Last week, I compared Kasim Reed, a boxing fan, to Joe Frazier. I was wrong. He’s no Joe Frazier. Smokin’ Joe could take a shot.
I wrote about how Reed bobbed and weaved — à la Frazier — as reporters at a press conference peppered him with questions about his summary dismissal of Miguel Southwell, general manager of Hartsfield-Jackson Airport. It was an important matter: the head of the world’s busiest airport was suddenly and mysteriously sent packing, but Reed wasn’t disclosing why.
After his firing, Southwell hired a lawyer who specializes in whistleblower cases and then put out his version of why he was fired. Southwell said Reed saw him as too independent and that he felt pressure from mayoral minions to push through contracts that were “other than the highest-ranked bidder in the procurement process.”
Naturally, the mayor, in a strongly worded press release aimed at me, said Southwell was peddling “innuendos, empty threats and false accusations” and my story “smacks of character assassination and scurrilous imbalance.”
Reed later escalated his attack on Southwell, telling a WSB-TV reporter that if Southwell “continues this path I’m going to make public why he was fired. And he knows that not only could I have fired him, I could have pressed charges against him if I had chosen to do so. You understand me?
“The fact of the matter is this. Miguel Southwell is fortunate that I don’t destroy his career,” Reed said.
Two things: First, Southwell’s career looks kind of destroyed already. Second, Reed, too, is using innuendo against Southwell. If the airport manager was doing illegal stuff, then why did Hizzoner let him walk away unscathed?
I get it: Reed doesn’t want Southwell casting false aspersions (if they are false) about his administration. He feels he must defend himself vigorously against those who are casting them (Southwell) and those bringing them to the public (me).
But Reed is playing it both ways. On one hand, he hints — very strongly — that Southwell was doing something pretty hinky. But then he backs off saying, hey, I can’t talk because this might lead to litigation.
As a columnist, I get used to irate pols and even angry readers. God knows I sometimes scramble the English language. And it’s perfectly fair to accuse me of being misguided, having an agenda, creating fiction, whatever. I’ve heard it all.
But Reed ratcheted up the, um, conversation up a notch. The mayor's theory? I'm going after him because I'm a racist.
On Twitter, he calls me “a small, less expensive version of a Don Trump in residence for the AJC.”
Hmmm. Calling me Trump. Whatever can that mean? I have a pretty good idea. If you criticize Reed and don’t back down, then you must have a problem with a black man running the city.
He uses race from time to time, as do some other black pols, when criticized. And why not? It often works and causes critics to back off or self-censor.
Reed, in his written statement, said: “Mr. Torpy also goes out of his way to smear former Mayor Maynard Jackson, raise the name of Bill Campbell, and associate me with every negative stereotype in the dog whistle handbook. Angry? Check. Arrogant? Check. Well-dressed? Check. Criminal? Check.”
Actually, I wrote that Reed wants to keep his legacy intact as his term comes to an end and he doesn’t want any scandal happening at the airport as occurred during Jackson’s last term in office. Campbell, of course, was actually convicted.
Arrogant? I have never called him that in the 21 articles where he contends (he counts them!) I have besmirched him.
Angry? I’ve used that term just once in connection to him. He was.
Well-dressed? I did make a crack about wingtips, although I once made a similar observation about the late Speaker Tom Murphy (who was a very white fellow).
Criminal? Never said anything like that.
Mr. Mayor, you didn’t include the terms “thin-skinned” or “bully.” I never said those about you, but I will now. You are almost Trumpian in both regards.
I have spoken with numerous city workers over the years with complaints about your bullying manner. Police officers. Firefighters. Even those who sit near you. They would never come out and say that publicly because no one wants their career destroyed, as you say you can do.
Fortunately, my career is not beholden to you, although you have reached out to my bosses in trying to shut me up.
I get it. You run a big city and you’ve accomplished many positive things. But butts must be kicked sometimes, and your wingtips seem to have built-in butt-seeking capabilities. Even so, people working for you shouldn’t have to tiptoe around in fear.
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