Paul A. Doughty, left, president of Local 799 of the International Association of Fire Fighters, joins pickets on Friday across from the Rhode Island Convention Center and the Providence Westin hotel, where the U.S. Conference of Mayors was meeting. At right, Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline on Monday discusses his latest contract offer to the Providence firefighters union.

The Providence Journal / Frieda Squires

If he doesn’t need it anymore, WPRO talk radio host John DePetro ought to lend the state his eye patch to cover up the black eye Rhode Island is receiving now that Vice President Joe Biden and other top officials have backed out of this weekend’s national mayors conference in Providence to avoid crossing a city firefighters picket line.

The schedule for the annual meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors includes a Sunday night dinner with a circus theme and a Monday night fireworks display at Roger Williams Park. But the circus and the fireworks started long before city officials began putting up Jersey barriers and asking protestors to register.

“It’s a classic example of Rhode Island shooting itself in its foot,” said Darrell M. West, a former Brown University political science professor who is now vice president and director of governance studies at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. “Most people love the idea of high administration officials coming to town.”

Oh, I’m sure we’d love it if Biden, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and Environmental Protection Agency Director Lisa P. Jackson did come to town. And who knows, maybe there will be some last-minute compromise that clears the way for them to attend. (Or perhaps President Obama will decide to have another date night and fly up for dinner at Andino’s on Federal Hill.)

But our little state has already attracted big attention, and it’s not the kind we want.

I just watched the “welcome video” on the U.S. Conference of Mayors Web site. With the city skyline behind him and a jazzy soundtrack playing, Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline touts the city’s arts scene and restaurants, saying, “We look forward to hosting your visit in Providence, the Creative Capital.” A narrator goes on to say that since the days of founder Roger Williams, “Providence has stood as a beacon of forward thinking, creativity and innovation.”

I’m sure the mayor of Chattanooga would find that video interesting. But camera crews and newspaper reporters have been capturing another narrative: that of an ugly decade-long labor dispute vaulting onto the national stage, making us a beacon of labor strife, finger-pointing and picket signs. Visiting mayors might be familiar with Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love. But let’s hear a picket-line air horn for Providence, the Pugnacious Capital.

“The picketing is a shortsighted action because it robs the state of the opportunity to get an audience with high-level officials,” West said. He noted that those types of contacts are valuable when the federal government is distributing billions of dollars that could help states such as Rhode Island, which is facing an 11.1 percent unemployment rate (fourth highest in the country).

“The state clearly is a big loser, and the firefighters don’t look very good,” West said. “It looks like they are engaging in political blackmail. It’s like they have a contract problem, but they are holding the state hostage.”

With the economy so bad and the unemployment rate so high, firefighters are not going to get much sympathy for their stance. They keep winning when they face Cicilline’s administration in labor arbitrations and court disputes. So maybe they should stick with that strategy because they are certainly not going to score a victory in the court of public opinion on the picket line. They might be out to embarrass the mayor, but they also are embarrassing themselves and the state.

Perhaps the firefighters see this as the only way to get the mayor’s attention. Well, I guess they’ve got his attention now. Cicilline and Paul A. Doughty, president of Local 799 of the International Association of Fire Fighters, met privately on Wednesday and on Thursday. But that didn’t seem to do much good.

This dispute seems to have grown far too personal and political, on all sides.

Both sides needed to turn down the volume and avoid a showdown that is benefiting no one. Instead, the firefighters began picketing on Friday. And Cicilline, who is running for reelection, began running radio advertisements saying, “I will not give in to this political extortion.” The Cicilline Committee sent out e-mail messages saying, “I am asking for your support so that I can continue to work with the unions and achieve a compromise that will ensure a sustainable and successful economic future for the city of Providence. I hope that you will show your support by making a contribution of any amount: $250, $100 or $50. Every amount helps.”

Cicilline must be tempted to put out those kinds of messages now, at a time when people are paying attention to the issue. But there’s plenty of time to run a campaign. I’d rather see both sides stop demonizing each other and find a way to get Biden to the Convention Center.

Cicilline, who lobbied to bring the annual meeting to Providence, must have seen this one coming. In September 2004, vice presidential candidate John Edwards canceled a Providence fundraiser rather than cross a firefighter picket line. And in September 2007, Cicilline resigned as Rhode Island co-chairman of the Hillary Clinton for President campaign after firefighters threatened to picket a Clinton fundraiser.

Certainly, I don’t want Cicilline to cave in to contract demands that Providence taxpayers cannot afford, especially when the city is facing big cuts in state aid. But I have to wonder if, over the past six years, the two sides could have found some way to avoid this standoff. Was it really inevitable?

Maybe the level of distrust and obstinacy is too high. Maybe Cicilline can’t afford to give in when he is facing such dire budgetary problems. Maybe the firefighters can’t afford to give in when they think they’ll lose too much by agreeing to the contract terms sought by Cicilline. The conjecture about each side’s motivation is endless.

But at the end of the day, I’m not sure there will be any heroes in this drama. I don’t know if anyone is going to walk away looking good, including the Obama administration.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs has said The International Association of Fire Fighters asked — and the administration agreed — to “respect the picket” planned by Providence Fire Fighters Local 799. Gibbs said the administration is “taking no position” in the dispute but has “always respected picket lines and administration officials will not cross this one.”

West said the administration of Republican George W. Bush probably would have crossed the picket line, and it’s no surprise that the Democratic Obama administration would not. “Democrats generally don’t cross picket lines,” he said.

Maybe not. But while the big names are staying away, why couldn’t the administration have sent along the low-ranking officials who were to be panelists in workshops and whose staffs would have manned a resource center dealing with the economic stimulus plan? For mayors, that was going to be a valuable opportunity to interact with federal officials and to learn more about the money available to help struggling cities.

Perhaps I’m just annoyed with the Obamas’ decision to jet off to New York City for a “date night” that included dinner, a Broadway show and no details on how much taxpayers will have to pay for the three aircraft that took the Obamas, aides and reporters to the Big Apple and back. I realize the Obamas did pay for the dinner and the play tickets, and I realize Bush flew Air Force One to his Texas ranch 77 times. Still, it seemed like a date night that will live in infamy — a tone-deaf message to send to a nation facing economic turmoil.

The Obamas went to see a play called Joe Turner’s Come and Gone. But if they wanted to see a really good drama, they should have come to Providence. We could call it Pickets Come, Joe Biden’s Gone.

Apparently, Mr. Obama promised the first lady that he would take her to a Broadway show after all the campaigning was over. And he was not about to back down.

It seems no one is backing down, not an inch, no matter the consequences. Not at the union hall. Not at City Hall. Not at WPRO.

The Journal’s Mike Stanton on Wednesday gave us a glimpse of the sound and fury inside the WPRO talk-radio studios. And it was a full Rhode Island drama, involving former Gov. Bruce G. Sundlun and former Providence Mayor Vincent A. “Buddy” Cianci Jr.

In short, John DePetro believed Cianci and his sidekick, Ron St. Pierre, violated an unwritten talk-show-host code by getting Sundlun to go on Cianci’s show right after he’d appeared on DePetro’s show. DePetro objected in a note to the station manager, and St. Pierre ended up hurling the crumpled note at DePetro, striking DePetro’s left eye, according to Peter Koch, of Koch Eye Associates.

Koch said DePetro suffered a corneal abrasion from a metal staple in the crumpled note, and DePetro ended up missing a day of work before returning with a black eye patch. His first guest was Cicilline, who blasted the firefighters union and, in a swipe at Cianci, criticized prior leadership for negotiating unaffordable contracts with the firefighters. Cianci countered by bringing the president of the firefighters union on his show.

“And so it goes at WPRO, where the three local weekday hosts — DePetro, Cianci and afternoon drive host Dan Yorke — have coexisted like three scorpions in a bottle,” Stanton wrote.

So are we just a pugnacious bunch here in Rhode Island? “Absolutely,” West said. “I still have scars on my back.”

efitzpat@projo.com