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Ford brothers’ political football won’t fly

If it’s not socialists, gays, or downtown elites, it’s the media.

Seems the brothers Ford, Rob and Doug, can find blame with anyone and everyone but themselves for the controversies that seem to continually swirl around the current administration at City Hall like a bad stink.

Self-reflection is not a strong suit when it comes to the two-headed monster calling the shots at City Hall these days.

Otherwise Uncle Doug might have taken the opportunity Sunday afternoon on his and his brother’s radio show, now back from summer hiatus on CFRB, to apologize for his boorish behaviour last week.

To recap: after revelations in the Globe that our absentee mayor is enlisting some of his staff to help with his football coaching duties outside City Hall – on the public’s time and dime, no less – the councillor for Ward 2 took to the airwaves on AM640 to launch a personal attack on the reporter who wrote the story, the Globe’s City Hall bureau chief, Kelly Grant.

I won’t get into all the dirty details of what Doug said because it was a) widely reported b) a bunch of bullshit that doesn’t bear repeating and c) sexist. All I will say is that Doug used the words “lazy” and “ass” during his little temper tantrum.

But there was no manning up Sunday, no expression of regret from Doug for his comments. And no clear explanation from the mayor on why he’s using staff whose salary is paid by taxpayers to help with his coaching. Instead there was just justification and recrimination. And much bad-mouthing of “the media,” who are right down there with lawyers, of course. Salivating wolves, Doug called them. Grrr.

So it’s official then. The Ford administration has now declared war on the shapers of public opinion. Add the good, grey Globe to the hate list already occupied by the Star, CBC and anyone else that doesn’t happen to share the Ford world view.

It’s a war the Fords think they can win because a) they’re still drunk with hubris over that 2010 election win b) in denial about their flagging political fortunes and c) have their own radio show which they can use to talk over the heads of those who cover them on a daily basis, not to mention a few sycophants over at the Sun to help in the cause. Worked for Ford in 2010, right?

Still, the dust up with the Globe could be a game-changer if the bad feelings persist.

Where City Hall coverage is concerned, the Globe has been the paper of choice for the Fords when they needed a carefully placed leak to get their side of the story out, or get ahead of the latest shit to hit the fan.

Sure, the Sun can always be counted on to spout the Ford line, but when the Globe reports it, well then it carries more weight, especially when it comes to setting the tone for among those in the City Hall press corp. The Globe is the national paper of record, after all. The organ of the business classes and folks on Bay Street who make sure the city continues to be the economic engine of the country.

Which may, in part, explain why the mayor’s chief of staff, Mark Towhey, issued a statement that Doug does not speak for the mayor’s office after that 640 rant.

Some City Hall observers have already pointed out that it was Grant and the Globe that rewrote the record during the 2010 election on that potentially damaging Star expose claiming Ford manhandled (allegedly) a former football player of his.

But there have been other examples. When there was big trouble on the Sheppard subway file, the mayor’s byline appeared in an op-ed in, you guessed it, the Globe in a last-ditch effort to save the plan.

And when the mayor admitted himself to hospital last month, it was the Globe that was first with the story.

I can’t say for certain if Doug or someone from the mayor’s office got on the phone to make sure the spin that everything was OK with Rob was the one that appeared in the papers the next day.

What is known is that the Star was on the scene first, according to Doug’s own version of events, showing up at the hospital within minutes of the mayor being admitted, Doug has said.

Ford’s football controversy not only puts the lie to his respect for taxpayers mantra on which he’s built a political career, it’s also a sign that his ship of state has sprung a major leak.

Perhaps the conservative forces in this town weighing his mayoral prospects for 2014 are worried that Ford is teetering dangerously close to the not-worth-rescuing territory.

Don’t look now the hated Star is quoting former Ford staffers, and what are being described as high-ranking ones at that, to report the mayor was warned by his advisers that he was breaking rules by using staff to help with his coaching, but chose to ignore them.

The Ford admin could use all the friends they can get right now. After that lie-filled testimony of the mayor’s in court during his conflict of interest hearing earlier this month, some among the City Hall press corp may be re-evaluating their relationship to the regime.

That’s the thing about wolves. They tend to run in packs.

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