Within hours of yesterday’s Vince Fumo sentencing, Mayor Michael Nutter issued a terse statement on the matter. And it was one of those quick shots that kind of told us more about the Mayor than it did about the sentencing, or the widespread effort now going on to find any logic behind it:

“In light of other cases like this, it’s difficult to look at the verdict and fully understand the rationale behind the length of the sentence and designated restitution amounts.”

There was a second sentence in the statement — designed to re-iterate Nutter’s “tough on crime” meme — but it was fully overwhelmed by the raw bitterness being expressed through Nutter’s clenched teeth. And it might tell us a lot about what Nutter could never get — and for that matter, the Inquirer, which Judge Buckwalter blasted in his decision for basically having too sensational and too self-righteous a hard-on for Fumo from the outset — about characters like Fumo, who’ve been part and parcel of Philadelphia politics for decades at least. What the often self-righteous and wonkish Nutter and the Inky could never quite get — and yes, we’re very much lumping them in together here — is why people sympathized with the likes of Fumo, who bilked charities, corporate interests and his constituents. But here’s the thing: If you don’t understand that, you don’t really understand anything about the allure of the lawless, especially here in Philadelphia. Which, for better or worse, is part of our civic character. Does that make Fumo any less guilty? Oh, hell no. But does it tell us why the ages of patronage and the conditions that created them might not ever be fully stamped out in this City? It may begin to. At the end of the day — and Fumo would probably appreciate this — it might all just be a matter of style.

[Image via, with apologies, Philadelphia Theater Company's City Of Nutterly Love]

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 15th, 2009 at 10:32 am.