The Mayor's metal campaign posters

Politicians today are making it tough on anybody in the satire trade. How do you get more over-the-top, more absurd than some of those Tea Party candidates? No, it's not easy to write wackier copy than what pops out of Christine O'Donnell when you pull her string. And, how do you get more painfully boring, yet smug to the bone, than Sen. Harry Reid?

Some of the pundits aren't helping, either. How do you go further into jowl-wobbling, puffy fits of righteous indignation than Keith Olbermann? Then there's weepy creepy Glenn Beck, who apparently answers to unseen forces, perhaps from another planet.

Oy vey!

Here in Richmond it's no different. After once having a mayor who tried to forcibly evict the city school board from City Hall, by sneak attack, we now have a sitting mayor who thinks Richmond's taxpayers should pay for his rather expensive reelection campaign signs.

City workers have been attaching rectangular metal posters with Mayor Dwight Jones' name on them to utility poles on sidewalks. The signs, which credit the mayor for certain improvements to the city's infrastructure, also display his semi-visionary slogan -- "Building a Better Richmond."

The mayor's office is actually bragging about what a good deal the taxpayers got on the signs -- just $150 each. Don't believe me?

Read "Richmond mayor's road-project signs irk councilman," at the Richmond Times-Dispatch, where you will find that the solution is to paint more incumbent politicians' names on the signs. What sort of twist would make that bogus solution to a problem any funnier?

Saying the signs cost $300? Pretending the signs aren't posters, but are roadside billboards, instead? How about saying Jones has also had his name painted onto the side of the city's police cars?

Oh yeah, that's already been done here in Richmond. Remember Sheriff Michelle Mitchell? There you go -- when reality gets weird enough, it's hard to top it for a laugh.

So, I have to play it straight, because I can't even begin to understand how Mayor Jones ever thought he could pull off such a jive-ass stunt. This campaign propaganda salvo invites anyone who plans to run against Jones in 2012 to start putting up their campaign posters now, to keep up with him, name-recognition-wise.

Will City Hall permit eager candidates to also install metal campaign posters in the public way?

Remember, too, this is the same city that has passed all sorts of laws forbidding the posting of handbills promoting rock 'n' roll shows and yard sales on utility poles.

Meanwhile, according to the RT-D, here's what Jones' office has to say:

The Jones administration has defended the signs, saying they have been produced at minimal cost and are common in other cities with an elected mayor.

Oy vey!