In an effort to explain a political flip-flop wherein he first opposed a citizen vote on a massive, expensive, and unwanted commercial intrusion into a billion-dollar, taxpayer-funded nature preserve before he supported citizen input (only after it was clear it wouldn’t have council majority support anyway, I might add), Scottsdale’s embattled incumbent mayor, Jim “Shady” Lane compared himself to Albert Einstein:
Admittedly it is an evolving stance [emphasis added], but as Einstein once famously said
“The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.”
Lane certainly needs to do some evolving. But if his position is changing, how can it be a “stance?”
If you read ScottsdaleCitizen or its companion ScottsdaleTrails on a regular basis, you already know that I’m a big fan of great quotes. However, this one didn’t sound quite right to me, so I looked it up. Bingo.
It’s a clever quote for a situation that really has no defense. Unfortunately, for Lane, the quote also happens to be as fake as he is. And it’s clear to even the most uninvolved voter that Lane’s “evolving stance” is nothing but pre-election waffling.
I would suggest Shady Lane adopt a real quote from a different famous person:
Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them… well, I have others.
2 Comments
I too am a ‘fan’ of quotes and proverbs.
Interesting what can be garnered from great minds and wits.
On the other hand, the most recent lightweight attempt, by
the literary challenged Chief Executive of Scottsdale
illustrates what many have known all along,
e.g. that Lane is a poseur and this embarrassment simply illustrates why he should retire gracefully after his ‘fifteen minutes of fame.’ (Warhol).
Hi Steve,
It was actually me that sent out this misidentified quote. I did it over my own name and the Mayor had nothing to do with it. So I guess I am the embarrassment and poseur. I wish John would take this post down, but I guess it’s too fun to make fun of people even if it’s not a fair criticism.