Will time have passed Buddy by?

Wherever Buddy Cianci does his first radio show, the host station is guaranteed to have a huge audience. Buddophiles, starved after five years of Cianci-deprivation, will light up the phone lines, and listeners will be treated to hours of, “Oh, Buddy, we missed you,” and, “Buddy, welcome back,” and even, “Mayor, so good to hear your voice.”
 
And should he end up on radio, it will be good to hear Buddy. Love him or hate him, he’s always entertaining.
 
At least he always was.
 
Lots of people have been speculating about the former mayor and how five years in prison may have changed him. Most imagine that no one could go through such a radical change in lifestyle without it exacting some personal toll. They wonder if the returning Buddy will be as amusing, as glib, as quick on his feet. They speculate on his new level of bitterness, as they imagine it. They question whether there will be payback, or attempts to settle old scores.
 
I wonder less about how Buddy will be in returning to his hometown than how the hometown will react to the returning Buddy. Will he be embraced warmly, or offered the lukewarm handshake that powerful people give to folks they really don’t want to talk with? Will they smile lamely and then rush off toward others with whom they’ll be more at ease?
 
Will Buddy’s former peers, advisors, informers, and would-be-intimates be as willing to be photographed with him as they used to? Will people want to see that image in local papers? Will they leak information to him now that his ability to bring their pet project to fruition is gone?
 
Will local charities want him as honorary chairman, or invite him to their ribbon-cuttings? Will businessmen seek his counsel? Will lawmakers care about Buddy’s ideas on how to get things done? Probably not.
 
Controversy is unappealing for people in positions of power and influence. When Buddy was powerful as well as controversial — when he could still set the wheels in motion to give them something they wanted or needed — the elite was willing to deal with him. Now, the label of controversy sticks while the powerful tail on that engine is gone, and that changes everything.
 
Five years is a long time. The peak of Buddy’s popularity is in the past. Public memory is short and public loyalty fickle at best. The loyalty of the power elite, moreover, is based purely on one hand’s ability to wash the other.
 
So, after, “Welcome back, Buddy!,” and, “We missed you, Buddy!,” beyond the guaranteed-to-be-amusing stories about life in prison, for what will Rhode Island be listening? With whom will the mayor spar, and more pointedly, who will break bread with him after the show?
 
Five years is a long time in politics. In provincial Rhode Island, it may be an eternity.