Hopefully by the time you read this, this whole Mayor Rob Ford cocaine video scandal will be over.
Hopefully Ford will have resigned. Hopefully Ford will have been impeached. Hopefully Ford will have been exonerated. I don't care what it is. If it will bring this utter distraction to a close, I'm all for it.
By "distraction," I am not referring to Ford. I'm referring to myself. I've been distracted from my own job, spending way too much time surfing the web for the latest on this bizarre soap opera.
I would read the Star, the Sun, Globe and Mail, National Post and other websites and stare mouth agape at my computer screen taking in the latest on the train wreck in progress. Alleged videos, allegations of cocaine use by the mayor, staffers quitting day after day - all compounded by the ineptitude of Rob and his brother Doug to handle the media. On his weekly radio show after the scandal broke, Mayor Ford referred to the media as "maggots."
City hall journalists are often regarded as bugs deserving to be squashed, but rarely do politicians actually go out and say it. Way to keep things classy, Mr. Ford.
In response, the media declared war, reporting day after day on all the resignations, firings and other departures from the mayor's office, including Chief of Staff Mark Towhey.
You have to remember the context behind all of the current media craziness. This mayor's office has been under siege by opposition forces ever since Ford was elected to office in 2010. The left, who still control a good chunk of Toronto city council, absolutely hate his guts and have been stopping at nothing to try to get rid of him.
They tried removing him over conflict of interest allegations involving his football charity, but since that didn't work, they are seizing on this alleged video reported by Gawker where Ford is supposedly showed using crack cocaine.
I use the word "alleged" deliberately because only a few people claim to have even seen this video. There was Gawker, and then two Toronto Star reporters, who all say it was Ford they saw in the video.
On a pure journalistic level I have all kinds of problems with this story because of the lack of any verification of authenticity. This video could be doctored, for all anyone knows. In this age of digital technology, that's easy to accomplish.
As for Gawker, they raised the $200,000 ransom the shady suppliers of the video claimed they wanted. But I have been openly doubting whether any amount of money would ever be enough for this video to see the light of day.
Sure enough, these intermediaries announced the video is no longer available. The video is "gone," they said.
That has led to more piling on by media people who are now speculating in print on whether the cocaine video was seized by police, or obtained by the Fords or their supporters. Whatever the real story is about the video, we aren't getting it. All we are getting are allegations and no real proof to back it up.
It's a sad day for journalism in Canada to see it sink to this level.
The biggest problem for Ford, though, is not with the video itself but his response to it. His failure to respond immediately to the cocaine allegations made Ford look like he was hiding something and allowed this story to fester on well past its expiry date.
If Ford does have a drug problem, he ought to take responsibility, admit it's affecting his ability to represent Toronto, and go into rehab and clean up.
It's possible to survive politically by doing exactly that. Alberta Premier Ralph Klein took responsibility for his drinking problems following that infamous incident where he got into that argument with a homeless person. Ultimately, he went to the media, admitted responsibility for his own problems and vowed to sober up.
Based on the obituary that ran in the Calgary Herald, his admission of his failings drew outpourings of support and cemented Klein's image as a man of the people - something Ford claims to be himself.
Ford needs to settle this drug issue one way or another, and get on with life. But he won't do it.
Now we have a full-blown scandal and sideshow, complete with resignations, stupid "maggot" remarks and overall mayor's office chaos.
The circus atmosphere is interfering with government business. In the height of the scandal, there was a big flood on the Don Valley Parkway that backed up traffic for hours. Mayor Ford held a press conference on the situation, but had to beat a hasty retreat because the "maggots" wanted answers on the real news of the day: the chaos in his administration.
The end result is the issue is no longer even about whether Ford uses crack cocaine. Instead, it's a more fundamental one about his ability to lead the city.
Right now he cannot successfully focus on the most basic problems, like flooding in the streets. And increasingly he's having a hard time getting his policies through City Hall, because even his allies on council are fed up and distancing themselves from his utter gong show.
All of Ford's troubles - political, personal, you name it - are undermining his well-intentioned agenda of making Toronto City Hall more fiscally responsible and service oriented.
What we are seeing there seems like what you would expect from someone leading the hickest of hick towns. Yet this is Toronto we are talking about, the largest and most famous city in Canada.
I hope nobody in North Battleford or Battleford is looking at Toronto as an example of how to run things. If local officials are taking notes, surely it's on what not to do.
