Tuesday, May 8, 2012

I've Got a Secret

The Secret Service has been in the news a lot lately, and not in a good way.

I cannot think of the Secret Service without thinking of former Scranton mayor Jimmy Connors, and it has nothing to do with Colombian prostitutes.

Let me back up a moment.  I've known Jimmy Connors for thirty years.  I first encountered Connors while I was a young reporter at WARM, and he was part of the Minooka Neighborhood Association.  Connors was fighting a proposal to put power lines over a Little League baseball field.  If I remember right, he won.

Connors knows the media.  He used it effectively as Scranton's community development director, and later, as mayor.  Regardless of what you think of his administration, you can't deny Jimmy Connors is a nice guy.  He's been on the other end of some of the toughest questions I've ever asked a politician.  There was a memorable, live interview, on an election night several years ago, while I was working down the street.  My boss said it was "brutal."  One of Connors' campaign people went up one side of me and down the other.  Connors didn't care.  He answered the tough questions, and I thought he came off looking good.  He agreed.  We got along before.  We got along after.  Jimmy Connors knew how it worked, and he didn't hold it against me.  By the way, the campaign worker who ripped me a new one is now one of my friends, and Connors won the election that year.

Now, to the Secret Service.

President Bill Clinton was coming to Scranton for a visit.  Connors and the city's police chief held a media briefing in the chief's office.  It was general stuff, but that wasn't good enough for a reporter from one of the TV stations.  She's no longer in Scranton, and I really should use her name.  I won't, even though she was a horse's arse that day.  This lady was asking a million specific and annoying questions, about the Clinton visit-- every intimate detail of every second Clinton would be in the city.  Even if Connors knew the answers, he couldn't answer due to security concerns.  Jimmy Connors has a long fuse and high boiling point.  Finally, he had enough.  In a stern, but calm voice, he looked at this reporter and said "That's why they call it the SECRET service."  It worked.  She shut up, and there was much rejoicing.

By the way, no one under 50 knows the significance of today's blog title.  "I've Got a Secret" was a TV game show from 1952 to 1967, 1972 to 1973, and again during the summer of 1976.