Keith, the invincible. Or not.

Some will call it gutsy, some will call it stupid, but the fact is Keith Richards has announced yet another pay-raise proposal for administrative employees of Newark Schools. He did it only days after Newark citizens signaled him - with a resounding defeat in a levy vote - that NCS is already spending too much.

Instead of gutsy or stupid, maybe it's an invincibility complex.

I think Mr. Richards believes that his invincibility is guaranteed by his mastery of propaganda; that it only takes the right spin in combination with the right pressure points, and minions will believe as they are told to believe, and voters will vote as they are told to vote if the propaganda machine is fine-tuned and well-oiled. That, in combination with the right degree of parental pain.

If he believes this, he's correct, but only up to a point. That point arrives when the man on the white horse spins too hard and too long in the wrong direction. That point arrives when voters see propaganda and parental pain for what it is. That point arrives when taxpayers have no more to donate to schools, particularly for administrative pay increases.

All this describes anybody who refuses to acknowledge the feedback Keith Richards has received recently from this community. I rather think he's not so invincible.