A recent push by a power broker to make Mayor Funky a superdelegate is driving the Democrats in Kansas City nuts!!!

After a year in office, the vast majority of Kansas City Democrats still haven't warmed up to Mayor Funkhouser.

Even worse, one of the main Democrat contributors in this town WHO ACTUALLY SUPPORTS MAYOR FUNKY is pushing for the guy to become a Superdelegate.

Naive or ignorant folks in Kansas City would like to think local politics is about principle or public service . . . Sadly, that's just not that case, it's about cash and MR. PEANUT RUNS KANSAS CITY POLITICS WITH HIS BIG ASS BANKROLL.

What Mr. Peanut wants, he gets . . . Mr. Peanut didn't like Clay Chastain's light rail plan and it was quickly off the ballot. Mr. Peanut and his deep pockets control the purse strings not only for the Funky Bunch but also for a great many Democrat politicos in Kansas City.

And unfortunately Mr. Peanut believes that a bigger role for Kansas City's Mayor in national politics would be a good idea.

This is a tense situation because local Dems don't want to piss off their most powerful patron but they also have some major problems with Kansas City being represented by a guy with absolutely NO CLOUT IN THE DEMOCRAT PARTY.



There are a litany of reasons why local Dems don't like Mayor Funky, here are just a few:

In keeping with the theme of this post, one of the Mayor's best buddies presumably supports George Bush and waterboarding . . . While I don't know if Ed Wolf is a Republican (he is) I've often compared him to Mr. Monopoly with the 250k he is pulling down from City Hall. And the Republican tendencies of Mr. Monopoly as Mayor Funky's Chief of Staff doesn't really speak well of Funkhouser's party loyalty.

Kansas City's Mayor is elected in a nonpartisan election. Funkhouser has called himself a liberal Democrat but just like his record of community service, there is absolutely no evidence that he has ever supported the local Democrat party. In fact, his first act as Mayor was to label a lot of prominent local Dems as "evil."

In the opening rounds of the budget crisis/discussions Mayor Funky has battled with typical Democrat strongholds. He is working against Unions and wants to slash City jobs, at the worker, not management level. The talk of budget cuts has been exceptionally cruel coming from Mayor Funky's camp where programs fighting poverty and crime are concerned and there is word that he is doing his best to cut the small funding the city provides for indigent healthcare - An issue he sidestepped during the campaign.

The Mayor's support not only comes from the largely conservative (and white) Northland but also from a Republican right wing contingent from the neighboring suburbs. He's a regular guest on a reactionary, Republican talk show every Friday and in begging for support for his regional light rail plan he overlooked Democrat representatives in Kansas and instead cozied up to Republicans who in turn, predictably, left him hanging out to dry.

Last but not least, Mayor Funky's Administration is still crippled by horrible relations with Kansas City's minority voters - These citizens are the key to Kansas City's Democrat stronghold and the Donkeys wouldn't dare alienate this contingent en masse.

And for those of us keeping track Mayor Funky's stance on the secretive push to become a Superdelegate on behalf of his boss mentor have been coy and unprofessional.

Obama is now in the lead and looks to have the nomination in his grasp yet Mayor Funky has refused to offer an endorsement despite Kansas City's overwhelming support of the guy.

Once again Mayor Funkhouser has proven that he's out of touch with his constituents.

The rumblings in the local Democrat party are far too significant to let their benefactor have his way. Put simply, once again Mayor Funky can't form a consensus even among people who are supposedly in his own party!!!

Hopefully, Mr. Peanut will take his gigantic bankroll and find and another pony to back because Mayor Funky has alienated far too many local Democrats to get the nod and his failure to win the role as a superdelegate (which should have a slam dunk) is simply the latest sign that Kansas City's Mayor is essentially powerless and has squandered every bit of his minuscule political capital.