Let’s take a break for a moment from the petty political food fight that passes for budget making in local D.C. governance.
Pretend you are a congressman from Arkansas. You sit on a committee that will consider how Congress governs the nation’s capital.
Will Congress keep a tight rein on District finances, as the Constitution allows? Will it extend more autonomy in budgeting and lawmaking? Will it give D.C. full voting rights?
On a return trip to your district, a constituent buttonholes you at a fundraiser and asks: “Did I read that the D.C. mayor and the city council are fighting over baseball tickets?”
Returning to the capital, the congressman finds that Mayor Adrian Fenty has tried to ship a firetruck to a Caribbean island, and he has stiff-armed the council’s request for information. He then reads that the council and the mayor are at war over the budget. Both the mayor and the council know the budget has to shrink; Fenty makes cuts, the council restores them and makes what appear to be vindictive cuts in return.
And the congressman or senator asks himself: Why would I vote to give these zany politicians more independence?
You can grouse and stew over the fact that Congress has ultimate control over D.C. It is unjust, undemocratic and downright unfair.
But it is the law. And what Congress has seen in the last two months is a city where the executive and legislative branches are at war.
“I have never seen it as bad as this,” says a veteran lobbyist. “There is zero contact between the committee chairs and the executive.”
You have to go back to the days when dear departed John Wilson was council chairman and Sharon Pratt Kelly was mayor to find such antipathy between the branches. Former Mayor Anthony Williams was a bit weird and quirky, but he managed to get along with council members. He and then-Council Chairwoman Linda Cropp behaved like adults, met when necessary, negotiated and passed budgets.
But now the majority of council members actually despise Fenty. Their antipathy might be justified. Fenty smiles in their faces in public then refuses to speak with them in private on substantive matters. Hardheaded and competitive, he treats them as adversaries, or bugs he must crush.
Witness the ticket war. Fenty has yet to fork over the council’s share. They fume in vain.
Freshman Councilwoman Mary Cheh, chairwoman of the government operations committee, no longer wants to play. She has tried to work with Fenty and his folks; she feels her appeals have been totally dismissed. The actions of Fenty and his council-lobbying shop “has sometimes bordered on legislative interference,” her committee report noted.
So she cut $287,000 and three employees. These budgets had been sacrosanct. No more.
So it’s war. Which plays into the hands of — guess who? Councilman Marion Barry is now sashaying around saying “I have the votes to crush Fenty.”
Says one council member: “Hell will freeze over before Congress gives up its veto.”
