D.C. debacle

How much of a mess is the city council in Washington, D.C.? Even Marion Barry says it’s ridiculous. “We are the laughingstock of the nation,” Barry said at Wednesday’s meeting. In the past five months, two council members have resigned and pleaded guilty to crimes — one for stealing city money targeted for a youth program, the other for bank fraud. Meantime, federal investigators have been looking into city corruption. Barry is the District’s former mayor. While in that job, he was caught on film smoking crack cocaine and was convicted of marijuana possession. More recently he was prosecuted for not filing his taxes eight times in nine years. Councilman David Catania alluded to all that in responding to Barry’s laughingstock comment. “The worst perpetrators are sitting on this dais,” Catania said, noting that a “member of the (Finance and Revenue) Committee is a convicted criminal, hasn’t paid his taxes and yet he’s allowed to lecture others on ethics and vote on tax policy.” Zing!

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