I must have called Shadow Sen. Paul Strauss more than a dozen times on Friday concerning his recent arrest for drunk driving. After LL broke the news, Strauss released a lame statement and generally hid from the press.

I gave him the weekend. He finally picked up his cellphone this morning. He immediately refused to comment on his arrest.

"We're getting ready for tomorrow," Strauss said. "I'm not really focusing on anything but that right now."

He then wanted to know why I was calling and where my reporting would end up. I told him it would end up on City Desk.

I asked if the news of his arrest was some kinda dirty trick. I got this rambling statement:

"Yeah. Look. Not going to comment means not going to comment. I just. You know. So. I don't mean to be rude. But. There's. I issued my statement. It's going to be a historic election. We're going to work for the democratic ticket. Happy to talk at another time. This is not a good time right now. We won't be giving any interviews until after the election. We won't be discussing the other thing until after the court date."

Strauss then went off the record to stamp out a rumor I had asked him about. I then felt I had to ask the elected official one more question.

Do you have a drinking problem? "Come on, Jason. I'm going to end this conversation now."

*photo by Darrow Montgomery