That doesn’t sound too bad. People have a right to sincerely change opinions. But in this case I feel there’s another tried and true political tradition at work here. Mr. Gurley has not become a moderate so much as he’s become an insider.

Like a lot of people who get elected he’s heard the siren-call of sweet government and switched sides. For instance, Mr. Gurley says “he has come to understand that it is more effective to work behind the scenes.” That’s political double speak. It translates like this: Let’s make deals behind the scenes and the less the public knows the better.

That doesn’t sound particularly moderate.

Mr. Gurley also switched sides of funding the downtown Convention Center (he was against it before the election, he’s come to see it’s a wonderful thing now) and that’s one of the problems with ‘insiders’ – what they usually do best is give other people’s money away.

Mayor Meeker is a big insider. He’s using tax money to fund or pay for a hotel, a supermarket and a restaurant.

Let’s hope Mr. Gurley doesn’t get that carried away.