I’m not sure Mayor Lenny Curry can help himself.
It wasn’t that long ago in another life, when Curry was the leader of the Florida Republican Party, that he wrote an opinion piece that was published in The Florida Times-Union in which he called for an end to the nastiness that permeated political debate.
Within a few days, he was back hurling verbal bombs at Democrats.
That streak of meanness reemerged Thursday evening during former Mayor Jake Godbold’s annual holiday quail dinner, an event that attracts hundreds of politically connected people spanning decades of Jacksonville’s history.
In his pre-dinner remarks, Godbold set a high tone, describing how everyone there — Christians, Jews, blacks, whites — were connected, and he gave thanks for such enduring friendships.
Given a chance to speak, Curry used part of his remarks to call out his critics, especially those in the media. So much for the holiday spirit.
Curry has a tendency to mimic locker-room style exhortations from a football coach.
You half expect to hear slogans such as “look sharp, be sharp” or “second place is for the first loser.”
At Thursday’s gathering, he talked excitedly about his philosophy of crashing “through walls” to fulfill his agenda.
Not everyone agrees with that agenda. That’s why we have elections.
In a term Curry will understand, in a couple of weeks “game on.”