Compare This Bold Red State Mayor To Scott Walker

Not long ago, I blogged about Rocky Anderson, the Mayor of Salt Lake City - - a progressive Democrat running the biggest city in the reddest state of all.

Anderson has made Salt Lake City into one of the greenest, most conservation-conscious municipalites in the nation.

He even got light rail built!

And as he says in the first linked story above - - an interview with the excellent online publication Grist - - he overcame the biggest political firestorm in his tenure only to find now that neighborhoods that fought and feared light rail the most are now clamboring loudly to be connected.

Now The New York Times has discovered him, and its piece is worth a read.

Imagine if, in this town, the biggest opponent to light rail - - County Executive Scott Walker - - had a fraction of Anderson's political spine.

We'd have rail in the ground, boosting the local economy, linking workers to jobs, shoppers to restaurants and stores, and tourists to county-run destinations like the Zoo, the Airport and the failing Public Museum, too.

Leadership is what it's all about - - and that begins with turning off the rabid right-wing radio talkers that demagogue on rail to ramp up their ratings.

Salt Lake's got it.

Milwaukee County doesn't.