Double Dipping Duffy: "The System Made Me Do It"

Last week we reported how, in a front-page story on elected officials double-dipping by collecting a public pension and a taxpayer-paid salary, the Democrat and Chronicle, like other media outlets reporting on the matter, never mentioned Rochester's most prominent beneficiary of this practice:   Mayor Duffy.

Since then, one media outlet has mustered the integerity to cover the story: Channel 10.

Hizzoner turned in a defensive, comically unpersuasive performance, basically saying, "It's the system's fault, not mine."

It illustrates at least one downside for a politician like Duffy who lives most of public life in a safe harbor of media protection.   Such politicos often don't develop the skills of effective think-on-your-feet repartee.   On the rare occasions they face actual media scrutiny and must offer an explanation, they sound every bit as lame as Duffy, trying to justify himself in the Channel 10 story.   See it below.