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Lou Barletta of Hazleton is truly the Maytag Repair Mayor.
He sits in Luzerne County’s Lost City of Hazleton. It is so far from the county seat of Wilkes-Barre that it requires its own weather forecast.
Mayor Lou tries. He writes invitations to the presidential candidates, asking them to consider Hazleton for a photo op during a Pennsylvania campaign that has featured bad bowling and cow petting.
What does he get for his troubles? Well, a few weeks ago, he got a “thanks, but no thanks” from Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee. That looked like Lou’s best chance, since he is one of the several professed Republicans in Luzerne County. He’s a lonely elephant in a city on a hill. Hey, maybe that allusion would have attracted the Gipper, but not Sen. McCain. He prefers to visit Iraq, his old school and the gals from “The View.”
Imagine our surprise yesterday when Mayor Barletta, who is running for congress in the 11th congressional district, announced a contingent from the Clinton campaign was set to visit Hazleton. Yes, the release was entitled, “Sen. Clinton’s economic team requests meeting with Lou Barletta.” Many were taken aback by the gesture by bi-partisan cooperation. But, in a state where every vote counts and Sen. Clinton needs every vote, we wrapped our minds around it and waited for the outcome.
It was a date! The Clinton people even requested that Mayor Lou should order up some cuisine for his visitors. He did, buying them some hometown pizza pies.
The stage was set. The pies were hot. Then, the phone call came while the Clinton contingent was en route: The date was off. The Clinton reps offered little reason for their change of heart, but people have their suspicions.
I talked to Mayor Lou on WILK today and he was a little disappointed in the abrupt peel-off by the Clinton camp. He wanted to tell them about the new businesses in Hazleton and the energy-efficient development that garnered kudos for the city. He wanted some pals to help him eat $20 worth of pizza, too.
“I’m not running against Hillary Clinton,” Lou sighed.
No, but Lou is running against Congressman Paul Kanjorski, a 24-year veteran of the federal government. Did Congressman Kanjorski, sensing a nightmare of photo opportunity, put the skids on the Clinton caravan?
No one knows for sure. But, it does seem odd that the Clinton campaign would reach out to Lou Barletta, call The Hazleton Standard-Speaker for coverage, request lunch, get on the road toward Hazleton, and then abruptly end the relationship with Lou before “hello.”
Thus, another wonderful relationship ends just because Hazleton is too darn far.
Let’s hope the race between Mayor Lou and Congressman Paul is much closer.
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Rush Limbaugh
