The Naughty Boys of the CDR

Someone's going to lose his job over at the Democrat and Chronicle.   The only surprise about the paper's story on Sunday, detailing shady and comical misbehavior by the two top executives of the "Center for Disability Rights," Bruce Darling and Chris Hilderbrant, is that it appeared at all.

There must have been a slip-up.   It was most unusual for the D&C to publish a story of political scandal perpetrated by Democrats, and a Democratic affiliated "non-profit" such as CDR, with the Republican County Executive as the victim.   More unusual still for the paper to name names, of the Democratic City administration staffers to whom the CDR boys instinctively turned for help and advice.

Whoever let the story go knew to cover himself at least a bit.   If such a potentially significant political scandal had to go on the front page, at least it took second place to the main headliner:   the cutting edge story, of overriding public importance, about ... how cool it is to ride water scooters!

Interesting that when the CDR executives wanted to smear the County administration, they turned to mayoral aid Darryl Porter to get a name of an investigator.   It would be even more interesting to know just what is the connection between Porter and the homeless con artist he recommended, who uses different names, and who fleeced the CDR honchos for nine hundred bucks.

Even more interesting why, when they got scared, the CDR execs turned immediately to Mayor-to-be Molly "I'm qualified to be Fire Commissioner because I know how to light a match" Clifford.

A rare, illuminating glimpse into the world of local Democratic officialdom.

We know better than to expect the D&C to be asking these follow-up questions.  

We expect that, after the inevitable, de rigueur editorial along the lines of "The CDR execs did a bad thing, but that doesn't mean the County shouldn't be forced to renew their contract," we're unlikely to see any follow-up to the original story pursuing these questions.   News that embarrasses their side gets the one-off treatment; news that looks bad for Republicans the D&C hammers repeatedly, daily, seeking to influence public opinion.

Even as a one-off, the story explained some things.   Including why it's not surprising that the highly compensated tricksters who would stoop to the conduct reported, wouldn't blanche at leaving a disabled person lying in her own waste for days.