would keep his seat in play for the coming election.
Do I Hear a Cheer?
Meanwhile, throughout the six months, Mr. Malsin played hide ‘n seek with the community — You Can’t Guess What I Am Thinking.
He is confident short-memoried voters will blithely re-elect him on April 10. One reason is a dearth of formidable candidates. It is a desert out there.
At last night’s meeting of the Culver City Democratic Club, the room hissed when Mr. Malsin’s sleight-of-tongue moves were announced.
He believes voters suffer from amnesia, that they will conveniently forget this nonsense ever went down.
For half a year, Mr. Malsin fed voters a diet of:”
“I cannot make up my mind.”
“Oh, dear, what will I do?”
Meanwhile, everybody in City Hall knew the bologna dance tune Mr. Malsin was calling.
How do you say c-h-a-r-a-d-e?
After publicly denying the truth for six months, when Mr. Malsin declared his delayed-to-the-final-second tearless departure, City Hall’s response machinery was oiled and gassed up to go.
It would be bad enough if he had milked Our Town for a half year of invested resignation emotion.
But the Please Feel Sorry for Me twist to this latter-day vaudeville act is that in a few days we will be asked to endure the same darned drama again.
He is running for re-election, but is delaying his formal announcement while he and his family “think over” this tough call.
In show biz, this is called milking the crowd.
“Hi, everybody. It’s me again. I am back. I hope you will re-elect me.”
To repeat, as the parroting parasites in the copycat Occupy movement say:
Mr. Malsin is an excellent politician, a good person. But he is a willing captive of his ego, which may be his undoing.
This is like a man staging his own funeral on consecutive days to accommodate the tributes, especially his own elaborate encomium.
