From the (potty) mouths of politicians ...
I learned early in my career that politicians sometimes act like third-graders.
While covering a sleepy borough council meeting in Bergen County, New Jersey, some 35 years ago, I was already aware of the tension between two members. One was a favorite son who was about 22 and bulldozed into politics by his family, well known for local construction.
The other was a newly elected woman a few decades his senior who galvanized the proceedings, much to the chagrin of the establishment. After she doggedly challenged one issue, the younger council member excused himself to seek solitude in the adjoining restroom.
There were a handful of people in the meeting room, but everyone heard him punch walls and bellow words and phrases about his esteemed colleague that belong in a toilet.
A few moments later he jauntily returned to the dais, unaware everyone had heard his tirade. He didn’t know what to make of the stares.
For me, the punchline was that this builder failed to recognize thin walls.
In these days of social isolation, the virtual walls are even thinner. At a Feb. 18 Greenwich Board of Education meeting, Peter Sherr called Chairman Peter Bernstein an audible profanity.
I’ve tried to imagine how this might inspire a “Saturday Night Live” cold opening with a badly bearded Kyle Mooney as Bernstein and guest host Nicolas Cage impersonating Sherr. But my skit doesn’t get too far past that because “SNL” would not allow such words to be aired.
Yes, even network TV — which in 2021 has been diminished to the status of Wayne and Garth broadcasting from mom’s basement — still has the civility to censor gutter talk.
An insult is as inappropriate as a profanity. I recall a time two decades ago when Dannel Malloy, then Stamford’s mayor, maligned a political rival. We reported it, he quickly apologized and it all vanished into the ether.
As governor, Malloy was once asked on CNN about a suggestion from then-U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas that the Federal Emergency Management Agency be denied funding, limiting Americans to private insurance to recover from natural disasters.
“I think he’s an idiot,” Malloy responded.
Malloy didn’t apologize for that one. Of course, Paul made his comments when Connecticut needed the cash. He’s probably now looking at icy Texan tumbleweeds and realizing those comments were dumb.
Political trash talk is nothing new. In 1855, former North Carolina Congressman Kenneth Rayner called President Franklin Pierce “the pimp of the White House.”
One of my all-time favorites is 1848 Democratic presidential candidate Lewis Cass being called “that pot-bellied muttonheaded cucumber.” I like to think it inspired Buddy the Elf to declare himself “a cotton-headed ninny muggins” in the movie “Elf.”
One difference in the case of Sherr is that he apparently did not intend for his verbal mudslinging to be heard. The feud between him and Bernstein is also special because they are members of the same party.
“You may want to turn your microphone off Mister Sherr when you ramble on about people,” Bernstein responded.
It has summoned reflections of a similar “hot mic” moment in Greenwich on Election Night 2018, when state representative candidate Laura Kostin called a Republican a “dou---.”
Democrats haven’t forgotten that Republican leaders, led by former First Selectman Peter Tesei, demanded an apology from Kostin, with some calling for her to resign from the Greenwich’s Representative Town Meeting. Within days, she expressed regret in a letter to the editor.
Sherr, who added a popular adjective starting with the letter “f,” to the word Kostin used (bookending it with “bag”), has remained uncharacteristically silent.
A late-night slip of the tongue almost three hours into a fivehour meeting is forgivable. Sherr and his peers contribute countless hours to the community
But the mic for an apology smoldered for more than a week. It’s now gone cold. The humble apology can make anyone look graceful. If more politicians and celebrities realized that, image consultants would be put out of business.
without pay. His colleagues are contemplating a censure. They have more important matters to tackle.
Sherr should have reflexively said he was sorry. Or expressed a formal regret to Bernstein, his peers and the public the next day.
But the mic for an apology smoldered for more than a week. It’s now gone cold. The humble apology can make anyone look graceful. If more politicians and celebrities realized that, image consultants would be put out of business.
Sherr may be following the reasoning that time will erase memories of the incident. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t matter.
This is a Board of Education. This is where policies are established for children. Misogynistic microaggressions should not be casually excused because they were made to another white man. Children deserve lessons in accountability and character.
Like the builder who failed to recognize walls that could not buffer sound, Sherr wrote his own punchline. Despite a career in technology, he forgot to mute himself. After staying quiet this long, many people may prefer he stay muted.