Buzz Bissinger: For commissioner coup, credit where it's due

MAYOR NUTTER truly became a mayor yesterday.

No one, including myself, gave him virtually any chance of keeping Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey from going to Chicago given all the factors.

Ramsey is from Chicago and spent nearly 30 years on the police force there. The gap in pay was $115,000 and maybe more. I did not think Nutter would be able to outmaneuver Chicago mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel and his enormous profile.

But the mayor slapped him down. He did it by being relentless in his own methodical way, without being a pest. He clearly worked the money side to narrow the salary gap.

He did all the things we hoped for when we elected him mayor, and I think this is his defining moment.

The mayor called me right before his news conference to let me know Ramsey was staying. Given the column I wrote in the Daily News yesterday pleading for the commissioner not to leave Philadelphia, I was delighted. And a little chagrined.

Now I can't bang you anymore, I told the mayor.

Oh, you'll find something, he answered back.

Amen.