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THE TACOMIC
Tacoma Inaction Figure: Spiro Manthou
For Pierce County Treasurer/Assessor
posted Mar 20, 2012
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BEHOLD my latest creation: The TACOMA INACTION FIGURE! --Completely inert Spiro Manthou is not to be mistaken for a Nonviolent Action Figure. Comrades, you might have seen this coming. Term-limited public servants oozing their way to the afterglow of the glorious "Dear Leader" Dale Wahsam's vulnerable Pierce County Treasurer/Assessor's hemorrhoid donut pillow seat cushion. The citizens have grown cynical, but what else can they do? Even so, I felt a holy calling to draw this tacomic after Good Ol' Spiro put a shout-out to your humble unreliable narrator during the Goodbye-Spiro-Manthou city council speech. He said something about getting into gadfly lobbying with RR Anderson and John Hathaway or something. Anyway it was sweet. Think I've only drawn Spiro once before. Couldn't just leave it at that. Other sharks can taste the blood in the water too. Mike Lonergan and Tim Farrell are both going to make a go of it. Somebody was telling me the Treasurers job is pretty awesome. You can get paid to do nothing pretty much, the full-time staff pretty much run the place. I see Spiro being a good fit in that environment.
The old spider sense is alerting me not to vote for anyone into higher office who let this creature dig us into a 32 million dollar hole but what do I know? I'm just your friendly neighborhood hyper-local political cartoonist.
EDITORIAL NOTE: this is the first tacomic topic to be pulled out of the idea fez, a rainy-day reserve fund of tacomic topics written on slips of paper selected at whimsy, vetted on facebook.
Also who reads this? Seriously.
 by Erik on 3/20/2012 @ 1:53am | Spiro was not one to pontificate much on Tuesday night. However, he led more than one would think.Going through the Urbanist archive, Spiro had some great votes. He was a leader in trying to get the Winthrop Hotel renovated when the council was split between hand wringers and people (including Baarsma) who tried to renovate the building. When the council balked about starting the Broadway LID, Manthou was one of the councilmembers who got it back on track again greatly improving the look of much of downtown.Project after project, he get unstuck when it got bogged down in political goo. If it were not for Manthou, Tacoma would look much, much more like 1979 than it does now:www.cysewski.com/seattleweb/tacoma/ |
 by fredo on 3/20/2012 @ 4:45am | Your instincts are spot on RR. He was my district councilman. I see little to show for all his years on the council except a completely out of control government mired in red ink. Probably a nice guy but hardly a great councilman. |
 by L.S.Erhardt on 3/20/2012 @ 6:30am | Eh. |
 by cisserosmiley on 3/20/2012 @ 7:18am | Spir0 is inactive, but I am glad he gets his healthcare paid for while others have none...if only our leaders had fairness for citizens as a goal instead of a pretty broadway street. Goofy. |
by fredo on 3/20/2012 @ 7:52am |
Hard to blame Spiro for his slothfulness. He comes by it naturally. Look the country of Greece. Everybody sits around all day and enjoys like 600 paid holidays a year |
 by InvaderPet on 3/20/2012 @ 8:12am | What rolls down stairs, alone or in pairs,Goes over your neighbor's dog?What's great for a snack, and fits on your back?It's LOG LOG LOG! It's LO-OG! LO-OG!It's big, it's heavy, it's wood!It's LO-OG! LO-OG! It's better, than bad, IT'S GOOD! Everyone wants a log! You're gonna love a log!Come on and get your log! Everyone needs a log! La-la-la-log! Log! Log! LOG, FROM BLAMO!!!! |
 by NineInchNachos on 3/20/2012 @ 8:26am | Thanks Erik ! Guess I shouldn't be too hard on the dude. |
by fredo on 3/20/2012 @ 8:46am | Nope, you had it right the first time RR. Every time there was an opportunity to overspend the city budget and put the city behind the financial 8ball Spiro voted yes. He was there for the city unions when the council voted to pay city workers at the 70th percentile compared to other similar cities, and he was there for Clear Channel when they wanted to place digital billboards around. The "work" he did on the Winthrop and the Broadway LID will never undue the damage he helped create by passing the wage and comp payroll arrangement and by passing the Clear Channel settlement agreement. |
 by Mofo from the Hood on 3/20/2012 @ 9:13am |
Oh brother. This morning I feel like the way you make art. |
by NineInchNachos on 3/20/2012 @ 10:28am | Ah ART! Last week to see the Tacomic+amocaT art show! Get thee to the Amocat! Buy Tacomics help support the cafe and i'll have to pack out less art! |
by cisserosmiley on 3/20/2012 @ 10:34am | If only a council 'member' would ever choose altruistic community benefit. This is way deeper than supporting the Winthrop...or cheerleading pipedreams. This would mean political suicide for who tries it, but the reward would be a better Tacoma. Will any politician sacrifice his/her career for the people? I doubt it. I can hope. Spiro simply proved he stayed for 8 years, a rare accomplishment. |
by NineInchNachos on 3/20/2012 @ 10:50am | Spiro is a survivor. Even when his heart tried to die with dignity, Spiro came back. Cursed term limits! |
by NineInchNachos on 3/20/2012 @ 10:57am | meanwhile... slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/... |
by cisserosmiley on 3/20/2012 @ 11:13am | A non ego driven altruistic leader would have stepped aside with such grave health concerns as Spiro's. How courageous would that have been Jake Fey? |
by NineInchNachos on 3/20/2012 @ 3:35pm | getting some good reposting shares in facebook. Thanks everybody! |
 by Non Sequitur on 3/20/2012 @ 10:05pm | What is this all about? It's either awesome or sad to say that a good portion of my local political knowledge comes from the Tacomic. |
by NineInchNachos on 3/22/2012 @ 1:32pm | BRAVE! www.komonews.com/news/offbeat/City-manag... |
by NineInchNachos on 8/7/2012 @ 10:51pm |
Go Spiro! The only guy beating you right now is Dale Washam! |
by fredo on 8/8/2012 @ 6:52am | "The only guy beating you right now is Dale Washam" what does that mean? |
by cisserosmiley on 8/8/2012 @ 9:22am | Oh Spir0, maybe you can be Mike Lonergan's crazy helper friend like Dale had. Deputy Spir0, I like it! |
by NineInchNachos on 8/8/2012 @ 10:41am |
you know if you look at the results % as a kind of ranked choice vote... he's the power bottom! |
by NineInchNachos on 8/26/2012 @ 8:31pm | BREAKING NEWS: Spiro has endorsed Mike Lonergan. Mike Lonergan also posted that he hoped to get the endorsements of the other folks who won't be on the November ballot... (Washam & Farrell)
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by cisserosmiley on 11/15/2012 @ 10:07am | Deputy Spir0 now!!! |