RECALL MAYOR WILLIAMS

That's the rallying cry of a campaign currently underway in the District right now. But since March it seems the extent of that campaign has been a number of signs posted around the U Street area, not to mention a website appropriately named recallmayorwilliams.com.

For what transgressions should the bow-tied Tony Williams be booted from office? The website offers:

• Closing General Hospital
  
• Skyrocketing Mortgage and Rental Rates
  
• Privatizing Utilities
  
• Attempting to Control OUR Elected School Board
  
• Selling Public Land to Wealthy Private Developers
  
• Prioritizing the Olympics and Sports Over Education, Healthcare, and Safety
  
• Forging Petition Signatures
  
• Closing Homeless Shelters
  
• Failing to Give Us a Timely Report About Lead in OUR Water
  
• And much more ...

Yawwwwwn. The only illegal action listed above is the petition signatures controversy, and that was well known before his re-election in November of '02. Williams failed to make the ballot because of that, yet he still won based on write-in votes. Besides, after more terms in office for Marion "Mayor For Life" Barry than one could defend, the complaints against Williams are eye-rollingly mundane. Besides, in a city where the law forbids the local government from repossessing condemned and abandoned buildings -- parts of this town look like war-torn Bosnia -- and selling them to developers, the complaint about public land being sold seems wildly off the mark.

Also of note: The campaign's other tag line is "Save Our City." Who knew Jim Morrison had such a following here in the hometown of Duke Ellington and Dave Grohl?

P.S. But for Washingtonians like me who enjoy corrupt politicians for all the bad press they generate and still rue the day Jim Traficant got hauled off to jail, there is a light at the end of the tunnel: Barry is running for a seat on the city council. The original meaning of that "tunnel" metaphor, which had the light being an oncoming train, does seem especially salient right about now...

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posted by WWB at 9:46 AM |