I suppose that Alex Knopp can’t envision himself in any other job but that of Mayor of Norwalk. He’s tried of course, seeking something to do professionally after losing the mayor’s office while Democratic council members went on to win big. But it really must be something deep within him that forces him to make the rounds of the Democratic Social Clubs, hoping that he can dance again with the Dems that brung him to the office in the first place. Well there’s another saying about foolishness and the second time around that seems a bit appropriate here. But you never know. I’m sure Alex can take solace that even Richard M. Nixon managed a comeback or two.
It was 1952 and Eisenhower wasn’t too pleased with having Nixon on his presidential ticket. A few rounds of political slush funds and campaign donations used for personal purposes muddied Nixon enough that it was all but a certainty that Eisenhower would do the right thing. Except that Nixon, went on national radio and television to let the nation know that his wife was an early Republican supporter of PETA or something like that. Nixon of course wanted the nation to know that some third party accounting audit cleared him, just like Arthur Anderson would one day do for Enron. But what people really remember about that speech was that Nixon was given a puppy, and he got to stay on the ticket and keep the dog. The speech would live on as the checkers speech, named after the dog. Sometimes you just need to have the right dog on board. But that wasn’t the big comeback that must be inspiring Alex Knopp. It’s more likely that after Knopp staged his version of the “you won’t have Alex Knopp to kick around anymore” he must have remembered that Nixon did come back and run for president. And we all remember where that led.
Now I’m not saying that Alex Knopp went around city hall talking to the portraits of former mayors late at night. But there’s an uncanny similarity between these two politicians in the way they worry about who is talking to who, and how they both acted like they were being persecuted or something. Those kind of sentiments often lead to bad decisions about what to do about simple things. And when you can’t make good decision about simple things, how on earth can you make good decisions about big things. And that really does explain how it came to pass that Alex Knopp lost the office of mayor in 2005. Too many people remembered the bad decisions that just led to more bad decisions. And we all know where that leads to.
Democratic Town Chair, and childhood buddy of Alex Knopp, Galen Wells wants us to believe that the past was mighty rosier than it really was. She said to Patrick Linsey of The Hour that Alex has a “vision” for Norwalk.
“Wells said. “I think now that he’s been gone for a while, people can put aside ‘Oh he was grumpy to me,’ and think of what’s best for Norwalk.”. I think that people are smart enough to remember things as they really were and see that Norwalk City Hall is a much better place now. City Hall is the people’s government and it helps to have someone as mayor who genuinely likes people. It’s not something you can just pick up out of the back pages of “Political Life For Dummies” book. After all, you can’t really teach an old dog new tricks.
