The Democrat and Chronicle editorial writers may yet drive me nuts.

Again this morning, they insisted that Maggie Brooks didn't speak out on the search for a new MCC president until "a few weeks ago."

The speak-out "a few weeks ago" was her late-May lecturing of the MCC board after it became deadlocked. In a press conference, Brooks said that the search process had become a mess, that board members who couldn't put aside their personal agendas should resign, and that the board should hire former MCC President Peter Spina as interim president.

But Brooks had, in fact, spoken out earlier - on April 2, while the search process was still going on. At that point, the board's search committees had recommended two candidates - neither of them from Rochester. The board majority, which wanted former County Legislator Bill Smith to become president, added two candidates to the list of finalists: Smith and business owner Dennis Kessler. Both had been rejected by the search committees.

In an April 2 opinion piece in the D&C, Brooks praised board members who added Smith and Kessler to the list, and lashed out at the anti-Smith board members for not including any local candidates.

There have been rumors for months that Brooks was involved in the push to give the presidency to Smith. There's no proof that she was, and Brooks has denied it. But clearly she did insert herself into the search process, strongly and publicly, and at a crucial time. The proof is right there on Page 9A of the April 2 issue of the D&C.