Crafton Loses His "Shrewd" Status at Pith in the Wind

Eric Crafton backing out of Friday's locally televised English Only debate has PiTW blogger Caleb Hannan dropping ridiculous adjectives like "shrewd" to describe CM Crafton's actions. Instead, Hannan turns to CM Mike Jameson for judgment and the latter does not fail to disappoint:

When you sit down in front of a well-informed moderator and a capable opponent [David Briley] that are clearly going to discuss the minutiae of your argument, it's only natural for your blood pressure to spike," he says. "I mean, why does meat fear the meatgrinder?

Jameson speaks from experience. He ground some chuck himself back in 2006 when Crafton first swaggered into council chambers with English Only:

[Jameson] asked for a list of immigrant groups who approached Crafton asking for the very help that Crafton was offering to free them from their supposed crutches. He asked for data to show that non-English speakers were not attempting to learn English because of the bilingual policies of Metro government. He reminded us that there are long lines to get into adult English classes, but that the Metro Council had cut funding for these classes (At this point, I was on the edge of my recliner pumping my fist snarling, "You go, Mike!" I mean, after all, how can you take away something from people with one hand and not offer something else with the other?). He also asked for data to support Crafton's claim that cutting bilingual services actually helps immigrants learn English faster. Jameson not only took Crafton's argument apart block-by-block, but he schooled his fellow council members on the critical questions that they are supposed to be asking.

I have no doubt that Crafton realizes from past experience with Jameson and Briley in Metro Council that he would be in too far over his head by standing toe-to-toe with his opponents.