Jill Porter | Let's hope Nutter's immune to the thin-skin syndrome
HE'S SMART, savvy, and charming - and this city yearns to be charmed again. Mayor-elect Michael Nutter has made few false moves in his public career and has the potential to make his slogan of "a new day" more than just rhetoric.
HE'S SMART, savvy, and charming - and this city yearns to be charmed again.
Mayor-elect Michael Nutter has made few false moves in his public career and has the potential to make his slogan of "a new day" more than just rhetoric.
Yes. Even cynical columnists can be believers.
But I believed in John Street, too. And what happened to him has happened to - almost - every modern mayor we've had: He was crippled, in part, by his inability to handle criticism.
The exception: Ed Rendell.
Street's thin skin made him largely inaccessible to all but an inner circle of uncritical boosters and barely visible to the public in recent years.
Can it happen to Michael Nutter, too?
So far, Nutter has been the darling of the media - and not without good reason.
But even Michael Bloomberg, who has restored New York City to unparalleled glory, has taken his hits in the press.
It's inevitable that Nutter will, too.
Can he handle it?
He says yes.
"I've been in public life over 25 years. You can't afford to be thin-skinned in this business," Nutter said yesterday.
"Every day is not going to be a stroll in the park. I understand that. If you go into this business to be loved, you're in the wrong business."
Hmm. Tell that to John Street, Wilson Goode, Bill Green and Frank Rizzo, for starters.
Some of his former Council colleagues think Nutter won't be susceptible to the occupational hazard of the mayor's office.
Nutter has "a distinct advantage in that job with his personality," said Republican Brian O'Neill, which is "such a big part of the job and a big part of leadership."
"He's a friendly, outgoing guy who's very thoughtful, and I don't think Michael thinks he has all the answers."
Even when O'Neill failed to back key Nutter initiatives - such as when he pulled his original support on the smoking ban because he disapproved of the proposed exemptions - he said Nutter never took it personally.
"He's not somebody that you fear disagreeing with and I think that's a real good quality."
W. Wilson Goode Jr. said he thought Nutter was "extremely politically mature, as well as emotionally mature," and understood how to navigate rough sailing.
"While he didn't always get along with all his colleagues, or enjoy their philosophical support, he went after the votes he needed honestly and adopted a 'win-some, lose-some' approach to it," Goode said.
Councilman Frank Rizzo had a slightly different point of view.
He recalled that during budget hearings, which often got confrontational, Nutter "sometimes got a little bit tough and when people got tough back, he got tougher. And sometimes that's good and sometimes that's bad.
"I think Michael has the ability to be thin-skinned," Rizzo said, but will rein in that tendency.
Because the issue isn't whether you're thin-skinned or not, he said, but whether or not you let it show.
"I don't like criticism. And there's times I bite my lip - and inside, I guess it's not good for your health - but externally I try not to show it," Rizzo said.
And that brings us back to Gov. Rendell.
Rendell, as mayor, was not beyond flying into a rage at the press; indeed, his outbursts were notorious.
But it was over the next day.
Committee of Seventy head Zack Stalberg recalls a particularly hostile exchange he had one day with Rendell about a column he wrote while he was editor of the Daily News.
The next day, there were multiple messages from City Hall, which Stalberg dreaded returning.
"Finally, I call him back and it's as if we did not have the fight 24 hours before," he said.
"I'm pretty sure they remembered every negative story and every slight, but the brilliance of the Rendell-Cohen media strategy was that after a day or two, they weren't mad at you," Stalberg said, referring to Rendell chief of staff David Cohen.
"It may be all phony, but it doesn't really matter as long as both sides aren't engaged in a escalating feud."
Nutter - who "I think takes things written about him and said about him quite seriously," Stalberg said - should take heed.
Not to worry, says Nutter.
"I've got [wife] Lisa and [daughter] Olivia at home, and most days they're kinda loving me, and some days they're not too happy with me, either," Nutter said, laughing.
"This is not the right profession to go in if deep love and passionate affection is your daily need." *
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