Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels was sworn in this afternoon as president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. His speech at a Providence, R.I., convention center capped a four-day conference marked by controversy and cancellations.

The Providence firefighters union picketed the conference, forcing conference attendees to decide whether to skip the conference, as President Obama and his cabinet members did, or attend and risk being accused of crossing a picket line. Nickels chose that route. It's still not clear how the Seattle firefighters union will respond, or how it might affect his chances for the firefighters' endorsement.

Nickels addressed the picket line in his speech, saying, according to the transcript:

These have not been a stress-free couple of days. Each of us wish Mayor
Cicilline and the Fire union well in reaching a speedy resolution to
their impasse on this most local of issues.

Vice President Biden and other administration officials missed an
opportunity to learn from all of us, and we had looked forward to
meeting with them. I know many of you were disappointed by their
absence.

Mayors don't look back or linger on bad feelings. Now more than ever, we
need clear communication between the federal government and the cities.
America needs us.

The rest of the speech was a call for cities to deal directly with the federal government, cutting the state government out of the loop in a "New Deal" between the feds and urban areas.

According to an article in The Providence Journal, the Obama administration is working to reschedule administration officials' meetings with the mayors at the White House.

At least one Seattle mayoral hopeful is trying to make a political gain from the picket-line-crossing question. T-Mobile executive Joe Mallahan sent out a news release today, saying: "Greg Nickels made it clear to both Seattle and the rest of the country that trophies and awards mean more to him than our first responders. If Nickels was willing to cross the firefighters' picket line in Rhode Island, it is safe to assume he would cross one in Seattle as well."