WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE: So developer Mitch Schneider has blown another few thousand bucks on a last-minute full-page Plain Dealer ad, pleading with Cleveland voters to re-elect Jane Campbell because Steelyard Commons will be so wonderful for the city. (There's no link available but it was on yesterday's page B-5, on the other side of the obituary page.)

The ad rehashes the same old stories: 1,800 jobs, taxes galore, Wal-Mart shopping right in your neighborhood. Ron Copfer competently dissected these arguments at BFD. If you're new to this debate, and not sure what to think, I'll self-servingly refer you here and here.

But what strikes me about the ad is Schneider's apparent desperate need to believe that his project can still, somehow, be a big electoral asset to the Mayor -- long after the Campbell campaign itself has stopped talking much about it.

Mr. Schneider, here's the truth: As much as any one person, you cost Jane Campbell this election. You helped hammer the last nail into the coffin of her relationship with several City Council members who are now helping to deliver West Side votes to Jackson. You cost her unified labor support, which as a previously endorsed incumbent was still hers to lose before "Wal-Mart Commons" put it out of reach. You saddled her with one more front-page round of backroom deals, broken promises and controversial associations ("the Wal-Mart mayor") just when it could do her uphill re-election effort the most damage.

All that political damage to the Mayor could have been avoided if the Steelyard Commons project had been pursued more openly, more modestly, more patiently, with a genuine willingness to bend to legitimate community interests. But you dissembled about the project's true nature early, attacked and demeaned its doubters, maneuvered and dodged to avoid any compromise, and ultimately got the Mayor to align herself with the absolute worst nightmare of a lot of people who were once among her best friends.

For this, she got some campaign money, a chance to cut your ribbon, and some job projections that nobody believes. And now... a full-page ad that will make no difference at all.

Nice job, Schneider. With friends like you...