D.C. Politics for Dummies

It was far from the best of times, then it became the worst of times. But to be fair, the District’s troubles can’t all be blamed on 2011.

D.C. Councilman Harry Thomas Jr. created his nonprofit organization years before the city’s attorney general found he had diverted $300,000 from disadvantaged youth to his personal account. Chairman Kwame R. Brown apparently first sought that black-on-black luxury sports utility vehicle in 2010. What’s more, it’s his 2008 at-large council campaign that U.S. Attorney Ronald Machen Jr, has been investigating.