One spring day when I was in 4th grade we found a bee hive hanging from a tree in the school yard. It was about 4 times the size of a football. The girls ran a safe distance, while the boys sat around and thought what to do. There was strong support for  throwing rocks at it to see what happens, but as we were gathering some up a boy named Tony decided to walk up and poke the hive with a stick several times. The bees noticed, flew down, chased him, caught him and stung him several dozen times, including once in the eye.

This story came to mind when a friend forwarded me an email sent out by the labor council attacking incoming 5th District Councilman Carl DeMaio, and sending readers off to a website which also savages him. I can't figure out what these people are thinking. First, the election is over and DeMaio won, resoundingly. Love him or hate him he is going to be voting at City Hall. Second, it's pretty clear DeMaio has a boatfull of energy: why draw his attention with what, frankly, is fairly petty. From my view - and I'm no expert - it's just bad politics. Third, why would the labor council, or whoever is paying for this because it wasn't clear, embarrase themselves with this kind of childish behavior?

Now for the gossip: I'm no labor insider but after sending a few emails around today after I was forwarded the 'dirty demaio' email I guess there is a disagreement within the labor camp on how to handle DeMaio, with the labor council's Lorena Gonzalez favoring constructive engagement (my words!) and incoming Fire Union President Frank DeClerque favoring the kind of antics we saw today.