Play Nice, Both of You! (Update Below)

It seems that Andrew Dreschel and Hamilton mayoral canadidate Mahesh Butani have a bit of a disagreement.  And it began with a small paragraph put into Dreschel's column, to which I will defer the details to my fellow blogger, Cal DiFalco. 

So I will take this opportunity to pass some of my now famous words of wisdom to all of you about this most unfortunate situation.  I will begin by stating the obvious.  In this case, Mr. Butani's apparent attempt at getting some publicity for himself just blew up in his face.  I'm sorry, Mahesh, but that's the truth.

It is important to an aspiring politician to avoid impulsive anger at all costs.  It is important to be in control of your emotions and your words and to avoid looking like a loose cannon.  And I hate to say this Mahesh, but you did sound rather unhinged, angry and vitriolic.  All that he did was point out that you have a long way to go to be known as a credible candidate and that unless you do something, you won't have a chance.  You should have taken that as a signal that you need to get your name out, otherwise the people that matter will not know that you even exist, short of a name on the ballot.

As far as Andrew goes, I have to say that he was out of bounds on this one too.  When credible candidates do step up and put their names in for nomination, these guys should be honoured, not scoffed at.  I think the greater insult here is that Dreschel dropped credibility-challenged Michael Baldassaro's name well before he mentioned Butani's, making the mayoral race one in which the more credible candidate has to overcome the less serious candidate before he will even get credibility from the media.  It was almost as if he wasn't even in the gates when the horserace began.  What's even worse is that the incumbent mayor still has yet to submit his nomination papers. 

But the insult doesn't stop there.  Cartoonist Grame MacKay had a depiction of the mayoral race in a sparring metaphor where Eisenburger is taller than both Baldassaro and an even smaller Mahesh Butani.  A door opens and a large Larry DiIanni is entering the ring.  I will make this picture available as soon as I find it.

So yes, it is easy to see why Butani was rather angry and frustrated.  But he cannot be absolved of such a major campaigning faux-pas.  From this point on, I would suggest that Butani accept that he acted impulsively and try to take back what he said, otherwise his letter will haunt him for the rest of the campaign.  Getting on the wrong side of the media early in the campaign will not help his chances.

Update! 
Mr. Butani has responded to some of the reactions shown in the comments section of the original entry that Cal made in "The Hamiltonian."   While he has legitimate concerns with the direction that this city is taking, I don't believe that there was anything racial to what Andrew Dreschel said in that one single paragraph, unless there was something I missed.  But I do have to say it again, Mahesh.  If you haven't started doing it yet, you have to get your name out NOW!