Ah, to be back in the warm confines of Toronto City Hall, where the mayor and his brother are finding it harder, as the Good Book warns, to “kick against the pricks.”

The lonely existence of the Toronto Star reporter — an outcast left adrift on the icy shoals of a mayoral staredown — is suddenly bolstered by a cadre of spanked scribes and electronic press.

·Related: More on Rob Ford

Over here is the Globe and Mail — their pregnant and hard-working bureau chief told to “get off her lazy backside and do some due diligence,” some real work that wasn’t, y’know, critical of the mayor’s job.

· Related: Ford attacks Newstalk 1010 during his Newstalk 1010 show

Clinging to a life raft over there is a cameraman from Global TV — marooned for daring to take video footage of the Ford family business.

To attend such an establishment — there were complaints that the mayor’s intervention may have expedited the work — to take footage of road resurfacing done by city staff near the Ford plant is a grievous sin, the mayor’s brother surmised. (Not the roadwork, but the cameraman filming the roadwork.)

Brother Ford triumphantly reported how he accosted the poor serf with much bellicosity; later he downgraded it to a “polite” confrontation, but who is splitting hairs.

Global’s response? “Councillor Ford will be pleased to hear that Global News was following his guidance and doing our due diligence on the story about road repairs done in front of the Ford family business.”

Wasn’t that what Star reporter Daniel Dale was doing when examined behind the mayor’s house, the same property the mayor wanted to expand onto public lands and Dale wanted to see it for himself? Ah, never mind. This is not about us at the Star.

Not content to offend their perceived media enemies, the Brothers Ford started picking fights with their media friends and general allies.

The Toronto Taxpayers Coalition, normally in Ford’s camp, broke ranks with the mayor when Ford used city resources to help him coach a high school football team — charitable though his efforts were.

“As the city’s financial coach we believe Mayor Ford should set a positive example for the rest of the city hall team by dedicating taxpayers’ dollars strictly to city business.” Ouch. Sorry, Bud, but that was so easy your friends had to take a stab in order to maintain credibility.

Even Ford’s indefatigable backers at the Sun have balked, calling the use of city resources to fuel Ford’s football passions a clear example of the very “gravy” Ford promised to stop flowing at city hall.

Then, biting the hand that feeds them, the Fords went on their talk show last Sunday and blasted the very radio station that hosts them — complaining that the station’s news department aired comments that, in effect, challenged some claims they made on the air.

Of course, Ford’s apologists will be quick to find something positive to praise Ford for and show they are back in his camp. But equally certain is this: the mayor and his brother will soon find another way to kick sand in their eyes, pee in their soup and make a mess of dinner.

We are not half way through the council term, and, the mayor’s hit list is overcrowded with journalists of all stripes and persuasions, all trying to do their job of informing and entertaining the public.

Just this week, Brother Doug boasted that he and Mayor Rob were the first and only politicians in Canada to take on the media — and that they were winning the battle.

Star circulation was plummeting, he said, even as readership figures showed the newspaper had strengthened its position as the most-read newspaper in the GTA — more than all the other dailies combined.

For months, Ford Nation screamed that the media have been unfair to their man. Chastened, several journalists self-censored to the point of ineffectiveness.

Not any more, though. The slings and arrows of outrageous claims from the mayor’s administration have zero effect now — so desperately diffused, irrational and patently false are the charges. “Sucky” and “whiners” and “pathological liars,” he called us; and words we can’t print, except in quoting scriptures.

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For the rest of the Ford journey, there will be thorns, thistles and “pricks” at every turn.

Safe travels, Mr. Mayor. As your brother says, the “wolves (are) sitting there with saliva on their mouth….”

Royson James usually appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Email: rjames@thestar.ca