I realize it’s been a week, but I’m still trying to figure out why The Tennessean endorsed Ronnie Steine for Council-At-Large. Here’s the full endorsement:

Steine, 51, is a former vice mayor and at-large member of the council. Steine had to resign as vice mayor in 2002 due to a shoplifting arrest, an act of poor judgment that remains perplexing to many Nashvillians familiar with his years of otherwise honorable service. Steine has had to work to win back the public’s trust. The opinion here is that he has paid his price and is due new consideration for office. Steine has long been involved in programs dealing with young people and says his priorities will be in addressing the needs of young people through public education and after-school activities. Steine has a long record of community involvement and public service and would be an important addition to the council. In the interest of disclosure, this newspaper notes Steine’s engagement to The Tennessean’s celebrity columnist, Beverly Keel.

Let’s take this apart:

Steine, 51, is a former vice mayor and at-large member of the council.

Fair enough.

Steine had to resign as vice mayor in 2002 due to a shoplifting arrest, an act of poor judgment that remains perplexing to many Nashvillians familiar with his years of otherwise honorable service.

Isn’t it more than a little troubling that, after five years, it “remains perplexing”? Doesn’t that indicate that whatever problem Steine seems to have, it has not been dealt with adequately?

Steine has had to work to win back the public’s trust. The opinion here is that he has paid his price and is due new consideration for office.

I agree with the first sentence. I am stumped by the second. What price has he paid? He resigned his office, true, and then did–what exactly? Nothing as far as I can tell. The guy’s independently wealthy with family money, soit’s not like he was living some hand-to-mouth existence in exile. He talks a lot about redemption, but he seems to operate under the assumption that redemption is something you have a natural right to, rather than something you have to earn. And while we’re talking about re-earning trust, how on earth did Steine earn back The Tennessean’s trust? What am I talking about? Well, this:

Steine’s swift and sudden departure was the dramatic last act in a play that only began last Friday. Then, Steine admitted to a shoplifting charge on Dec. 22 of last year. To his credit, he had walked into the offices of The Tennessean to tell all. The problem was, he didn’t.

“Have you ever shoplifted before?” the newspaper asked. He replied, “No.” He was also asked, “Have you ever been arrested or charged before?” He replied, “No,” going on to say that parking and speeding tickets were all he had ever “encountered.” (He has four outstanding parking tickets totaling $81, but no other outstanding tickets or citations.) As television news programs and The Tennessean would later report, however, Steine had another shoplifting arrest, this one in the mid- to late 1980s. This did nothing to impress District Attorney General Torry Johnson, who said that had he known about Steine’s first arrest, he would not have treated Steine’s 2001 infraction so lightly. (Steine was treated as a first-time offender for the second arrest, which meant he attended a counseling class and his record was expunged. Strangely, Johnson says he cannot find any records of Steine’s first arrest.)

Full article here.

Steine has long been involved in programs dealing with young people and says his priorities will be in addressing the needs of young people through public education and after-school activities. Steine has a long record of community involvement and public service and would be an important addition to the council.

Nice enough, but you’ve already lost me by the time I got to this, since the threshold issues went unresolved.

In the interest of disclosure, this newspaper notes Steine’s engagement to The Tennessean’s celebrity columnist, Beverly Keel.

Don’t care about this one way or the other, but thanks for the ethical concerns.

Anyway, I just don’t get it. I carry no brief for any CAL candidate, by the way. I’m just making an observation. If you have a different opinion, please share.

(And, yes, by the way, I do think this is kind of funny.)