Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker hasn’t started the new year with a bang.

First there were stories about mounting costs at the Civic Center. Then his partisans got into an ill-advised overreaction to a newspaper column. And now he can’t get the Council to approve his Hillsborough Street roundabout plan.

For better or worse, the Mayor will have to live with the Civic Center. He’ll have to persuade Raleigh residents it’s a good investment for the city’s future. An opponent like Tom Fetzer could make that a difficult sell.

On the roundabout, it’s not good when the Mayor can’t win a key vote. Once your opponents sense weakness, you can face some bloody days in politics.

But most surprising was the overreaction to a column in the N&O by Dennis Rogers, which poked fun at reports Meeker might run for the U.S. Senate.

Meeker and his friends should have laughed it off. Instead they unleashed a barrage of letters to the editor criticizing Rogers’ column and protesting – a bit much – that the Mayor is Senatorial material.

He may be. But that’s not how to prove it. Instead, start by winning some votes in the City Council.

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