Rob Bartlett's blues comedy bit about Buddy Cianci on "Imus in the Morning," MSNBC-TV, May 10, 2002

Описание: In May, 2002, longtime Providence, Rhode Island Mayor Vincent "Buddy" Cianci was on trial on federal corruption charges when Don Imus took his popular radio/TV program to the ballroom of the Biltmore Hotel, where he riffed with the celebrated mayor. But first, Imus's gifted sidekick, Rob Bartlett, performed hilariously about the culture of corruption in Little Rhody!

For the record, Buddy Cianci was convicted a month later under a federal RICO statute of essentially running Providence City Hall as a criminal enterprise. The jury concluded he orchestrated the time-tested political game of "pay to play." Buddy (no last name needed in RI) served nearly five years in federal prison before returning to his role as a popular talk radio host. He ran for mayor one last time in 2014, but by then the voters had had enough of his wily ways. For the first time ever, going back all the way to 1974, he lost an election for mayor of Providence after having won six such elections, several after having already been convicted of felony assault for beating up his estranged wife's lover in 1983. That conviction in state court forced him out of office for five years, but through a plea deal he managed to avoid prison time.

On January 28, 2016, just more than a year after losing his last run for mayor, Buddy died after battling cancer.


"Well, we way up here in Providence
Little Rhody to see a dear old friend
Who in trouble but protests his innocence
Say he ain’t guilty of whatever the prosecution may contend

And so the mayor, he just laughed
At the 25 counts of graft
Of which the man has been accused

And it may be sycophancy
But despite the evidence preponderancy
Just a victim of cirumstancy
Just little innocent Vincent Cianci

I ain’t no fuddy duddy
I just got a case of my good ol’ buddy Buddy’s blues

It’s just wrongful persecution
By these political ethics nuts who did complain
About some suspicious contributions
Made to his Honor’s fine, upstanding re-election campaign

But there just ain’t nothing worse
Than Mayor Cianci’s spokeperson
Making you an offer you can’t refuse

The truth is suffering from distortion
Been blown way out of proportion
Cuz this isn’t no extortion
We just call it, funding re-apportion

So don’t believe the scuttlebutt
This is a case that’s open and shut
And I ain’t just kissin’ butt
It’s a disgrace
Got me a case of my buddy Buddy’s blues

Those involved in the investigation
Called Operation Plunder Dome
Better drop these accusations
Or end up in a funeral home
So what he skimmed a coupla dollars
Well hell Buddy is the boss
But them red spots on his collar
Well that ain’t no tomato sauce

He may be a wheeler-dealer
But he won’t do the time
Cuz he didn’t do the crime
And for all you low-life squealers
Won’t give you two cents for anybody that done dropped a dime

Cuz these charges of racketeering
May soon be disappearing
Like someone on a sleep-with-the-fishes cruise
Cuz the bribe solicitation
Is just a hurtful allegation
That has absolutely no foundation
It won’t bear substantiation
And my only recommendation
Is beware of retaliation
Cuz the mayor’s reciprocation
Could result in your cardiopulmonary rescuscitation

So go tell everybody
That things sho could get bloody
This boy’s just a wee bit nutty
So don’t mess with my buddy Buddy
Unless you wanna wear a pair of cement shoes"

-- Robert Bartlett, May 10, 2002