Can he bash it? Yes he can!

What seems now like a very long time ago (but was in fact only last Thursday) LawsWatch made mention of the burgeoning mutual admiration society between the Diva and Rangitikei Mayor Bob "The Basher" Buchanan. Bob, you'll recall, came riding to the rescue with $5,000 towards the River Queen "premiere", and LawsWatch wondered aloud how he'd choose which fortunate Rangitikei ratepayers got to walk the red carpet square - because he surely wouldn't spend their money on his own self-aggrandisement, now would he?

Bob has quite a reputation himself, so it's easy to see why he's one of the few Mayors in NZ supportive of the Diva. Here he is in the Chron apologising after an intemperature rant over bullying at a Marton school:

No wonder Mr Buchanan said yesterday the answerphone message he left for MrSinclair was couched in strong terms to impress on the reporter the need for him to get in contact with Mr Buchanan and obtain an "official" mayoral comment before the programme went to air. The comment that Marton School "has no more bullying than any other school in New Zealand" was ultimately included toward the end of the item.

But Mr Buchanan said he was "most concerned" that a comment made in what was intended as a private answerphone message was then used by Close Up in a way that indicated it was his official opinion. He said yesterday he should have been more cautious but certainly would not have made the offending comment if he had thought it would be aired publicly.

And this, from the Liberal Values site:

...The person who did this is a monster. Rangitikei Mayor Bob Buchanan knows the solution. He wants the death penalty. He even suggested that the execution need not be a humane one...

And a letter in the Chron from one Mike Smith of Marton:

No one is taking Mayor Bob Buchanan's ranting too seriousy... Earlier this year he called for the lynching of old age pensioner Mona Morriss' murderer... he was all for getting tough on some of the town's youngsters, too, after a couple of kids busted Cr Nick Eddy's nose. For days he walked the main street wearing a stetson and dark glasses. At heart I think Bob the mayor feels he's really Bob the Marshall.

With his sights firmly set on a populist programme of public floggings for the pimply youth at McDonalds who fails to follow his customers up the street collecting their discarded wrappers, it's no wonder the Diva dreams of the Basher riding shotgun up Guyton Street. But it was not always so. Here's the Diva in May 2004:

I had known of this drama for some months and, I must admit, was unsure what to make of it. Any number of organisations in New Zealand - regional councils, district councils, schools - have governance/management clashes. More often than not, it's the innocent bystander who ends up the victim. In this case, the ratepayer. It was a similar situation in Rangitikei last year. Mayor Bob Buchanan fellout with CEO Dave Christison and the final bill would have totalled over $200,000. That was a simply surreal encounter.

The Diva kindly revealed Bob the Basher's fate in a later column published in the Chron on 14 July 2003

"Wanganui, for some unknown reason, seems to be negative." Such was the explanation of Port of Wanganui Ltd director Tuffy Churton last week in launching this city’s latest attempt at one-shot salvation. According to the press report, Mr Churton was explaining why none of the Port Wanganui directors actually come from Wanganui.

Most reside in Marton. Which made me smile, given all the madness over there in recent months. Including a mayor who’s been banished to the local library. Poor old Bob Buchanan – relegated to the fiction section by some scalded civic bureaucrat – he’ll be in the kiddies corral next. So forgive me, but Rangitikei riding to our rescue has a touch of the surreal about it.

Surreal in July 2003, a godsend in November 2005. With friends like Bob...

Meanwhile, this has got Watchers wondering aloud again, this time what Wanganui Librarian Sally Patrick would think of running a sort of mayoral dog pound up there at her establishment?

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