The Political Self-Immolation of Ricardo Rossello 

Apre moi, le deluge. After me, the flood. 

Louis XV of France supposedly uttered these words after the disastrous battle of Rossbach, but today it could bleed from the lips of Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello as he confronts the hanging, drawing and quartering of his administration, much of it by his own hand. 

Self-Immolation by Telegram, actually. Comeuppance by Frat Boy Talk. 

This debacle comes days after two former Puerto Rican government officials and four other top tier members were arrested as part of a federal corruption probe that has rocked the Rossello administration. 

The Puerto Rican governor, who fabricated an image of a devoted and religious family man, now has to explain away his true persona - a mixture of Doug Neidermeyer, of Animal House, and Ramfis Trujillo - the not so intelligent son of the Dominican dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo.  

Via chat sites such as Telegram, we can now meet the real Rossello, or as he likes to identify himself - R2. (His father, Pedro Rossello, and ex governor of Puerto Rico, would, we assume, be R1.) It is far from a pretty picture.  

In one of the exchanges with members of his cupula, all male, R2 refers to the former speaker of the New York City Council, Melissa Mark-Viverito, a political ally of San Juan mayor Carmen Yuin Cruz, a stalwart Rossello rival, as a “puta” - whore in English. He also tells the Fiscal Oversight Board - a federal board overseeing the island’s finances to “go f- yourself” and called the executive director of the same, Natalie Jaresko, a “gatita.” The latter is a sexist term for a mistress.  

This is the kind of talk that US President Donald Trump would applaud. Truth be told, Rossello and Trump have much in common - both are the spoiled offspring of Daddy - complete with entitlement without accomplishment.

After being caught red-handed - Rossello trotted out a far from convincing Mea Culpa. 

“I want to begin by saying sorry for the statements I’ve written in a private chat.. I’ve lived through days of a lot of intensity, of a lot of work with many pressures,” Rosselló said. “I used this chat to release tension built up from 18-hour days, sometimes with no day off. ... None of this justifies the words I’ve written.”

“Yes, I say bad words, and yes, I send memes and yes, I make sarcastic comments,” Rosselló said. “And the truth is I don’t feel proud of that.” 

Despite calls for him to step down, he insisted that he will not resign. 

Mark-Viverito posted a statement on Twitter and said: “A person who uses that language against a woman, whether a public figure or not, should not govern Puerto Rico … this type of behavior is completely unacceptable.”

Yulin, gubernatorial candidate for the opposition Popular Democratic Party, had this to say after the comments were made public:

The administration of Ricardo Rosselló has collapsed. Anyone who doubted it today has irrevocable proof that this government has collapsed, that this governor is no good, that this governor does not know how to administrate, that this governor does not deserve the honor of serving the country, because he has not served Puerto Rico, he has served his friends, she said. 

Rossello now has no clothes and we can see him for what he is: a schoolyard bully and a coward who hides behind a screen. But he has picked a fight with his likely contender -  Puerto Rican women.

Rossello set himself and his administration on fire and opened the door for real change. Ladies, to the voting booth.