Bump, grind and strip.

From sleaze on Thursday to take-it-all-off on Friday: The peeling of power away from Mayor Rob Ford.

Still standing, but wearing only a G-string of statutory authority and the mayor’s chain of office around his neck, an image that makes my brain hurt.

It wasn’t, actually, the first time in history that a pole dance has been performed at city hall. Early last year, an adult entertainer in shiny leather shorts twirled around her prop as part of a protest against restrictive bylaw changes proposed by Toronto’s licensing committee.

This was even more voyeuristically entertaining, if possibly (probably?) legally dicey — city council’s attempt to pole vault Ford out of the mayor’s chair in all, largely a symbolic gambit but divesting him of the ability to appoint and fire committee chairs and his deputy.

They can’t make him go away. They can make him stay as maybe little more than a lumpen object of derision, unless the courts intervene, via a stalling injunction with a potential reversal to follow. This mayor has secured relief — as they say — in courts before. He’s no lawyered-up rookie.

It if wouldn’t cost the taxpayers an arm and a leg, I’d have done the same thing if someone else was mayor. Rob Ford Mayor

A commotion of motions both ended an extraordinary week at city hall and will resume on Monday — the real push — with a move to almost entirely denude Ford of political influence: Delegating to Deputy Mayor Norm Kelly “all powers and duties which are not by statute assigned to the Mayor,” until Nov. 30, 2014. Operating budget transferred to Kelly, chair of the executive committee transferred to Kelly, even Ford’s staff transferred to Kelly, if they choose.

He’d still be called “Mayor Rob Ford.” And I’m the Princess of Wales.

It will be interesting how Kelly votes on the Monday motion, of if he votes at all. But we’ve already had a pseudo-mayor in Councillor Doug Ford, unelected to the position, so the weirdness quotient won’t be entirely unknown territory.

Rob Ford, of course, has been awash in motions and poking demands in recent days, to say nothing of starring as buffoon on the late-night talk shows, gleefully skewered by all the stand-ups.

On Friday morning, it was Councillor John Filion who stood up to do the dirty.

“It’s done reluctantly, it’s done sadly, but with the belief that we’ve reached the point where it is both warranted and necessary,” Filion said, rising to introduce his motion at the special pre-meeting meeting.

“I think this is the only course of action left to us.”

Ford already has his committee ducks in a row, however, so the motion doesn’t have huge bite. There’s no indication the allies he put in place are about to be punted. The like-minded idealists are well-entrenched except for those Ford has yanked for perceived disloyalty.

Even before it was voted on — passed 39-3 — Ford said he would counter the coup tactic judicially. “I have no other option but to challenge this in court.”

Cleaving to his bumper-sticker mantra of saving the taxpayers money, Ford argued that litigation will cost big bucks and taxpayers presumably would be stuck with the tab. “Think about the taxpayers in this situation.”

Many of those taxpayers — 1,116 — had already been heard from, in fact, via signatures affixed to a petition the previous day and tabled by Councillor Michael Thompson. “We demand that he resign from the position of mayor of Toronto immediately.”

Brother Doug Ford, warned against a repetition of his bullying outbursts — Councillor Karen Stintz had complained — could offer only a restrained (for him) admonishment about the motion’s potential consequences. His unwise hypothetical, given the mayor’s acknowledgment that he’s taken the wheel after boozing: What if a councillor is caught drinking and driving? Not a hypothetical, further, because colleague Ana Bailao was charged on a DUI two years ago, with Rob Ford appearing at her side during a teary news conference to offer moral support.

As per usual, Doug Ford always makes everything worse. “If one day we are disgusted with someone’s political views . . . then basically we can do the same thing, right?”

The chipping away at The Great Vulgarian continued with Filion’s second motion that Ford be gutted of his power to govern unilaterally in the case of an emergency, with Kelly assuming that responsibility.

Referring to examples of crises over the past three years of this administration, Filion noted: “We’ve been fortunate that none of the emergencies landed on the same date in which we now know the mayor’s judgment may have been impaired.

“Let’s not push our luck on that point.”

Councillor Anthony Perruzza spoke against the motion (yet voted for it), echoing Doug Ford’s warning. “I don’t believe that’s where we should be headed. I don’t believe that’s where we should be going. I don’t want to use the words coup d’état. . . ”

Back up popped Doug, waving a fistful of letters from the public, allegedly.

“As a group, folks here don’t have the moral authority . . . and the legal authority to be doing what they’re doing today. When it comes to the moral authority — I love the deputy mayor but 383,000 people didn’t vote for the deputy mayor. They didn’t vote for you councillors to take the powers off someone who was democratically elected.

“I won’t use ‘coup d’état’ but, you know something, maybe a lot of people out there (would).”

Mid-oratory, Doug was heckled by Councillor Paula Fletcher, and he took issue with that. “Do the rules apply,” he asked the chair, “or do I get catcalled all the time here?”

The anti-Ford device applied Friday, Doug continued, was a dangerous precedent to set. “There’s two courts that are going to be looking at this. One, the legal courts, and second, the court of public opinion.”

Doug Ford repeated what he’s vowed before — that he won’t run for re-election to the hall next time round, one and done.

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“I won’t be here next term. I bet a dozen of you folks won’t be here, either. Maybe the mayor might not be here. But, again, that’s not our decision, that’s the people’s decision.

“In October of next year, the people will speak. But they’re also going to speak loud and clear with each and every one of you sitting here. You may have a rude awakening on Election Day, folks.”

An atypically conciliatory mayor, in measured comments, then got his last word in, and it was a stunner.

“I completely understand the situation that my fellow colleagues are in. If it wouldn’t cost the taxpayers an arm and a leg . . . if I would have had a mayor acting like I have conducted myself, I would have done the same thing.

“You know what? I respect what council’s done but the taxpayer is going to have to pay a fortune for this.

“I think we could have dealt with it in a different manner. But I’m not mad at anybody.”

Just maddening.

That motion passed 41-2.

Outside council chambers, Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti explained why he sat out both motions as a no-show — didn’t want any part of it — and resurrected the fear-mongering scenario of a radical left lurking in the reeds.

“The extreme left will start mobilizing,” predicted the mayor’s staunchest supporter, though it should be noted Mammoliti has also called for Ford to step aside at least temporarily to deal with his manifest issues.

The lefty bloc, Mammoliti said, “will attempt to move into seats so that they can change policy.”

Pshaw, assured Kelly afterward. “The executive is still centre-right so I don’t see how that’s a coup.”

Still, there’s surely little doubt that the Ford-detesting faction — bigger than a rump — will indeed be manoeuvring to reclaim positions of power severed under the Ford regime. That’s the downside to the upside of Ford dwindling into insignificance, if this ploy works.

It’s a shame — a word Ford doesn’t grasp — that we’ve come to this sorry spectacle of ploys and plots and scheming. But the mayor dragged us here, to this appalling state of political limbo.

In the wake of a crack scandal, drunken binges, duplicity exposed, alarming allegations contained in a 500-page police surveillance document, Ford could have bowed out, even temporarily, and sought the help he so clearly needs. He might have retained a shred of dignity and likely generated immense sympathy from the public.

Ego and vainglory would not allow that.

Instead: Bumped, ground and stripped.

Rosie DiManno usually appears Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.