Two years ago Cincinnati Mayor Charlie Luken handed out the council election door prizes of committee appointments with a careful eye toward inclusion. The city was just a few months past the rioting of 2001 and there was a carefully orchestrated effort to present a united front. Representatives of all three parties were going to work together to help the city heal.

It's a sign of the city's renewed health that this year Luken opted for some old-fashioned political pummeling.

As soon as the returns were in Tuesday night, the mayor announced he was kicking Republican Pat DeWine out of his job as chairman of the highly visible Law and Public Safety Committee. The committee deals with the cops, proposals to fight crime, adding or subtracting firehouses and all manner of other good stuff likely to make snippets on the nightly news.

Luken's move means DeWine won't be sitting front and center in those shots, speaking authoritatively from behind the shiny chairman's nameplate. In fact, DeWine is unlikely to have the chance to head up any committee. Luken probably will give Law to fellow Democrat David Pepper, who came in first among the nine winners. Democrat Alicia Reece will keep her title of vice-mayor. Most of the other chairmanships will be divvied up among Democrats John Cranley, Laketa Cole and David Crowley. Even Charterite Jim Tarbell will get a committee - Arts and Culture - which is dear to his heart.

But Luken has little non-partisan camaraderie to spare for DeWine. Hizzoner has decided it's time to flex some of the Charter-given strong(er) mayor power that he pretty much neglected during his first term. He's going to use his appointive authority to smack DeWine smartly on the nose.

Taking away the Law Committee from DeWine helps Luken politically in two ways. First, it undercuts a potential Republican rival for the mayor's job in 2005 - although Luken insists that's not why he is doing it. Secondly, it scores points for the mayor with the cops. DeWine broke ranks with the police union over contract negotiations this year. He correctly said the city should have insisted on a provision giving the city manager the authority to hire and fire assistant police chiefs because that's what the voters said they wanted when they amended the City Charter two years ago. Instead, Luken and City Manager Valerie Lemmie gave the issue away in negotiations, allowing the contract to trump the will of the voters.

Several Democrats on council sided with DeWine, including Pepper and Cranley, but the FOP expected that from them. From a law'n'order Republican they demanded fealty. FOP Vice President Keith Fangman targeted DeWine in the closing days of the campaign with a phone-bank message that went to registered Republican households. The recorded message said, "Pat DeWine pretends to support law enforcement, but he does not."

DeWine won anyway, but the FOP will be pleased to see him dumped from the committee that deals with "their" issues.

"[DeWine's] efforts have not been helpful in trying to build police morale," Luken said.

Oh yeah, and then there were the bobbleheads.

The Democrats blame DeWine for a television ad by the Republican Party that caricatured Pepper, Cranley and Crowley as bobbleheaded Vaudevillians who needed to be yanked off the stage because they voted to give Leshawn Pettus-Brown $184,000 to restore the Empire Theater in Over-the-Rhine. Pettus-Brown skipped town and the 89-year-old theater collapsed in a storm. A later audit found city officials had ignored just about every rule in the book in dispersing the money and overseeing the project.

The bobblehead ads were dead-on in pointing out the boondoggle, and the caricatures of the Democrats were hilariously mean-spirited. Judging from their cries of foul, Cranley and Pepper missed the hilarity part, although Pepper did claim it exaggerated his skill as a dancer. Crowley, wisely, remained silent.

Anyway, the ad was a loser because Crowley, Pepper and Cranley all were re-elected. The Republicans would have been smarter to spend the money on the campaign of poor Chris Monzel, who lost his seat.

But feelings were bruised, and now it's DeWine who's getting yanked off the stage.

David Wells is editor of the Enquirer editorial page. Contact him at (513) 768-8310; fax: (513) 768-8610; e-mail: dwells@enquirer.com. Cincinnati.Com keyword: Wells.