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Bracing for elocutionary whiplash
Posted Apr 4, 2011 by Tom Jackson
Updated Apr 4, 2011 at 05:27 PM
If conventional wisdom regarding the successor to Pasco Sheriff Bob White prevails, there is at least one thing we can say with no fear of contradiction: The sheriff’s office is about to suffer a significant colloquialism deficit.
The presumptive frontrunner, Chris Nocco, so recently promoted to major he’s still wearing uniform shirts embroidered with “Captain,” is a raspy-voiced Philadelphian who – based on evidence presented Monday – appears to be a reluctant public speaker.
Not Prince Albert/ “The King’s Speech” reluctant. Nocco gets the words out OK. Still, the contrast between Nocco and the man he hopes to replace could not be more striking. Addressing the Land O’ Lakes Rotarians at their weekly luncheon Monday, the big man from Philly was clipped, economic and sober. He made Sgt. Friday sound effusive. (He also aggressively resisted uttering anything remotely newsworthy.)
Assuming Nocco wins Gov. Rick Scott’s nod, brace for elocutionary whiplash.
True to his red-clay rearing in Moultrie, Ga. (just west of Valdosta), White arrived on the scene informal and homespun, a precisely groomed country pastor brimming with bromides whose congregation was the half-million residents of Pasco County.
White always was “bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.” He’d say, “If I felt any better, I’d be twins.”
Facing difficulty, he’d tell his command staff, “We’ve got to turn this around quick like a bunny.” How would he explain his agency’s budget woes to county commissioners? “We’re going to tell them how the pig ate the cabbage.”
Nocco’s contrasting, north-of-the-Mason-Dixon style is scarcely a disqualification, or even off-putting (although it could be an issue, assuming he’s the incumbent, in the 2012 campaign).
For the moment, it’s just interesting, is all. Sort of like switching to a Jeep Cherokee when you’re used to driving, you know, a Tahoe.
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