it was common knowledge in the law enforcement community that white was forced to step down from office and pledge to never run for public office again in order to escape an indictment from the feds. where have you guys been?I wouldn't take this seriously from an anonymous source, except that it squares with what I was told by a knowledgeable person that I know very well. "Mike" could just have been feeding that person's words (quoted at the end of the post) back to me, of course. One thing's for sure: If Mayor White cut a deal with the Federal prosecutor, it sure isn't "common knowledge" in the community of ordinary, oblivious citizens who read the newspaper.
Which might be because it isn't true, of course.
Does any of this matter any more? Yes. Mike White remains a major influence in Cleveland politics. People from his close staff and Cabinet occupy positions of public and community trust. Just months ago (i.e. until Frank Jackson announced) there was media speculation about the possibility of White running for mayor again. What happened at City Hall barely four years ago is not old news... especially if it hasn't been in the news at all.
(It is possibly relevant that in 2001 and 2002 the U.S. Attorney for Northern Ohio was not Republican Greg White -- Bush's 2000 Northeast Ohio campaign co-chair, appointed to the job in 2003 -- but Emily Sweeney, appointed by Bill Clinton.)
MY TINFOIL HAT DEPARTMENT: I heard my first grassroots conspiracy theory about the Nate Gray stories on Friday. A friend who works at an East Side community agency told me her colleague's consensus is that the PD held back the story until last week because they were waiting for a mayoral candidate they liked better than Campbell... but seeing none, they've decided to support Campbell, so they released the anti-White stuff to make her look good by comparison.
I don't think this is a very satisfying theory (Why would Clifton have humiliated himself for two weeks? Where does Scene fit in?), but it's okay as a game-opener. Here's one I like better, which should be popular among my fellow Democrats:
U.S. Attorney Greg White and PD publisher Alex Machaskee are both partisan Republicans and former Northeast Ohio Bush campaign leaders. Seeing that Coingate and its many outgrowths are wreaking havoc on their friends, they cook up the release of the Gray documents as a diversionary Democratic scandal. But they need extreme deniability. So a defense lawyer is somehow enlisted to show the documents to the PD... the PD lets it be known that it has something momentous but fears prosecution, creating a major brouhaha... Scene is given a peek, giving the PD "no choice" but to publish... prosecutor White waxes indignant and calls for an investigation. Voila! Coingate is no longer the scandal du jour in Cleveland.
Like that one? I made it up myself. That is, I think I did...