Meet the new boss . . . same as the old, old boss. Look out, Washington; the circus is back in town.
Mayor Vincent Gray is known for two things: (1) bouncing Adrian Fenty from the job last year by running a campaign straight out of Marion Barry’s retro-race-grievance playbook, and (2) a raft of crony hires that has returned the late-20th-Century stench of corruption to the District. Even Barry himself has noticed; DC Examiner columist Harry Jaffe landed this quote from him: “That’s the way I did it for 16 years when I was mayor.” Ouch!
So . . . one would think that the last picture that anyone in the Mayor’s office would want to see is the boss in handcuffs.
One would be wrong. Apprently, the Mayor (or one of his crony hires) decided to do some civil disobedience and got himself arrested because he’d rather spend D.C. taxpayer money on abortions than on letting poor kids go to better schools (DC Examiner).
That’s quite the motto when you think of it: Fewer children in worse schools!
Does Gray realize how many people probably looked at that picture and thought – “Hurray! They’re cleaning up the town!” – before reading the headline? Has he pondered how often “keep him there!” will pop up in comments and blogposts?
What’s next? “Goddamn Congress set me up?”
As someone who lives and works in the Virginia suburbs of DC, I just have to shake my head. I can understand the wishes of Washingtonians to be taken seriously, and how the lack of statehood can make that difficult.
Who knows where the District would be if Fenty had been willing to accept the Republican nomination – which he won on Primary Day, 2010. Sure, Fenty (very recent R) probably still would have lost to Gray (D), but it could have helped create the two-party system the District so desperately needs to save them from the local Democrat machine.
As it is, they have a mayor in handcuffs – again.
Cross-posted to the right-wing liberal
