"Laws? The Riviera Beach mayor doesn't need laws."

August 16, 2006 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

by Steven Geoffrey Gieseler

So says Bob Norman in the New Times Broward-Palm Beach.  He's right, and from the article it seems the first guy to agree with him would be Mayor Michael Brown himself.

Baseball fans likely are familiar with the phrase "That's Manny being Manny," referring to Boston All-Star Manny Ramirez.  In short, Ramirez does so many outlandish things on and off the field that fans and journalists have given up trying to criticize him.  He does something like take the field wearing an iPod, and people just shrug and say "That's Manny being Manny."  In a way, he's done so many crazy things, set the bar so high, that nothing is much of a surprise, and nobody has the energy to keep dealing with it.  He's almost built up an immunity by continually authoring bizarre acts.

Something along those lines, I think, is happening with this guy in Riviera Beach.  Break one law as mayor and it's a big deal.  But break them pretty much every day–and flaunt them arrogantly in the process–and it just becomes the status quo.  The crookedness gets priced into the market, so to speak. 

That's Michael Brown being Michael Brown.