So much for no swearing at the D.C. Council.
More than two months after a pair of legislators engaged in an expletive-loaded discussion at a council retreat, lawmakers traded insults and profanities at a Tuesday morning breakfast.
During a discussion about an afternoon vote on a $64 million supplemental budget plan, lawmakers sprinkled the dialogue with expletives.
Ward 6 Councilman Tommy Wells fired the first shot. With Ward 2 Councilman Jack Evans questioning the need for significant spending on social services, the normally mild-mannered Wells snapped, “Why do you throw that sh-t out there, Jack?” The remark prompted a glare and a pointed finger from Council Chairman Kwame Brown, who in February pushed for and got a rule change to ban swearing from public meetings.
Wells, a social worker by training, said that Evans’ assertion that the District has made minimal progress for billions of dollars was wrong and pointed to statistics showing fewer children in foster care.
But Evans stood by his argument, and when Ward 1 Councilman Jim Graham, the chairman of the committee that oversees human services, tried to argue, too, Evans replied, “Jim, you are so idiotic.”
Still later, At-Large Councilman David Catania railed against a plan to pay District workers for furlough days they were forced to take in 2011.
Catania, who signaled he will likely vote against the plan, said city leaders were bowing to labor unions.
“I didn’t have any union leader come in and make any g-dd-mn demands,” said Catania, who was at the center of the council retreat episode when he traded barbs with Ward 8 Councilman Marion Barry. “I don’t care about my language.”
Earlier in the meeting, Catania had complained about “crazy-ass growth” predictions in Medicaid and added that health care agencies wanted the city to “get [its] sh-t straight.”
In an interview with The Washington Examiner after the breakfast, Brown said he thought the language was the byproduct of a tense meeting subject.
“I did hear one or two people [use] a little bit of profanity, and of course I asked them to refrain from any profanity,” Brown said. “It’s always heated when you have a budget and you have different opinions on how to spend money when there’s no money.”
