Briley Says Goodbye
The City Paper's John Rodgers has an account of Rep. Rob Briley's farewell address in which the outgoing lawmaker takes a shot at the local media for not ignoring his issues with alcoholism and adultery.
“The right to a free and open press, though, comes with a responsibility, and from my experience over the past year, that responsibility is not being lived up to, “Briley said from the House podium.
Yup, that's just what we need. A lecture on responsibility from this guy.
Listen, the media didn't have anything to do with Briley's personal destruction; he did it all to himself. The drunken, pathetic outbursts, the extramarital affair with a lobbyist, the flight from a rehab center to the warm, welcoming confines of a casino in Tunica—we couldn't have made that up if we wanted to. That was all Briley. We, and particularly our own Jeff Woods, just covered his fall from grace, and we didn't even include everything we knew to be true. If anything, he should be grateful for our discretion.
Despite plenty of evidence to the contrary, we at the Scene are not experts on alcoholism. But it doesn't seem like the road to recovery should include blaming everyone else for the miserable turn your life has taken. So here's our farewell message to Briley: Go away. And stay off the road.
Update: We take it all back. Rob Briley is a uniter, not a divider. He somehow managed to get both Bill Hobbs and Sean Braisted to agree on the lameness of his farewell address.
Comments
So here's our farewell message to Briley: Go away. And stay off the road.
Better copyright that before Hallmark steals it ;-)
Posted 05/20/2008 at 03:52:04 PMHey Pith, how about some more political subject matter on your blog, cause who wants to discuss anything other than politics, NOT US. Who really cares about the thousands of interesting things going on in this city, country, planet, etc?
WOODY & BURNS would be proud.
Posted 05/20/2008 at 08:37:26 PM"Despite plenty of evidence to the contrary, we at the Scene are not experts on alcoholism."
Posted 05/20/2008 at 09:33:02 PMTrue, so true.
"So here's our farewell message to Briley: Go away. And stay off the road."
Honestly, Matt. Imagine how much better your political/investigative works could be and how much deeper they could go if you showed a little professionalism. Alt-weekly or not, alt-weekly blog or not, a little maturity never hurt anyone.
Posted 05/20/2008 at 11:03:44 PMFunny, I was going to say the same about Briley.
Posted 05/21/2008 at 09:37:53 AMOh, dear. This embarrassment even made reddit.
Posted 05/21/2008 at 10:31:58 AM