Watching embattled D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray being carted away in police vans during a staged protest on Capitol Hill had the opposite of its intended effect, reminding D.C. residents why both Democrats and Republicans in Congress still have such a paternalistic view of the capital city’s government. Monday’s publicity stunt was ostensibly a protest against the latest budget deal negotiated between House Republicans, Senate Democrats and President Obama. But it would be hard to imagine a more transparently cynical attempt to divert public attention from serious allegations of political corruption still pending against the District’s top elected official. Key officials with the Gray campaign are alleged to have secretly passed envelopes stuffed with cash and to have offered a city job to mayoral candidate Sulaimon Brown in return for his attacking then-incumbent Mayor Adrian Fenty. There are also accusations that the city’s hiring procedures were ignored on behalf of the children of five of Gray’s top aides. The mayor has retained high-powered white-collar-crime attorney Robert Bennett to defend him against charges of violating campaign finance laws, rampant nepotism and quid pro quo dealing at city hall. These are extremely serious charges that must be investigated fully and charges brought, if evidence is found to support them, regardless of who becomes a defendant.
If Gray is to be arrested, let it be for something serious instead of allowing the mayor to use law enforcement officers as stage props in his self-serving political theater. Gray blocking Constitution Avenue traffic was nothing more than an attempt to distract voters by criticizing Congress for exercising its constitutional power to reinstate the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, which helps low-income children escape D.C.’s failing public schools. Is Gray willing to provide equal funding for the District’s public and charter schools to make his point?
As for D.C. Council Chairman Kwame Brown, who has been accused of accepting improper campaign contributions during his uncontested 2008 re-election contest, he claimed he supports the voucher program, so his only beef is a provision in the budget bill approved by the White House that reinstates a ban on local taxpayer funding of elective abortions in the District. But the ban is mostly symbolic because Congress did not cut funding to Planned Parenthood, which operates at least two abortion clinics in the District.
In the end, D.C. residents have only themselves to blame for the perceived lack of respect on Capitol Hill. They still vote overwhelmingly for one-party Democratic rule, which has given them high unemployment, terrible schools and political corruption in return.When Gray and Brown chanted “Free D.C.!” during their recent protest, it was with unintended irony. The city will never be respected until it frees itself from self-serving politicians like them.
