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4.11.2001 00:12
Bob Kerr
The laughs will go on until they stop
They were probably destined to meet, sharing as they do a history of dangerous excess and bad-boy celebrity.
And since that July morning in 1993 when Don Imus and Buddy Cianci first connected on the radio (I sort of introduced them), they have put together an act that lives or dies on the ability to turn Cianci's dark side into a giggle.
It started with a one-liner about a fireplace log and took off from there, turning Cianci into the nationally syndicated Funny Mayor of Providence. He can make you laugh, he can make you cry.
Sometimes, it doesn't work. Sometimes, Cianci tries too hard to keep up with the brutal comic crossfire and ends up meanly unamusing.
But sometimes it does work when Cianci sticks to the same snappy patter with which he has disarmed his political opponents. It is at times such as these when he claims perhaps his most cherished credential: He held his own with "the I-Man."
Yesterday, the mayor made what he believes to be his 12th or 13th appearance on Imus's morning show, which is broadcast locally on WHJJ. But this time, it was different.
This time, Imus was called as a witness for the defense. And his show became part of the response to the 97-page federal indictment of Cianci on corruption charges.
It became part of the effort to turn Cianci from the head of a criminal enterprise in City Hall, as the indictment alleges, into the victim of a bullying, out-of-control federal legal monster.
Near the end of Cianci's rapid-fire appearance, during which he sounded as if he were trying to force 10 minutes of material into a 7-minute spot, Bernie McGuirk, Imus's on-air hit man, yelled, "Free Buddy!"
Operation Plunder Dome moves to in-your-face radio. As probably anyone with a pulse and a Rhode Island address might have predicted, Buddy Cianci's defense will go places where the average defense would not.
And, thanks to the U.S. Attorney's office, there will be at least one dazzling nugget of material to be worked and reworked by Cianci -- who never met a good one-liner he couldn't recycle a couple of dozen times.
This time, Asst. U.S. Attorney Richard Rose, lead Plunder Dome prosecutor, handed out the comic gold when he admitted this week that he had shown an undercover surveillance tape to friends at his home. It's probably not the kind of move that's going to cause any serious repercussions. But it wasn't too swift, and Cianci doesn't need much to work with.
So yesterday, in his defense, Cianci used what Rose gave him. And he used it from coast to coast with the blessings of his close-personal-friend-for-now, Don Imus.
"I guess Blockbusters was closed that night," said Cianci, of Rose's tape miscue.
A good line. We will hear it again.
Keep 'em laughing -- and maybe they'll forget about those bribes and kickbacks that have turned Providence City Hall into a municipal flea market.
It will be interesting to see how long Imus sticks with the cause
.
For while he pledged his support yesterday, he also warned that if Cianci is "yanking my chain," things will change.
That's the way it works in this tough radio union of show biz, the law, and politics. A man can be a headliner one day, and just a chunk of raw meat for the comic grinder the next.
If Buddy Cianci goes down, that rollicking team of Imus & Cianci will surely break up.
The one-liners will still fly. But they will be about Cianci, instead of by him.
Bob Kerr can be reached by
e-mail at bkerr@projo.com
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