Elmer Smith: In Danieal nightmare, it's right to get furious, but vital to get results

0 Comments | Philadelphia Daily News, August, 2008

MICHAEL NUTTER put on one of his mayor suits and positioned himself behind a podium emblazoned with the seal of the city of Philadelphia.

He was flanked by city officials as other members of his cabinet stood close by. They all wore the same frozen expressions as the painted portraits of the former mayors who were nailed to the wall above them.

A dozen reporters sat with pens poised to record the mayor's official pronouncement.

Then he said this:

"I am fully, thoroughly and completely pissed off," he said. "I am furious."

At one point, he choked up at the thought that a child one year older than his own daughter had died of fatal indifference.

Then he turned profane.

If it had happened to his child, he said, "I would kick their ass...