I don’t know, I’ve been wailing and gnashing my teeth about the Byron Matthews nomination for a while now on the Newburyort Political Blog, so it feels kind of odd to be reading about the wailing and gnashing of teeth about the nomination in various periodicals. Lag time if you will.

The odd or nice thing about blogging is its immediacy. There’s no waiting 5 days to get your Letter to the Editor into the paper, only to have things evolve so fast that the letter could be irrelevant. You can comment on events in “real time” so to speak on a blog.

So I’m ready to move on to the next thing. I was glad to read in the Newburyport Current, March 31, 2006, that, “The challenge, he (Moak) said, is to find someone ‘ that has fortitude to make things happen and who’s not controversial.’ ” Whew.

In the same article John Moak says that the “two candidates who he considered along with Matthews are still in the running, although he said they are probably too busy to take on a time-consuming position on the NRA.”

The two “other” names that I have heard floating around, no fact checking here, were Norbert Carey and Jack Pramberg, definitely two controversial figures. And if there could be any truth in them, in the floating around part, those two nominees could cause almost, but not quite as much upheaval within the community.

The other name I hear floating about is that of John Norris. I would consider John Norris to be one of the “wise men.” Mr. Norris has his ego in check or at least is more than capable of checking it at the door. I would consider John Norris to be fair and balanced and I would think he would have a real shot at being appointed. In fact I think many of the Newburyport City Councilors would breath a sigh of relief if Mr. Norris’ name were proposed.

The caveat on this possibility is that being a “wise man,” I’m sure John Norris knows that this is the appointment from hell. I imagine that Mr. Norris would be quite aware and have the humility to realize that no one would be capable of filling Mary Lou Supple’s shoes. And that with all the contention about Mayor John Moak’s position on paving the entire waterfront, and the people’s very contentious disagreement with this, that he would be between a “rock and a hard place” so to speak.

I am also quite sure that John Norris would realize that the refusal of Byron Matthews’ nomination on the first reading is highly unusual, and that a great deal of thought and sleepless nights were part of that vote.

I’m sorry to put John Norris on the spot here. I can imagine that being a man who clearly does not want the limelight that he would not be pleased with me at all. But of all the names floating about, John Norris’ certainly makes the most sense to me.

I am also glad that Mayor Moak is not going to resubmit Byron Matthews’ name to the Newburyport City Council. All mayors are on steep learning curves and this mighty mess certainly has been quite a climber for Mr. Moak.

Mary Eaton, Newburyport