All politics is local

. . . which means within about three blocks, in our case.

Jimmy served on the City Commission for 14 years before three two-year terms as mayor -- and then lost in '05 by two dozen votes out of 5,400. Don't get me started on that campaign, or on the harbor-bottom muck that a vendetta-prone local rag has tried to coat him with for years.

The current mayor is an amiable nebbish, but I'd rather focus on the smiles Jimmy and Susan give me every time I'm in my beloved Fausto's, which his grandfather founded, the advice he gave me on pursuing our windows case or the bearhug he surprised me with on the day we got our Certificate of Occupancy. What other mayor will make sure your duck confit is in good supply, or dazzle you with his knife work s butterflying your pork chop?

Of course that's a lot more personal than his work on Clean-and-Green issues, rational enforcement of the historic architecture guidelines, workforce housing, hate-crimes laws, the domestic-partnership ordinance. . . .

Whatever, I sent the check today.