Referring to several days of critical news stories and commentaries about his private moves to boost his public pension through every means possible, including exploiting avenues unavailable to other city employees, Cianci said, "this is all about the U.S. Senate race. They don't want me to run for the Senate."

The speech was Cianci's first public reaction to a Sunday Providence Journal investigative story by Chris Chivers about his pension abuse and critical columns by M. Charles Bakst and Bob Kerr.

Cianci, by the way, has completed a new poll which shows his favorability rating in the 80s.