Jonetta Rose Barras: Dan Tangherlini: The wizard’s assistant

Folks who believe Adrian Fenty a wizard, capable of changing the District government into some warm and fuzzy steel bullet, cutting through an unresponsive corporation with a wave of his BlackBerry, don’t understand the contradiction of their desires. They certainly don’t understand the city’s entrenched, bloated and abusive bureaucracy.

Fenty, who swept the Democratic primary the way former Mayor Sharon Pratt (then-Dixon) promised to broom the government, may be able to do many things. But the radical changes required in the District will not happen swiftly, or magically — even with his ace assistant Dan Tangherlini.