Moral of the smoking ordinance story? The sordid collection of corpses from a political wasteland.

Following is the opinion of the senior editor. You’re perfectly free to disagree.

On Labor Day, comfortably ahead of the mayor’s press conference on Tuesday, I received this missive from the ever mysterious Even Deeper Throat. In it, our periodic informant’s reference to the “guy on the stool” is to an article I wrote on Sunday: Anger management? No, thanks. I’ve had all the placid acceptance I can stomach.

The guy on the stool does not need clout. John Mattingly will have the mayor veto it---not a paid lobby--maybe not professional--but effective. Either way doug loses---the veto causes him to be raked over the coals in the paper and makes him (i think ) a one and done mayor---this time around. If he doesn't veto --- the envelopes stop coming----I am not kidding. Of course there are some slumlords with millions--believe it or not----so the envelopes could still be there.

From the start of the city council’s Greatly Unnecessary Smoking Debate of ‘08, the stench of small town, small time, small pond politics emanated from the usual suspects, corridors and back alleys.

You should know that I don’t doubt the sincerity of two and maybe three of the ordinance’s backers, who seem genuinely to believe that the purpose of the legislation was to protect workers.

But as much as I’d love to see a newly coherent Jeff Gahan emerge and fulfill his potential for leadership, I believe that neither he nor his current sidewardly mobile swingman, Dan Coffey, can be counted among this group of true believers, and for me, Even Deeper Throat’s testimony is the clincher.

My take is this. Stuck at 5-4, and absent a sixth veto-proof vote, the impetus of the ordinance abruptly shifted from science and health, where it was only tenuously rooted from the beginning, to a somewhat crass and ill-disguised resolve to use the mayor’s expected veto to future political advantage. Why else would John Mattingly's name be mentioned if not as an egregious anti-England slight?

Soon enough, Gahan will feel the pain when Coffey deploys his antediluvian tactics to pull one or another rug out from under the president’s feet. I’m told that both entertain notions of occupying the mayor’s office. Fortunately for New Albany, Coffey is as unqualified for the job as the flower urn that sits atop the mantel shelf.

Gahan? A huge "maybe" at this juncture. At least I used to think so. If only we knew who he is and what he stands for … and I, for one, no longer will hold my breath awaiting the press release.

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Another useful function of the smoking ordinance apart from its pseudo-crocodilian concern for the private employment decisions of adult bar staff has proven to be the exploitation of fissures in what by New Albany’s standards passes for a “progressive” movement. I know that I’ve played a part in this. In rhetorical terms, I called it like I saw it, and I take no pleasure in being proved right in privately predicting this aftereffect, hence a steamy and simmering frustration with pretty much all involved in pushing this smoking angle to the exclusion of everything else.

To be succinct: How can such miniscule political personages generate such catastrophes – and why do we permit them to do so?

All along, from the beginning of this legislative travesty, wherein a seemingly innocuous city council cadre has taken the legitimate issues of smoking and workplace safety and subordinated them to the idiocy of New Albany politics as usual – making us think it was about one thing, when of course, it was about something else entirely – I kept reminding readers that this is precisely the sort of thing that divides, not unites.

And, scandalously neglected for no other reason than an expedience – heck, those lobbyists do all the heavy lifting and we don’t even have to pay ‘em! – afforded by contracted professionals from afar, all of New Albany’s truly important issues remain, orphaned, unaddressed, and ignored, like always, so that time servers will be better positioned for their next race for office.

Sadly, it’s all symptomatic of this ridiculous, polarized society that we’ve chosen to encourage and inhabit. It’s exacerbated by the Tim Fillers of the planet, people from elsewhere with loyalty only to paychecks from still further away, and to obtain their favors for a millisecond, we see our own local small timers posturing for advantage in this wretchedly inbred political water.

Only now, after the veto, do we hear council members confide that yes, there’s much work to be done, and no, time needn’t be wasted by returning to the smoking battlefield.

No kidding? Could any of you have been bothered to grasp this point before the carnage started?

Ah, yes, but such civic foresight would have negated the sought-after political gamesmanship. Sorry, all you well meaning workplace safety advocates. Science doesn’t stand in a chance in a place like New Albany. Straight up and unalloyed, and from the legislative perspective, what we’ve just witnessed was inelegant, artless, poorly managed, badly timed, but necessary for one reason and one reason only: Serving the personal political interests of the few at the expense of the many.

That’s New Albanianism at its enduring lowest. That's Coffeyalbany. Next time, you’ll know going in.

You’ll also know more about the muddying of scrums.

Good luck … and don’t forget your flak jackets.