I’m tempted to call them rats deserting a sinking ship.

But they’re really political chameleons who are loyal only to themselves — and have no problem changing the colour of their political skins depending on which way the wind blows at City Hall.

I refer you to councillors Raymond Cho, Josh Matlow and Giorgio Mammoliti.

The ink had barely dried on the Judge Charles Hackland’s stunning ouster of Mayor Rob Ford before Mammoliti stomped out of the mayor’s office Monday and declared he was quitting the city’s executive committee.

Sources who witnessed the fallout tell me Mammoliti, the Man formerly known as “George” who was once an NDP MPP and part of David Miller’s inner circle, gave Ford an ultimatum that he wanted to be a committee chairman.

When the mayor told him he couldn’t do that because others were already in place, he had a temper tantrum.

His announcement, coming as it did right after Monday morning’s judgement against Ford, left the perception he was wasting no time deserting a sinking ship.

But on Wednesday the Man formerly known as George, was in damage control.

He said his decision to step down from the executive was an attempt to save the Ford regime from embarrassment since he thought his reappointment the influential committee would have been defeated at council Tuesday.

(For the record, Ford supporters Gary Crawford and Frank DiGiorgio were put on executive committee, so I’m not sure what Mammo means.)

“I’m not going to abandon ship ... some people want to think there’s ulterior motives,” he said, denying he’s looking to run for interim mayor. “I will continue doing what I think I need to do to defend the administration.”

If timing is everything, why the heck did Giorgio pick Monday to make his announcement?

Matlow could barely contain himself until 6 p.m. Monday before sending out an e-mail to his constituents about the mayor’s travails.

He wrote that Ford was found guilty of violating municipal conflict of interest rules and ordered to be removed from office in 14 days — what he characterized as an “unprecedented moment” in Toronto’s history.

That wasn’t bad enough. The councillor who is always singing Kum-ba-ya (councillors must all got to work together, etc.) couldn’t resist pecking at the flesh of the carrion with this gem: “Aside from a few notable exceptions, Mr. Ford’s term of office has sadly been a constant sideshow of litigation, gaffes, and a distracting focus on high school football. This circus ... must come to an end.”

I got one such e-mail as a constituent but was also sent at least three others from residents of the ward who thought it in very poor taste.

Asked to comment on the e-mail Wednesday, Matlow brushed me off, saying he had “no” comment.

“Of course (it was okay)... I wrote it,” he said arrogantly, before running away.

Which brings me to the well-beyond-his-best-before-date, 76-year-old Cho, once an NDPer who has run both for the Liberals and independently in federal elections — and more often than not votes with the leftists at City Hall.

He has burned his bridges so many times with the Liberals — both federally and provincially — now he’s turned his sights to the Ontario PCs.

Cho confirmed Wednesday — after much prodding — that he is standing for the PC nomination in the riding of Scarborough-Rouge River on Dec. 17.

Let me get this straight.

Cho, who joined forces with TTC Turncoat, er, Chairman Karen Stintz, to bring down Ford’s subway plan, is running for a leader (Tim Hudak) who recently vowed to put every transit dollar he can find into subways.

Hudak made that pledge at City Hall just one month ago.

Cho held a local transit meeting in his ward on March 12 of this year declaring subways were dead. He did nothing to hide that fact. In fact a video of the meeting is easily available online.

But on Wednesday, he said he was misunderstood about the subway issue. He just disagreed about the route Ford had mapped out for Scarborough.

“His subway line (Ford’s) going (sic) to Scarborough Towne Centre instead to my ward ... that’s why I switched from subway to LRT,” he said. “In principle I love subways.”

As is typical of the council opportunist, Cho said, if nominated, he’d stay on at council (collecting his salary) until an election is called instead of taking a leave of absence — even though a member of the mayor’s staff, Pina Martino, stepped down the day she was nominated two months ago.

sue-ann.levy@sunmedia.ca