Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Lawn signs betray hypocrisy of Antis

Our way to work often passes by the homes of a slew of Antis in central Birmingham, most notably that of Paul Marion Reagan.

We have to give Reagan credit where credit is due. He was one of the folks who motivated us to start the Buzz nearly six years ago.

Back then, Reagan was a mover and shaker within the political organization of former Commissioner Dante Lanzetta. Along with Peter Gough, he wrote the short-lived but memorable bEline email newsletter, which gave meaning to the word "truthiness" long before Stephen Colbert coined the term. He worked with George Dilgard every four years to re-elect the supremely arrogant Lanzetta, and along with a guy named Tim Bannister, founded the Presidents Council of Homeowners Associations, whose members for years have stood on soap boxes and falsely claimed to represent thousands of Birmingham taxpayers. Reagan also worked hand-in-hand with Gary Kulak, the former Planning Board chairman who successfully led an effort to stanch downtown development during the biggest economic boom in U.S. history. He is still the self-appointed president of the Central Birmingham Residents Association, a neighborhood group of his own creation.

Ultimately, Kulak was forcibly removed from office by the City Commission, Lanzetta (along with his protege Seth Chafetz) was forcibly removed from office by voters, Gough sold his side-by-side Mill Pond homes to developer Bryan Timlin and fled to Florida, and Bannister gave up on the Presidents Council and faded from public view. Only Dilgard, whose outward amiability contrasts sharply with the rest of the acidic and conspiratorial bunch, stayed in public view, as the gratuitous Anti appointment to the Planning Board. (Chafetz, too, having been elected with a couple hundred votes to the Library Board, but forget him.) Reagan, ever the angry little man, has lurked in the shadows, the Anti's Anti, Lanzetta's heir apparent.

So we find it perplexing to see, each day that we choose to pass by his home, the lawn signs of Mayor Tom McDaniel and Commissioner Scott Moore planted firmly beside those of Dilgard and Chafetz. We have noted this anomaly before, but we want to highlight it again, just in case one or two casual readers missed the point.

As you drive around town, note the lawns that carry the signs of McDaniel and Moore beside those of Dilgard and Chafetz. Then, knowing that McDaniel and Moore stand diametrically opposed to Dilgard and Chafetz on virtually every issue of importance to Birmingham voters, ponder the political calculus behind such open and pathetic displays of hypocrisy.