Mayoral Race Gets Testy, Profane

Pundits and voters have long since stopped bemoaning the increasing lack of civility in politics. When the vice president growls the f-word on the floor of Congress most people just shrug. But the race for mayor in San Diego might be hitting new lows, or highs, depending on your sense of humor. The controversy, fed by blogs of course, is also over the use of the dreaded f-word, but the twist in this case is how much the offender is owning the invective.

After Mayor Jerry Sanders debated Steve Francis, the challenger went to shake his opponent's hand. The mayor refused the handshake and muttered "F*** you, Steve." When the insult came to light there were outraged calls for Sanders to step down, or at the very least, apologize. But not only is the mayor not saying he's sorry, or even deflecting, he's standing by his actions. Basically Sanders is saying Francis had it coming.

Sanders says there wasn't one incident that made him snap, but instead he says it was the overall theme of Francis' non-stop TV ads.

"You know, my character and my integrity... I've served this community for over 35 years and I'm not going to allow someone to just impugn my integrity every single night without responding," Sanders said.

Francis declined our request for an on camera interview, but his campaign manager wrote:

"At a time when our city is facing a budget crisis and a $1 billion pension debt, we expect our leaders to take a serious approach to issues. Instead, the mayor can't display the common courtesy of a simple handshake, and instead makes a mean-spirited remark and walks away."

Not surprisingly there's already a blog devoted entirely to the FU fiasco and, yes, they're selling t-shirts.