Ritter Speaks! (Out of Both Sides of Mouth)

Ritter

It's strange to be astonished at the news that this county's mayor actually gave an interview, but so it goes in Broward. Stacy Ritter has been refusing interviews with reporters for much of 2009, in vain hopes that she can keep her associations with con man Joel Steinger out of the news. Impossible, given the interest that New Times' Bob Norman has taken in the subject. His most recent article appeared in last week's print edition.

And perhaps Daily Pulp will have a take on Ritter's words about ethics. But in the meantime, Juice would like to pull out one quote from today's article in the Sun-Sentinel that sounds distinctly like a false note.

"I'm not the morality police and I'm not one to put myself on a soap box and say what others should do or not do," she said.

Hmmm. Now let's take a look back at a quote from Ritter's final radio show, in April, when she was talking to fellow commissioner Ken Keechl about an ethics provision being brought by Commissioner John Rodstrom.

"If there's one thing I was told when I got elected [to the state Legislature] in 1996... one of the first rules was, 'You're in politics. If you want a friend, buy a dog,'" says Ritter, admitting that she's paraphrasing Truman or someone like that. "Number two, do your best not to make your colleagues uncomfortable. [Rodstrom's] was a proposal that violated that rule."

And she wonders why reporters follow her "like a mosquito after a rainstorm" -- to borrow her metaphor. We're drawn to the scent of hypocrisy.