With so many elected and appointed officials supporting him, with current endorsements from the Charlottesville Area Association of Realtors and the Cavalier Daily, an upcoming endorsement from the Virginia Education Association Political Action Committee (Campaign Update, Toscano 2005, May 6, 2005), a previous endorsement, shown on his current web site, by The Daily Progress in 1998, and money in the bank, is David Toscano sitting in the catbird seat?

Birds of America (Garden City Books: New York, 1936, Vol 3, pp. 178) describes the catbird as 'pert,' and 'well aware that he is an accomplished and versatile vocalist.' "No American bird," it says, "displays more plainly a desire to 'show off.' Witness his posing and attitudinizing when he establishes himself atop a bush, where he apparently desires to be the observed of all observers." It is called a catbird because of its imitations of the sound of a cat.

To be 'in the catbird seat' is to be in a position of prominence or favor. The expression's first appearance in print was as the title of a short story by James Thurber published in The New Yorker in 1942. Thurber attributes the expression to radio baseball commentator 'Red' Barber.

In the story, Thurber says 'sitting in the catbird seat' "means sitting pretty, like a batter with three balls and no strikes on him."

What do you think? Sound like anyone you know?

Please send your thoughts to george@loper.org where the most representative comments will be place on my web site with full attribution.

Note: Rarely do news stories occur in isolation. After writing this piece, I found that John Borgmeyer struck a similar theme in his April piece in C-Ville Weekly entitled "Playing King of the Hill with David Toscano."