Erik Cole hard-pressed to live this one down

During a December interview CM Erik Cole bit on a leading and frankly ridiculous question posed by WPLN reporter Daniel Potter regarding council members listening to constituents. Rather than answering diplomatically, CM Cole responded like a bush leaguer would comparing the convention center vote to decisions to go into World War II and desegregating Nashville's lunch counters.

CM Jamie Hollin brought up this foolish comparison in a letter expressing his intention to vote against the convention center financing plan to his constituents:

This is not comparable to the Civil Rights Act as others have indicated in the media--far from it in fact. This example has been given as justification for voting against the will of the constituents. Most notable in this comparison is that passage of the Civil Rights Act was long overdue, while this project can arguably wait.

I might be able to let CM Cole's boner go if he expressed any remorse about the comparison. Instead, his only response in the media has been regret that he expressed his thoughts to us lunkheads who fail to grasp his "caveats." Well, CM Hollin is pretty clear about a significant difference between a convention vote and the monumental, historical decisions facing a nation in crisis. I only wish a number of CMs would stand up to Mr. Cole and respond to his strained analogies as CM Hollin did.