No
lie, DiCicco's taking a polygraph
Insists
Mariano slurred Irish-Americans
By
MARK McDONALD
http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/2700345.htm
mcdonam@phillynews.com
DID CITY Councilman Rick Mariano refer to residents of Irish descent
in the 31st Ward in Kensington as "trailer-park Irish trash?"
Councilman Frank DiCicco is so sure of it, he's taking a Daily
News-sponsored lie-detector test today to prove it.
DiCicco
says Mariano made the remark during a meeting with Mayor Street,
Councilman Darrell Clarke and others.
Mariano
denies it. Clarke says he never heard the comment. A mayoral source
said Street had not heard the comment either.
Still,
DiCicco is so sure of himself that he'll be strapped to a polygraph
today. The test will be administered by Nate
Gordon of the Keystone Intelligence Network.
And
to put some heft into his assertion, DiCicco said he'll pay $5,000
to the charity of Mariano's choice if he fails the test.
But
there's even a dispute over the money because DiCicco says the
$5,000 he proposes to put up is a campaign loan his own campaign
committee made to Mariano's re-election campaign in April 1999.
DiCicco says Mariano has stiffed him on the loan.
But
campaign records for both men list the transfer as a contribution,
though DiCicco says the transfer was a loan, and his bookkeeper
listed it the way she did merely for convenience.
Shortly
after DiCicco made his challenge, Mariano said: "I'm not
getting into personal stuff with Frankie DiCicco, and if he wants
to, OK, but I'm not going down that alley. I'm not taking any
lie-detector test. It's not something I'm into. I am not being
baited into any kind of contest with him."
Yesterday,
Mariano declined to comment on the impending polygraph test or
to respond to a slashing news release from DiCicco.
Mariano's
alleged trash talk is the latest chapter in a political struggle
that has pitted the two men - once friends - in a quest for support
among Council members. Each backed a competing plan to redraw
Council district boundaries.
Mariano
complained bitterly that a plan supported by Council President
Anna Verna and DiCicco would deny him his key base in Frankford
and give it to DiCicco.
In
the end, Mariano gained support from Street, and an alternate
plan was approved by Council and signed by Street last week. After
more than four months without pay because of the redistricting
impasse, Council members got their back pay Friday.
As
the weeks passed without a political solution and the pay drought
lengthened (Street vetoed two Council redistricting bills starting
in early October), Mariano became increasingly bitter in his descriptions
of DiCicco, calling him a "little weasel" and a host
of epithets questioning DiCicco's manhood.
Finally,
almost two weeks ago, DiCicco struck back, alleging that during
a Dec. 20 meeting in Street's office aimed at searching for a
redistricting compromise, Mariano made the offensive reference.
The
group was looking at the 31st ward, one of the river wards in
Kensington, an area now represented by DiCicco.
"The
mayor was pointing to the map," DiCicco recalls, "And
saying, 'Darrell tells me that this is a bad area for him; people
would throw rocks at him.' The idea was that he is African-American
and wouldn't be accepted there."
DiCicco
said he then told the group, "Some people have said that
they don't like Italians there, but I have served them and been
accepted."
At
that point, Mariano chimed in, "That shouldn't even be an
issue. What do you have to worry about? They are nothing but trailer-park
Irish trash anyway."
DiCicco
said the mayor cringed and walked away from the table after Mariano
made his comment.
Yesterday,
in a news release,DiCicco hammered Mariano for a sampling of his
past verbal gaffes, including a comment that union members would
have supported Hitler if it meant more jobs and his description
of Councilman David Cohen as a vampire who eats children.
More
recently, DiCicco recalled that Mariano had threatened Councilman
Angel Ortiz, who opposed Mariano's redistricting proposals, saying
he would knock his teeth out and throw him out the window.
But
even if DiCicco passes the test, what does that mean? DiCicco
may truthfully believe that he heard Mariano say something, but
in fact he may have misheard Mariano.
That's
what Seamus Boyle and Bob Gessler, two officials of the Ancient
Order of Hibernians, are hoping.
They
don't want to call DiCicco a liar, but they can't believe that
Mariano, who is half Irish on his mother's side and a member of
the AOH, would have made the comment.
"I
hope it was something that maybe Councilman DiCicco didn't hear
exactly," said Gessler, who pointed out that Mariano is a
member of his Irish-Catholic organization.
Gessler
said that on the day DiCicco's allegation became public, Mariano
called him and wrote a letter strongly denying ever making such
a statement. "Who could imagine someone insulting his or
her own heritage in a meeting?" Mariano asked in his letter.
Sure,
Gessler said, Mariano has lost his temper on occasion, "but
if he's said something off-key, he admits it and apologizes."
But
what if he did make a comment about "trailer-park Irish trash?"
It's not quite the same as linking the Irish to excessive drinking.
And
within the Irish-American community there's a long-standing distinction
between the "shanty Irish" and the "lace-curtain
Irish," the poor versus the well- off, Gessler noted.
"If
he said it, definitely he shouldn't have," said Gessler.
"You don't want to categorize anyone by their ethnic heritage.
If something was said . . .we ask for an apology to the community
and a demonstrated commitment to the community. We already have
that with him. It's not like he's a stranger to the Irish community.
He's one of us." *
