Michael Nutter: The Candidate Who Will Send An Old Man To The Circus If It Will Help Pass A Bill

Political dealmaking in Philadelphia is kind of strange. But I didn’t really know it was this strange. From Jason Fagone’s excellent article about Michael Nutter in Phillymag:

So in 1997 and 1998, over the “furious” objections of Street, Nutter wrote a new set of same-sex bills and helped push them through a process so contentious that at one point, the bills’ allies sent an enfeebled Thacher Longstreth to the Spectrum for the entire day just to keep him away from Street. (Longstreth sat in the cheap seats, watching the Ringling Bros. circus.) The bills eventually passed after a marathon Council session that Nutter calls “one of the biggest public showdowns in recent history.”

Well, I’m glad they passed the bill, but it’s pretty cruel to make someone — especially a feeble old man — watch a circus. And they didn’t even spring for good seats!

Michael Nutter’s Dilemma [Phillymag]