Posing the handicapper but effectively sandbagging on the Mayor's next budget

If Gail Kerr didn't have a writing history of uncritically pandering to this Mayor's Office, we might be able to accept her Sunday column describing how hard it will be for Karl Dean next year as sober realism. However--after being coached to write on behalf of the Mayor's convention center (which she does not list among the budget demands today), setting the media pick-and-roll on the Metro Parks Director, and defending Dean's waffling on Riverfront development--is she doing anything but managing the expectations of the marks of the 2010 budget confidence game here? The con will likely end up taking away more services and programs from residents of Davidson County as more money flushes through the line item expenses of the convention center construction project. And Ms Kerr will have told us to expect less funding for community-oriented expenses. Of course, she tells us so. She rarely criticizes the Mayor's Office.