Is Toronto mayor Canada's version of Jim Fouts?

Quote No. 1:

“If I had a baseball bat, I’d beat the f---er down to the f---ing ground. I mean, it would take me just a little bit to get a f---ing gun and blow his f---ing head out. That’s how p---ed off I am.”

Quote No. 2:

"I'll rip his f---ing throat out. I'll poke his eyes out...I'll make sure that motherf---er's dead. … I need f---ing 10 minutes to make sure he's dead. It'll be over in five minutes."

Both of these quotes come not from cold-hearted gangsters but from foul-mouthed big-city mayors who apparently fantasize in private about going all Mafia-like on their political enemies. In both cases, their rants were secretly recorded and then made very, very public.

The second quote is from Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, who's been besieged by reporters for months after allegations first surfaced (later verified) that he used crack cocaine. The quote surfaced on Thursday when the Toronto Star’s newspaper website posted an 80-second video clip of the politician shot from a cell phone.

The first quote above is from Warren Mayor Jim Fouts, whose rant was secretly recorded (over the phone) earlier this year by a high-ranking City Hall official who feared that Fouts had gradually become unhinged.

The difference between these two excitable mayors is this:

Ford was “extremely, extremely inebriated” – and possibly high on cocaine – at the time he engaged in death threats.

Fouts, who doesn’t drink, was stone cold sober and influenced only by his raging ego.