The Pathetic Factor

If Southern Dallas African-American politics gets any sadder, Buzz may have to stop reporting on it. You may see headlines here in the weeks ahead: "News on Dallas black politics too sad to report." Today's story is about five Wellbutrins' worth of pathetic news.

The black ministerial group Clergy for Recall was up against a 5 p.m. deadline Tuesday to pony up 72,873 signatures on petitions calling an election to oust Dallas Mayor Laura Miller. Nobody thought they could do it.

They didn't.

But somehow the way they failed to do it this time was even more depressing than the previous two times they failed in recall efforts against the mayor.

At a hastily called news conference in a Southern Dallas church, the ministers said they had enough signatures to force an election. But they announced they were "standing down" in the interest of love and healing.

In fact, it's a motto now. They said it several times. "Stand down for Dallas." Buzz can't wait to see that one on billboards all over the southern sector.

Flanked by black ministers, the Reverend S.C. Nash announced in his own Mt. Tabor Baptist Church that the petitions would not be filed with Dallas' city secretary and that the recall effort was, in his word, "moot."

But Nash and the group then refused to make the petitions available for an independent audit.

In poker, this is the kind of play that gets people pulling out their pistols. First Nash and his group announced they were going to gather signatures and force a recall election. That's a big pile of chips on the table. Mayor Miller basically told them to give it their best shot.

So yesterday, in poker terms, the Reverend Nash looked up from his hand and said, "I have the cards here to take all those chips off the table. But I believe to do so would be wrong. So I am going to 'stand down.'"

And then his hand starts ooching out on that green table, moving over toward the pile of chips to rake his own bet back in his lap.

Buzz was there. Buzz asked to see his cards. He said no. There will be no audit of the signatures. When other reporters asked why he wouldn't show the signatures, Nash said, "Trust us. "

This makes three failedrecall efforts in a row. If it were poker, it would be serious. But it's Dallas City Hall, so it's just real, real sad.