August 24, 2006
D.C. Politics Roundup: Mea Culpa Edition
Brown Not Out: Well, we're a little red-faced today. Yesterday we guessed that mayoral longshot Michael Brown was bowing out of the race. He did, after all, send us an email in which he announced that a press conference held yesterday would include "major announcement regarding his plans for the future." Coupled with his fast-shrinking campaign finance account, we thought, "This guy is toast." How wrong we were. Brown didn't duck out of the race. Quite the contrary -- he reminded District voters he's still around, and did so by promising to dump the new stadium along South Capitol Street if elected, or so reports the Examiner. We were always skeptical about the wisdom of financing a new stadium, but now that the land has been cleared, construction has begun, and the team sold, we're going to have to see this one through. There is obviously some residual anger among voters concerning how much the stadium will cost, but is it enough to decide who they vote for? Brown sure hopes so.
Post Rolls Out Endorsements: The Post has started throwing its substantial weight around -- the endorsements have appeared. Earlier this week they picked Councilmember Jim Graham for the Ward 1 seat he currently occupies and GW law professor Mary Cheh for the hotly-contested Ward 3 seat. Today they picked Harry Thomas Jr. for Ward 5 and Tommy Wells for Ward 6. That leaves the city-wide seats to be decided -- Kathy Patterson vs. Vincent Gray for D.C. Council chair; A. Scott Bolden vs. Phil Mendelson for an At-Large seat; and, for the big cheese, Adrian Fenty, Linda Cropp, or Marie Johns for mayor (those are the names that have been floated by the Posties, or so we've heard). And while we don't know who the Post will pick for mayor, we do know who Metro columnist Marc Fisher likes -- Fenty.
Rees Gets Interviewed: Ward 3 candidate Jonathan Rees isn't one for media interviews. In fact, he's pretty much avoided having to appear before groups of voters altogether (he hasn't appeared at any of the Ward 3 candidate forums) during the course of the campaign. But The Common Denominator did get some time in with Rees, who managed to bash, well, bloggers. Reads the profile on Rees:
The Web has provided a fast and economical way for Rees to reach voters, but it has also been a primary platform for controversy within the campaign.We'll hold any editorializing and just let those comments stand.The source has been primarily from postings on web logs, or "blogs." For example, on June 10, an anonymous blogger posted the following message in reference to Rees on the Washington Post's online blog: "Not everyone is entitled to speak, certainly not literally insane candidates who do nothing but lie about, and attack, other candidates."
This example, and many that target candidates other than Rees, have become commonplace as speculation surrounds who is responsible for posting the nasty messages.
Rees has his suspicions about who is behind what he describes as "mud-slinging," but chooses not to focus on it.
"I hate drumming on the negative. … Everyone is being attacked one way or another, but I won’t dance to their [the bloggers'] tune," he said.
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I'm voting Michael Brown. Easy choice people.
I guess the folks at the Common Denominator are simply brain-dead.
Too bad, I thought they had produced some good stuff over the years.
Even the InTowner finally got it right on Rees.
If anyone wants some good humor, check out Rees's website section on smart growth and compare it with this:
http://www.smartgrowth.org/about/default.asp?res=1024
On top of everything else, he is a plagarist.
why, hello goodbye? because he's promising something popular among certain voters that he probably won't even be able to deliver? this reminds me of when jim gilmore promised a repeal of the car tax if virginians voted for him. a lot of virginians were shocked to find out that 1) their vote for gilmore wasn't a referendum on the car tax, and they still had to pay their tax that year, and 2) neither gilmore nor the state legislature had authority to repeal a tax that was largely levied by localities. the way they ended up accomplishing it was still incomplete and nothing more than a clever reallocation.
great, brown wants to halt construction of the stadium and use the funds for more worthwhile purposes. exactly where is he going to get authority to do all this just by being elected mayor?
he should have promised a literal chicken in every pot instead. it would have been about as realistic, and in reality far easier to fulfill.
Gee, I wonder who could be posting those "many that target candidates other than Rees" (well, aside from the avalanche of Fenty-bashing posts from the Cropp army).
KCinDC,
Here's another anti-Fenty post: He's an idiot. And I am not a big fan of Cropp either. However, I am baffled by Fenty's support among NW white bleeding-heart yuppies. What exactly has made him so popular with your crowd?
Please delete Rees's latest crock of utter nonsense.
Every word out of his mouth is suspect, and he's unfit for interacting with decent society.
Yeah, right Ramonathan. I'm SURE James said that...not.
You're a clown, a bigot, and a sociopath. Please stop bothering us. Go have another drink.
Fenty, Cropp, Orange - none of them can take heat. Brown is a courageous candidate that has proven to me he shines above all candidates. Give him campaign funding, he'd plow 'em
"take newspaper endorsements with a hill of beans"!!!
Way to dispel the impression that you're the least intelligent ward 3 candidate !
Also, did anyone notice Candidate Troll's latest plagiarism? Check out "his" position statement about "Smart Growth" on his idiotic website. It's a TOTAL cut and paste from smartgrowth.org. Dumb AND unethical. Perfect.
hello goodbye,
why not Marie Johns? she has the leadership experience that this city needs...
Guess what? Rees is lying. Ask James Jones? I did. You should too.
Rees is mentally ill. (Just ask a certain court psychiatrist.)
Don't encourage him. Let him rant and continue to embarass himself.
Just ignore him. On the internet and at the polls.
Rees talking about morality? That's like Bush talking about pacifism.
Martin et al:
Please keep copies of Rees' posts above after you pull them. For obvious reasons.
Thanks!
Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.
Daniel, I'm not a big fan of Fenty either, though I may end up voting for him for lack of any better alternative. I'm just sick of having the comments on political blog posts be taken over with contentless mentions of Skinner. Once per thread, or better yet once per day per blog, is more than sufficient.
Rees, I wasn't aware that Kathy Patterson had such control over the Post, the Sierra Club, and the Current. You'd think if her mind control over the Sierra Club was so great she'd have had them endorse her rather than Vincent Gray for chair.
to ---
Not to worry. I and other people are keeping screenshots of Rees' posts, here and elsewhere. I know what you're getting at...and they'll be useful journalistically and legally one day ;-)
What is a "court psychiatric"? HEE HEE
Not to worry, Giovanni. I'll be doing it for free.
BTW, check out Rees's offensive "joke" about the developmentally disabled on the DCPages Messageboards (the DC Politics site under "A Message From Jonathan Rees".) You've probably seen stuff like it before, but certainly never by someone who presumes himself to be fit for public office.
Character will out as they say. It's just shameful
Funny that Rees accuses me of creating that offensive image, yet he is the one who posts it publicly.
Rees, you have even managed to offend Luke Wilbur,owner of DCPages.com and Human, one of your main supporters and contributors to that forum.
Regarding the above posts in your name, there is so much conjecture and hyperbole as to be amazing. It really isn't worth addressing, and if anyone wishes to check with Loose Lips, just for a start, much less any of the various campaigns or candidates he refers to, you will confirm that Rees lives in a fantasy world.
Your desparation is simply tops. I can honestly say you are the best at something.
B. Frank
THE SIMPLE FACT OF THE MATTER FOR ME AND D.C. VOTERS IS...
OR WHY DENNIS MAY BE A MENACE TO STATUS QUO D.C. POLITICS...
At age 45 I hate being spoon-fed anything...especially news and information...and I hate feeling like I've been bamboozled after an election...after the last three mayoral elections I'm now saying ENOUGH IS ENOUGH...I (We) have to get serious about substance, integrity and accountability when it comes to electing a mayor...or we just end up with more MAYOR MISTAKES every four years...the fascination and hype over Adrian Fenty in particular, as well as Linda Cropp and assorted other "front runners"... I've FINALLY come to realize is the true source of what's strangling the socioeconomic progress that most of us complain about year after year...and into another decade...the fact that we're still not a state while suffering from nearly the worst U.S. records when it comes to PER CAPITA educational achievement, affordable housing, homelessness, HIV-AIDS infections, random violent crime, child abuse, spouse abuse, mental disability abuse, joblessness, middle-class displacement and an expanding population of poverty-locked citizens...these are the ugly headlines no one wants to discuss or HYPE during an election year...this is no record of achievement for any of the so-called "front-runners" to brag about when these ills have developed and increased on their watch in office...in fact they act as if WE don't know these problems STILL exist and are GROWING amongst all the condo construction, downtown development, and let's play baseball hype...the tough-to-swallow reality check that I've come to face after 38 years as a D.C. resident is that I can no longer go along with this ongoing political scam or coronation of virtually the SAME quality of candidates from the SAME political party...reviewing the records: factually Fenty is a younger version of Cropp and Cropp is an older model of what Fenty is NOW...therefore this year I'm saving and VALUING my vote as a lifelong THINKING Democrat...on Election Day this November I'm writing-in or voting-in one of the BACK-RUNNERS who's presenting more substance and reality on what matters most in my city...someone who is outside the box of phony politics and false faces that most of us STILL fall for...this back-runner is a real front-runner on the REAL issues, immediate ACTION, long range THINKING, and a functional PLAN to deal with them...he is DENNIS MOORE...and if many of you are asking "Dennis who?" then blame our local news media (INCLUDING DCist) for not doing its job of providing equal and substantive news coverage of all the candidates (mayoral and council) running for office in the District...once you COMPLETELY check Dennis Moore's web site out then go back and objectively compare him to Fenty, Cropp, Orange, Brown, Johns and anyone else on any single or group of issues...then ask yourself what is your vote REALLY worth...HYPE or substance...REAL change or more of the SAME...Moore may not win in the end over the heavy load of hype...and I hope by some freaky fate I'm wrong THIS time...BUT, to respect the true value of my ONE vote I simply can't swallow the hype AGAIN this year...THIS year I'm voting for:
http://www.mooreforpeople.com/html/dennis_moore_for_dc_mayor.html
THAT'S MY TWO-CENTS WORTH OF RANT FOR 2006...THANK YOU!