# Scandal in DC. Ssssshocking. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 7, 2011, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scandal-in-dc-ssssshocking/573849 "2011-03-07T22:06:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2011, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scandal-in-dc-ssssshocking/573849/1 "2011-03-07T22:06:37Z")
Ugh. No matter how much progress there has been in DC over the last ten years, hearing crap like this just reinforces the view that this city is a joke. Long story short: a political gadfly runs for mayor against an unpopular incumbent. His campaign is nothing but lobbing bombs at the incumbent. According to the gadfly, the favorite challenger contacts him and says, “If you keep attacking the incumbent, that will help me win, and I’ll give you a job in my administration.” Six months later, the challenger wins, and the gadfly gets a job. Then news stories come to light that the gadfly was once subject to a restraining order for harassing a 13 year old girl. He gets fired, and is now trying to blow the cover off of the whole sordid quid pro quo. The challenger, now the mayor, calls for investigations of the whole affair to “clear things up.” What really kills me is that DC may not have a law that would prohibit this kind of bribery (if it did indeed happen). Un-freaking-believable. DC, how do you consistently manage to screw things up? [Link.](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/06/AR2011030603934.html?wprss=rss_metro/dc) ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2011, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scandal-in-dc-ssssshocking/573849/2 "2011-03-08T01:24:07Z")
Rewarding people with jobs is completely de rigueur in politics. I don’t realy see how this could even be construed as illegal - politically embarrassing maybe, but totally normal. They all do it. Every President does it. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2011, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scandal-in-dc-ssssshocking/573849/3 "2011-03-08T01:40:20Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Rewarding people with jobs is completely de rigueur in politics. I don’t realy see how this could even be construed as illegal - politically embarrassing maybe, but totally normal. They all do it. Every President does it. True, but that’s not all he’s saying. > [@](#): > > [Brown] said in an interview Sunday that he was paid by Green and Brooks and had been promised a position with the Gray administration for his efforts against Fenty. Brown said he received money between June 24 and the Sept. 14 Democratic primary and used it to pay personal expenses and help fund his campaign. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2011, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scandal-in-dc-ssssshocking/573849/4 "2011-03-08T01:49:33Z")
Whoops. Should have read the link. They don’t all do THAT. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2011, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scandal-in-dc-ssssshocking/573849/5 "2011-03-08T01:50:05Z")
> [@Frank](#): > > True, but that’s not all he’s saying. Its pretty common to pay a third party to attack a rival candidate when your running against them in a campaign. Its a little weird if that third party is also running in that same campaign, but I don’t really see why that would make it illegal or corrupt. Granted depending on where the money came from, they might run afoul of finance laws, but I didn’t see anything about that in the article. ---
**Author:** ![furt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/439d5e/32.png) [@furt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furt)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2011, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scandal-in-dc-ssssshocking/573849/6 "2011-03-08T03:16:55Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > Ugh. No matter how much progress there has been in DC over the last ten years, hearing crap like this just reinforces the view that this city is a joke. As much as Vincent Gray and co. are obviously sleazy and corrupt, I think the continuing reelection of Marion Barry says all that needs to be said. ---
**Author:** ![brickbacon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@brickbacon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brickbacon)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2011, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scandal-in-dc-ssssshocking/573849/7 "2011-03-08T04:02:23Z")
Why do you believe this guy? I currently live in DC, and I remember the election. I don’t think had any effect on the outcome at all. Not sure it would make sense to pay him. ---
**Author:** ![FinnAgain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finnagain/32/12500_2.png) [@FinnAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinnAgain)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2011, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scandal-in-dc-ssssshocking/573849/8 "2011-03-08T04:08:25Z")
Came expecting pun about corruption in DC power industry, left dissapointed. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2011, 10:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scandal-in-dc-ssssshocking/573849/9 "2011-03-08T10:22:50Z")
> [@brickbacon](#): > > Why do you believe this guy? I currently live in DC, and I remember the election. I don’t think had any effect on the outcome at all. Not sure it would make sense to pay him. Really? Why did Fenty lose, despite being generally acknowledge as a capable mayor? Seems to me it was because to the whisper campaign against his lack of “inclusiveness.” ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2011, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scandal-in-dc-ssssshocking/573849/10 "2011-03-08T11:03:02Z")
Because many DC voters thought Fenty was in cahoots with “[The Plan](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Plan_(Washington,_D.C.))”, among other things. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2011, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scandal-in-dc-ssssshocking/573849/11 "2011-03-08T12:12:00Z")
Another DC voter checking in, Fenty lost for a lot of reasons, including that he alienated his base. Whether or not some of that alienation was part of a manufactured whisper campaign remains to be seen, but as a Washingtonian I’ll say probably. It also didn’t help that national teachers’ organizations pumped millions of dollars into the primary to kick him out. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2011, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scandal-in-dc-ssssshocking/573849/12 "2011-03-08T14:03:02Z")
> [@brickbacon](#): > > Why do you believe this guy? I currently live in DC, and I remember the election. I don’t think had any effect on the outcome at all. Not sure it would make sense to pay him. The fact that he has text messages from Gray is pretty damning (though not entirely conclusive) evidence of a shady deal. What most pisses me off is that this DC apparently has no means to effect punishment for corruption. To beat a dead horse, when Marion Barry was found to have violated conflict of interest laws, there was apparently no way to expel him from the council, so he was only censured. Now, if these charges are indeed true (and I am willing to wait to hear definitive word), it seems that there may be no law under which any of these jokers could actually face criminal charges for a bribery scheme that would clearly be illegal if it had been perpetrated by federal officials. That, my dear friends, is complete bullshit. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2011, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scandal-in-dc-ssssshocking/573849/13 "2011-03-08T15:22:20Z")
> [@An\_Arky](#): > > Because many DC voters thought Fenty was in cahoots with “[The Plan](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Plan_(Washington,_D.C.))”, among other things. Whoah! It’s almost bizarre how closely that theory parallels Zionist conspiracy theories, only on a city scale. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2011, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scandal-in-dc-ssssshocking/573849/14 "2011-03-08T15:27:15Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Whoops. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2011, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scandal-in-dc-ssssshocking/573849/15 "2011-03-08T15:29:25Z")
> [@An\_Arky](#): > > Because many DC voters thought Fenty was in cahoots with “[The Plan](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Plan_(Washington,_D.C.))”, among other things. And I thought I’d seen it all. That’s double-barreled lunacy right there. It just goes to show that no matter how absurd something seems to be, someone actually believes it. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2011, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scandal-in-dc-ssssshocking/573849/16 "2011-03-08T15:47:09Z")
> [@brickbacon](#): > > Why do you believe this guy? I currently live in DC, and I remember the election. I don’t think had any effect on the outcome at all. Not sure it would make sense to pay him. It didn’t make sense for Nixon to [cheat in an election he was going to win in a landslide anyway](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DickDastardlyStopsToCheat), but he did. ---
**Author:** ![Caffeine.addict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f475e1/32.png) [@Caffeine.addict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caffeine.addict)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2011, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scandal-in-dc-ssssshocking/573849/17 "2011-03-08T16:03:10Z")
I was a Fenty voter and I really doubt that Sulaimon Brown had a real impact on the election. They guy isn’t all there and he didn’t come across being rational. He was another gadfly running for mayor, kind of like the people that the Statehood Green party runs. [QUOTE=Bricker] Really? Why did Fenty lose, despite being generally acknowledge as a capable mayor? Seems to me it was because to the whisper campaign against his lack of “inclusiveness.” [/QUOTE] Fenty didn’t lose the election because of the Plan. He lost the election because he came across as an ass and he isn’t very good at the glad handling and community outreach that is necessary to be a politician in DC. It’s surprising because he was fairly effective as a Council member and he ran a very good campaign in 2006. His campaign in 2010 was poorly run, and he failed to acknowledge the dislike he had bred over the last four years. The Washington Post ran a good [article](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/15/AR2010091500834.html?sid=ST2010122502136) on Fenty’s campaign after the primaries. As the [Washington City](http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/articles/39616/is-adrian-fenty-a-jerk-politicians-say-he-is-but/full/) paper put it, Fenty is a jerk. One community activist says he sat next to Fenty at a community meeting and Fenty barely said a word spending his time reading through his Blackberry. He seemed to make enemies at every turn. Mary Cheh, council member for Ward 3, which is very affluent, and very white and which was a bastion of support for Fenty and Rhee endorsed Vincent Gray. I bet that [Kwame Brown](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/19/AR2011021904613.html) is happy that this scandal came up so people can stop talking about his leasing a $2,000.00 a month car, not liking the interior and making the city lease him another one while leaving the city stuck with the tab for both of them. Of course, then it turns out that under a law passed by the council in 2002, the city can’t procure gas guzzlers, so the leases were [illegal](http://voices.washingtonpost.com/dc/2011/02/browns_suv_was_illegal_wells.html). ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2011, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scandal-in-dc-ssssshocking/573849/18 "2011-03-08T17:30:20Z")
> [@furt](#): > > I think the continuing reelection of Marion Barry says all that needs to be said. It doesn’t say anything more than any other electorate that votes for smooth talkers on the basis of emotional reasons. ---
**Author:** ![furt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/439d5e/32.png) [@furt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furt)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2011, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scandal-in-dc-ssssshocking/573849/19 "2011-03-08T19:48:24Z")
> [@acsenray](#): > > It doesn’t say anything more than any other electorate that votes for smooth talkers on the basis of emotional reasons. Which describes a lot of places, yes, but DC worse than most. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2011, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scandal-in-dc-ssssshocking/573849/20 "2011-03-08T19:52:18Z")
And bringing up Marion Barry in contexts that have nothing to do with him plays right into his hands. I have a theory that every time someone makes a random disparaging comment about Marion Barry, an angel gives him another vote for the next election. That’s especially if that comment has something to do with, or fundamentally based on, his being caught smoking crack on camera in a hotel room. There are a lot of reasons why Marion Barry is not the kind of guy that should be in charge of any public institution, but that crack thing is a distraction from them. Frankly, I think that if he had never been the subject of that crack sting, his career would have petered out a long time ago from the fact that he never actually accomplishes anything in office. However, the blowback from the sting basically gave his political career a second life. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scandal-in-dc-ssssshocking/573849.md?page=2)