After Barry - the deluge? - Washington, D.C. mayor Marion Barry

National Review, Feb 19, 1990

After Barry--the Deluge?

MARION BARRY'S FALL came suddenly, except that it hasn't quite happened yet. He's still officially mayor of Washington, though he's currently in a drug-treatment center in Florida [see also "Off the Record," p. 64].

Trapped in a hotel room smoking crack with two women, neither of whom was Mrs. Barry, the mayor gave his city the kind of scandal it loves. Appearing in church the next Sunday, he expressed remorse, of a sort: "I have had to look at my human weaknesses straight in the eye, had to realize that I have spent so much time caring about and worrying about doing for others, I have not worried about or cared for myself." Mother Teresa has the same problem.

But Barry's drug and sex antics may turn out to be only the beginning. Like the Watergate burglary, his arrest will give prosecutors the leverage to pry open the inner workings of an administration whose vulnerablities have already resulted in corruption convictions of a dozen of Barry's associates. Barry and his cronies have lost control of access to potentially damaging information. The city's overloaded bureaucracy (one in six Washingtonians is employed by the city itself) is rumored to be as corrupt as it is dysfunctional. As targets of investigation turn state's evidence to save their own skins and reduce their sentences, tales of bribery, extortion, embezzlement, and conflict of interest will come pouring ouut, providing a spectacular view of how the city has been secretly operating during the Barry years.

The idea of Jesse Jacksn replacing Barry as mayor isn't serious. What Washington needs is not rhetorical "leadership"--Barry himself provided plenty of that--but honest and competent management. Execrating racism and passing new civil-rights laws isn't going to balance the books, fill the potholes, or cut the murder rate. Washington could use fewer messiahs and more little men with green eyeshades.