Thursday, October 16, 2008

Manny Aragon Sings and a Bereft City Weeps

While Aragon and his legal team had little to say after the hearing, attorney Ray Twohig told Parker in court that he believed the agreement was in his client's best interest. He cited, among other things, the strength of the government's case.
--from "Devastating End" by Scott Sandlin and Mike Gallagher, Albuquerque Journal, 10/16/08
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Manny, say it isn't so!

In these wintry economic times, and with an overly long election nearing an end, we 'Burqueans will be in desperate need of a new cynically comic diversion from our empty 401Ks, lost jobs and realization that Barack Obama will not simply wave a magic wand solving all our problems instantaneously. And Manny, your trial was going to be that diversion...and now....nothing.

And all just because of some frivolous facts like you were quite obviously guilty as Hell, and just about every other defendant had flipped to testify against you. So what? Like some great new Broadway show canceled at the last minute because the play sucked, we the clamoring public are left empty, catharsis-less, deprived of schadenfreude.

We wail as if characters in a Wagnerian opera. We bemoan like Brunnhilde in Gotterdammerung (and yes, I'm too lazy to find umlauts this morning).

In fact, this sad denial of the new reality show "Manny Being Manny in Handcuffs Being Frogmarched to the Pen" leaves me bitter. Bitter, now that I think about it, in the same way the citizens of Evita Peron's Argentina were, according to famed historian Andrew Lloyd Webber, bitter that Evita was leaving her small-town roots behind to become an international political sensation.

And yes, I can now imagine Manny on that balcony in Buenos Aires, with his best girl by his side...and he sings, sings, sings (no, not that "Lumberjack" song, this song):



Don't Cry For Me Albuquerque
It's not like you knew I wasn't guilty
All through my wild days
Ruining South Valley
I was your bagman
And kept your money.

(and then some completely unmemorable lyrics that we just put up with until the rousing final chorus)

Don't Cry For Me Albuquerque
The truth is I'll never leave you
There'll be this courthouse
At 4th and Lomas
That you can spit on
And curse my name for.



And the curtain would fall, and the roses would hit the stage/balcony/squad car taking Manny away, and we would hum the rousing final number as we opened our worthless 401K quarterly statements and headed to the Unemployment Office.


THE END


P.S.: No, I know, not nearly cathartic enough. The bastard even deprives us this satisfaction. Hasta, Generalissimo Pequeño Aragon. Ciao, little general.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ode to a weiner. Fine job Scott! I really enjoy this blog.

Anonymous said...

Evita has always been one of my favorites! Now you've made it even better, and a hell of a lot more personal. Well done sir!

Unknown said...

Manny and his entertaining diversions are, well, entertaining. I was shocked as the events unfolded. Manny was one of the first politicians in my consciousness as I grew up.

Anonymous said...

Manny is a bacon eating pig. Too bad he wasn't convicted of something 20 years ago. He's always been dirty.

Anonymous said...

What a wonderful day that was for all of us who saw the Manny "General" Aragon reginm come tumbling down.Manny and his list of cronies are many one by one all of you are going down. Lets not forget the lilttle Senetor from the South Valley who was his little pet. Who screwed him with her vote,then pretented that noting happen. She is part of this scam why is she not being investigatied. Remember Manny when your in prison, and someone wants to stick it up your ass...like you stuck it to us for many years.enjoy you deserve it.....

Anonymous said...

How can Manny Aragon get his reward for being a crooked politician and his protege and possibly the mother of his love child, Senator Linda Lopez not get whats coming to her?
How is it that based on her false testimony, many have profited and many have suffered. And now shes in law school! Isn't there some kind of ethics commitee or brave journalist who can do a Linda Lopez expose`. We can only pray.