Live here long enough, and you realize that City Councilman Frank DiCicco has long been a hearty practitioner of the politics of convenience. He’s been an ally to the casinos when it was politically advantageous to do so, for instance, and then rallied against them when it became apparent that it was not. There is absolutely nothing shocking or controversial about this; DiCicco’s an old-school city politics lifer, and he is what he is. Whether or not you believe that and other things DiCicco’s done throughout his career constitutes “corruption” is in the eye of the beholder, of course, but casino activist Jethro Heiko (pictured) definitely believes it does. And when he said so last week on YoungPhillyPolitics.com, guess which certain someone was reading? None other than Frank DiCicco himself. And on Monday morning, Heiko received this sternly worded letter from DiCicco’s attorney, demanding that Heiko “immediately publish a retraction of these false, defamatory and malicious statements in order to mitigate the damage that you have done to Councilman DiCicco, and that you apologize to him for their publication.” The letter further demanded that Heiko provide DiCicco with “any and all information you relied on in making such false and malicious assertions.” Or, if we may translate this into the parlance of grade school bullies everywhere, Take it back, say uncle, and tell me who told you this shit in the first place. DiCicco’s attorney in this matter, by the way, is his son, Christian DiCicco. Heiko’s response? He posted the letter on YPP with a whole letter detailing why he wasn’t sorry and how, by his definition, DiCicco really is corrupt, when you get down to it. It’s ballsy, for sure, and also probably not quite what the DiCicco’s were hoping for. Why? Let’s say DiCicco the Elder files suit against Heiko. The burden of proof in court would then rely on Heiko proving in court that DiCicco is, in fact, corrupt, thereby landing the man in what in essence would become a corruption trial, which is the last thing any politician in the world wants — especially one with a lonnnnnng Philly politics backstory like Frank DiCicco. If Heiko set a trap here — and we’re not saying he did — Frank DiCicco just fell face-first into it.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 17th, 2009 at 2:01 pm.