October 31, 2005
Outing the Neighbors
Washington being the government town that it is, it's almost inevitable that political adversaries would live in the same neighborhood, sharing in the duties of civic life while battling in the marketplace of ideas and policies during the work week. Most famous for being out of his element may be Karl Rove, whose District home sits squarely in a city that overwhelmingly voted against the man for whom he campaigned and advised.
But when do those differences in opinion begin to affect neighborhood cohesion? If a particular resident dislikes a neighbor's politics, how far is too far in airing those sentiments? Over the weekend, DCist got a taste of how national politics can infect domestic tranquility.
On a quiet walk through the Eastern Market section of Capitol Hill, this DCist spied an understated flyer on a car's windshield. Simply written, the flyer stated the following:
THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD!The message, which was unsigned and included Cabelly's home address (redacted here), went on to quote from a recent Post article describing a $535,000 lobbying contract between C/R International -- a firm founded by Cabelly and where he serves as a managing director -- and the Government of Sudan, which has been accused of perpetrating genocide against the residents of the country's Darfur region.Dear Neighbor,
I wanted to let you know about a man who is living among us. Robert J. Cabelly...is getting paid to do public relations work for a genocidal regime.
Was this message a step too far in attempting to air a disagreement over political opinions and employment choices? Why did the flyer's author go as far as to produce the material anonymously? More importantly, why did they choose to publicize Cabelly's address? Is his work odious enough to merit such treatment? If so, will Democratic neighborhoods start outing their Republican neighbors? Should recently-indicted Scooter Libby expect similar treatment from his McLean neighbors?
DCist would hope that politics could stop at 5 p.m., but this being the town that it is, we're not holding our breath.
Picture of houses snapped by dangerbird.
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I don't really think this is a huge problem. I'd want to know if, say, one of my neighbors were carrying water for the Sudan, or if, for example, a DCist contributor worked for Hugo Chavez.
And by the way, he's late for work.
Maybe they chose to publish his address so one could actually see what the blood of 300,000 human beings buys. By the way, I didn't realize Rove had a house in the District. I just assumed he shape-shifted into some sort of Demonic Overlord and roamed the city feasting on the souls of innocent children. Strictly after 5pm, of course.
Sorry, one side of the political spectrum isn't allowed to use the tactic just because they think they're "right". Everyone is for this kind of behavior until the Right To Lifers start posting pictures of Planned Parenthood workers all over their neighborhoods with captions like "BABY KILLER", or the KKK starts to go after NAACP employees.
Politics is not supposed to be a Jihad, so let's leave people alone at home.
Everything is politics. To even wish it would stop at 5pm is naive beyond belief.
On other points: It is one thing to harass people who are doing something (currently) legal in this country, such as any job at Planned Parenthood, and working on behalf of a law abiding organization -- again, such as Planned Parenthood.
It is another thing, I think, to be the paid agent of a foreign state engaged in genocide -- illegal by all counts just about everywhere (genocide that is, not the PR work on behalf of the state sponsoring/enabling/encouraging the genocide).
I don't see how one could justify KKK members going after NAACP employees in their neighborhoods as parallels to either of the previous situations.
Harassment is against the law. It's a fine line to tread in situations like this and D.C. is a unique place.
Wherever the threshold may be, it will be pushed in this town.
If you work for anyone unpleasant or aggressive, you'll either be pushing it or be on the receiving end of the push. The rest of us will stumble upon it, get caught in the crossfire, etc.
Getting dirty looks from the neighbors seems like a minor issue, especially when compared to, say, the systemmatic and brutal murder of an entire people.
Also, the comparison between this and the Nuremburg Files is false and disingenuous. No one is claiming that this guy should be shot or otherwise harmed for his actions; rather, he merely is being confronted with the fact that he is colluding with murderers, much the way banks in Switzerland were forced to admit their complicity in Nazi actions to smuggle the wealth of Jews out of Germany. Were the KKK to actually "go after" NAACP employees in any way that was illegal, be it an act of physical violence or a campaign of explicit harassment, that would be wrong. The same applies for Robert Cabelly.
At the end of the day, it's a judgment call, and mine is that this is a bad line of political civility to cross.
Getting dirty looks from the neighbors seems like a minor issue, especially when compared to, say, the systemmatic and brutal murder of an entire people.
I'd only have to add two words to turn this into the defense cited by the radical religious right for "outing" women who have had abortions or doctors who have performed them. Sudan is a singular shame, no doubt, but this tactic invites abuse.
making the comparison between outing women who have had abortions and those that aid genocidal governmets is unfounded.
abortions are legal and genocide is against international law.
they are so not comparable.
If the accusations against Cabelly are based solely on what was in the WaPo article, then I think this tactic is taking things too far.
We have to be careful in making generalizations about any country. "Countries" don't really make decisions, individuals in a particular country's bureaucracy do. Perhaps the specific individuals in Sudan who made the decision to hire this guy are actually moderates who want a connection with Washington to help them oust the radicals and Cabelly thinks he can help them out. Or maybe they are bloodthirsty radicals who want nothing more than to enslave little black children and export dead babies to Cabelly so he can feast on them in wild Satanic rituals. We don't know what the specifics are here. I mention this because there may be situations where someone's conduct is so socially unacceptable that they should get this sort of treatment, but what we know about Cabelly's conduct doesn't warrant this.
I personally condemn what Cabelly is doing, but it is not egregious enough to single him out for exceptional abuse. And pointing out where a private citizen lives is certainly exceptional.
Would you also think it was wrong for the NAACP to post flyers in a neighborhood warning neighbors that a person in that 'hood was a member of the KKK? If you can't be proud of what you do from 8am - 5pm and think it isn't anyone's business, you should probably rethink your career choice. Then again it's easy not to care when you profit from others' misfortune. Oh and to think that politics ends at 5pm, tell that to the million or so refugees from the Darfur region. Ask them if they get to go home at 5pm when "politics ends". Give me a break. People who lie in bed with murderers deserve no protection in my opinion.
Some of my neighbors strongly objected to a juicy quote from me in the Washington Post suggesting there is an internal contradiction behind the hostile attitudes towards low-income immigrants who hang out on a local shopping strip. I said that some want a strongly managed "cultural disneyland" so they can think they are multi-cultural, without having to deal with real differences.
So an anonymous "Addertongue" (an adder is a kind of viper, or poisonous snake) compiled a dossier of mostly supposition and innuendo, attacking me on a local forum. To make the cut complete, they called in three DC agencies to harass me for supposed violations without a shred of proof. I'm only a lowly ANC commissioner, unpaid and purely advisory. So much for defending my constituents -- my district includes one of the highest concentrations in DC of the folks whose presence seems so offensive to some.
That was just the published stuff, not to mention a systematic slander campaign. In some neighborhoods, the practice is trial by gossip, judgment by clique, assassination of character.
In a follow up article, the Post called our local politics "brutish".
An observation: It seems worse in some areas than others. One of the indulgences afforded by an expensive education? The directness of fraternity pranks combined with the nastiness of faculty politics?
What's my point? A personal story on how fragile is the civility required for a functioning democracy. Before we slowly slip into a war of all against all, perhaps there is good reason to support a bias for tolerance and against social vigilantism:
Normally, let the legal system sort out who has crossed the line that endangers our common peace, and the rest strive for a kind of rowdy tolerance: Attacks against principles are OK, against principals, or the person, not.
making the comparison between outing women who have had abortions and those that aid genocidal governmets is unfounded.
abortions are legal and genocide is against international law.
Read more closely: Cabelly isn't committing genocide, he's lobbying for Sudan. Lobbying is legal.
"Everyone is for this kind of behavior until the Right To Lifers start posting pictures of Planned Parenthood workers all over their neighborhoods with captions like "BABY KILLER", or the KKK starts to go after NAACP employees."
The difference is that the right to lifers and the KKK have terrorist groups that carry out violence against the people exposed in this way. People against the genocide in sudan? not so much.
I think that publicizing the guy's home address among neighbors isn't called for, and seems excessive. On the other hand, publicizing the guy's office address would be called for.
Kriston conflated two different issues, perhaps as a result of misinterpreting ABC's comment. No one said that what Cabelly is doing is illegal. They said that the genocidal activities of his client, whom he freely chose to make a handsome buck off of, are illegal in most places around the world -- and certainly morally reprehensible.
I did get confused by what Jason B. wrote. I think that Cabelly is indeed representing the official Sudan government. I know little about Sudan, but it would be unreasonable to assume that working for Sudan is not the same as working for those who are in power in Sudan. That means it wouldn't be for any moderates.
Jason, help me out with something :-) . You wrote that we don't have enough information about who hired Cabelly, and that you do condemn what he's doing. If we don't have enough info, then how can you condemn what he's doing?
Last thing -- I would add that publicizing a public official's private home address is, 99% of the time, on the unkosher side of things as well. It's why they have offices. Or, in the case of school board members and at least some ANC commissioners, they at least have email addresses.
I live in the same building as Tom Delay. What should I do?
Cljo,
Easy. Move. Or better yet, accidentally cause the elevator to get stuck. I'm kidding...both times.
I would probably say to him, "Morning." I think 99% of the time -- like JasonB wrote above, there should be some exceptions, and for me it's about 1% of the time, actually less -- public officials are entitled to some privacy at home.
A worthy example of an exception for me is what Cindy Sheehan did in Crawford. And even then, it wasn't in Bush's front yard.
The fact that Robert Cabelly left the service of the US to work for a country that has the humanitarian record to make Hitler or Stalin smile is appalling. What is even more appalling, that the State is supporting Cabelly to lobby on its behalf. What Cabelly is doing maybe perfectly legal but make no mistake, he is not going to be presenting US perspectives to Sudan. The real problem, of course, is the simple fact that the government can let Cabelly work for milliosn to represent a country with such a sick regime.