Monica Yant Kinney: Soda-tax defeat is just the latest fizzle for Nutter

Somewhere in East Falls, Ed Rendell is howling.

He's on the phone with John Street, wondering how a mayor could have so little juice that he couldn't persuade City Council to tax Snapple so poor kids don't have to hitchhike to school.

Street cackles back that in politics, it's better to be feared or revered than liked. So which, if any, is Mayor Mike?

Fresh off a primary in which a clownish ex-con grabbed 24 percent of the vote, Michael Nutter finally listened to critics and went to the mat for something - only to be defeated by hubris and Teamsters.

In an impressive show of restraint, Nutter opted against strangling Superintendent Arlene Ackerman for using kids as pawns in a $102 million extortion scheme. The school-funding crisis isn't new and is largely out of his control, but Nutter stepped up anyway, hoping the second time would be the charm for his dream of making "sugar-sweetened beverage" drinkers pay through the nose for their habit.

He even went on TV, daring to preempt Jeopardy.

"Sometimes," Nutter implored, "you have to do what you have to do." And what he had to do was impose a 2-cent tax on every ounce of Mountain Dew.

But after City Council once again threw Dr Pepper in Nutter's face, I caught myself humming an old Lionel Richie song, with lyrics altered for the unfortunate occasion.

You're once, twice, three times a loser . . . and we mock you.

Nutter may be a V.P. of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, but here at home he can't persuade 17 partisan punks to show him any love.

Nutter told Council to give up city-issued cars as an austerity move, but its members put the pedals to the metal. Majority Leader Marian Tasco even sought to upgrade her 5-year-old ride. The audacity!

The mayor urged Council to kill the deferred-retirement program called DROP, only to watch members - including those pocketing fat checks - decide to tweak and keep the perk voters love to hate.

Now that I'm counting, Nutter has been outsmarted by foes with smaller brains more times than not.

He tried to shutter libraries and enact a trash fee, but Council kept the lights on and garbage pickup free. He asked BRT board members to resign, a cry even they boldly defied.

Nutter's team has been famously sensitive to accusations that he's not doing anything or flexing enough muscle. Before the primary, the mayor himself pledged to throw more punches in his second term.

"In some instances, it will be no more Mr. Nice Guy," he told the Inquirer Editorial Board, acknowledging "times I could have been tougher."

And so he boldly revived the soda tax. He hoped to raise $80 million for the School District, no matter what it cost him politically.

After Ackerman found a way to save full-day kindergarten, he nonetheless remained resolute. (His backup plan for the soda tax, an additional 10 percent property-tax hike, was equally unappetizing.)

"We city leaders have several funding options in front of us," he said in last week's TV address, "but some are reluctant to pursue them because they're concerned about the negative reaction."

Concern didn't begin to describe the mood in Council Thursday, where rivals Bill Green and Jim Kenney repeatedly agreed on how much they disagreed with the mayor's requests.

After hours of arm-twisting and team-switching, it was Nutter who emerged most bruised. He briefly had the votes for the soda tax, but the fragile coalition fizzled.

In the end, Council approved a one-time 3.85 percent property-tax increase, raided the surplus, and hiked parking-meter fees rather than touch soft drinks. The eleventh-hour end run will raise $53 million for schools, far less than Nutter had hoped.

Still, the mayor hailed the deal as a victory. Given his record, it probably feels like one.