So, Rob Ford.

I started writing this a week ago, not long after the whole "the mayor may or may not have been seen in a video smoking crack with known-shady people" thing broke. But I held off thinking that, jeez, when this smoothes over, maybe I'll take another crack (hah!) at it.

Because this is apparently never going to smooth-over, though, I figured I might as well throw my opinions around while the maelstrom is still whirling.

Bullet-points seem appropriate here.

• The mayor might have a crack problem.
• His family has a history of substance-abuse problems (see his sister's unfortunate case).
• He's too stubborn to resign.
• He absolutely knows that things are going badly, but he can't ever admit to the public that he's rattled.
• There's no way he's getting re-elected, but I wouldn't be surprised if he ran. Not at all.

If he'd come out after this video surfaced and said, "Look, this video is false, that's not me, but I do have alcohol and drug issues, I need a while to get myself clean," took a leave of absence and let Doug Holyday run the city for a while... y'know, I might've respected the guy a little. I'd have been proud that he admitted having a problem -- which has been no secret around here for years -- and he's gotta look after his health.

But that's not what he did. He's been trumpeting the "it's business as usual around here" line all week, in an uncharacteristic bout of availability to reporters (although for trivial things; he won't take questions about this controversy at all). It's a good thing we have a weak-mayor system around here; all he can do is be one vote on Council and stack his Executive Committee (who are all turning against him anyway these days, even hard-liners like Jaye Robinson and Dennzil Minnan-Wong). Hell, even my own Councillor, the former PC MPP John Parker, sent a Ford cartoon out in an email to constituents today (falling on Stephen Harper and Mike Duffy).

The sad thing is that a lot of Torontonians voted for this guy, even though at the time of the election in late 2010 he'd already had a very public track record of being an asshole and someone who couldn't hold his booze. Smitherman was gay, though, right?