I don't really see it as a big deal. It's not like very many tourists to DC would know what Fleet Feet is anyway, let alone seek the store out because Fenty (who they probably wouldn't even recognize) is wearing the shirt in one of the ads.

Would the Republicans rather have him wearing a TARGET shirt? How many people are on this committee and do they all own City Sports?

I actually agree that this is kind of in bad taste for Fenty, and borderline unethical (if not flat out illegal, if not only technically so). But really, in the annals of DC corruption, this isn't even a footnote. This isn't even a DFW footnote-to-a-footnote.

But speaking of photoshop, it looks like that's how they got Fenty into this stock photo in the first place. Unless of course he's a vampire and doesn't cast a shadow.

DC is so liberal it made me into a republican.

It was stupid for him to do that, but that's all. Stupid. We have more important things to get our panties in a wad about in this town.

Oh my gosh. I think that the founders of the National Cherry Blossom 10 miler, the Army 10 miler, the Marine Corps Marathon and the National Marathon should also all be in an uproar that the founder of National Triathlon is shamelessly promoting his event on an official DC document!

Despite all of the other problems going on with this city (the ballooning interest payments on the Stadium, the scandal in the Office of Tax & Revenue, etc.) I am so glad that the Republicans were able to pin-point the one issue most upsetting to citizens and tourists alike.

Is that even Rock Creek Park? It looks more like that '70s wallpaper with the nature landscapes. The whole thing looks like a bad photoshop to me.

But wouldn't it be great if the poster brouhaha really was the only problem the city had right now?

I'm with Bethesdaist. I call sloppy Photoshop. From our brief stint together in Leavenworth, I know for a fact that Fenty has a much more impressive package.

"I think that the founders of the National Cherry Blossom 10 miler, the Army 10 miler, the Marine Corps Marathon and the National Marathon should also all be in an uproar that the founder of National Triathlon is shamelessly promoting his event on an official DC document!"

Well for what it's worth, the founder of the National Triathlon's parents will not get a pecuniary gain from this free advertising.

As for the DCRC, it seems to me that they'd be better off fighting to eliminate primaries for DC elections. Personally, I think it's clear that a more open general election with some form of a run-off would be more "small d" democratic and would lead to more voter turnout. And moreover, from the DCRC's point of view the only way they'd ever have a chance picking off some seats would be in a more wide-open election (e.g. Catania's victory in the 1997 special election, which was not limited to non-Democrats). Still unlikely, but if they want to ever be more relevant than complaining about tourist posters, they ought to get behind a couple big causes like this.

when i first saw the ad, i thought it was a photoshop job too (and a bad one at that). something about the relationship between fenty's head and body doesn't seem right here.

that said, the repubs must be rejoicing right now. i'll bet you're the only news outlet in the city to pick up their press release and run with it. (go ahead and prove me wrong, washington times...)

i'll bet you're the only news outlet in the city to pick up their press release and run with it.

Citypaper's City Desk already covered this last week. Does that count as a "news outlet"?

Keep in mind this campaign and the new and improved way (far far better than it was before with "An American Experience" but still could some further fine-tuning) to advertise DC for tourism around the country was devised by Washington Convention and Tourism Corp, now known as Destination DC. Fenty nor his office organized this. The folks with Destination DC enlisted an agency and collected data and input from numerous local arts, culture and entertainment venues and tried to incorporate signature DC things besides just monuments and history to entice visitors - things like the local music scene with 9:30 Club, local theatres other than the Ken Cen, eateries from world class restaurants to Ben's Chili Bowl. Basically, not everything in DC is on the national mall.

THEY, Destination DC, most certainly had the idea of having Fenty in the ads AND to have him wear the shirt since his family are longtime business owners in DC/to show a connection to the community, blah blah blah. BUT I do agree, that though the idea was interesting, it should have come up that this would be seen as a conflict of interest and that his shirt instead should have been for something Fenty-free and iconic (a logo of the Capitol, a monument, G Washington, etc).

The DC Repubs have been cranking out a bunch of press releases in the past few months. They're pretty lame.

And Fenty's head in that pic does look disturbingly incorrect.

And finally, the "Power Play" tourism slogan is just plain dumb. A monkey at a typewriter could come up with something much better.

cranky: and we have just the right monkey at a typewriter, here! time for him to get on it!

"promoting the family business is great and all, but using your position in public office to do so in any way, well that's pretty much illegal."

Um.. Well, is it illegal or not? I would say with about 99.99% accuracy that not one single DC resident without a pre-existing beef with Fenty gives one schizzle about this in any way whatsoever.

So if it's only "pretty much illegal" and not really *actually* illegal, well, the getting all worked up about it is, well, pretty much a douchey kind of thing to do...

No apologies for the qualifier, there is some gray area here. Did he purposely wear the shirt for the photo? Did he know the photo was going to be used in a $2,000,000 ad campaign? and on, and on... thanks for the 'douche' comment tho. nicely done. There is more important stuff to be concerned with, but on the surface this makes him look to be pretty amateur.

For the record, I don't have 'a beef' with Fenty. I think he's doing amazing things. But the law clearly prohibits using public office for personal gain. Experienced, honest office holders know this, and know that it's best to steer clear of any possible impropriety.

As i said before... He should have known better.

Fucking right it's a big deal. If it were the other way around and the Democratic party were complaining about some Republican doing this, a lot of you bitches would be screaming bloody murder.

That poster is a blatant ad for Fleet Feet. Do you think it would have made it to press if he was wearing a shirt bearing a huge Nike logo? It is unethical at the very least. But I have a feeling that a whole bunch of you voted for Fenty.

"That poster is a blatant ad for Fleet Feet."

Not really. If you don't already know what Fleet Feet is, you're not going to find out by looking at this poster. If it hadn't been mentioned here, I would have thought it was just another silly running shirt. That doesn't make it right, but I really don't think it's as big a deal as some people are making it out to be.

This is a shitty move by Fenty. I refuse to give him the benefit of the doubt and would not be surprised if this is calculated.

Who's the scary white guy stalking Fenty in that shot?

Seriously, lads. It's doubtful Fenty even saw this print copy before it was put out there. First.... He's a smart guy. Doubtful he'd be this stupid. Second..... he's the dang Mayor. Chances are he didn't personally approve the ad copy for a stupid publicity campaign for the city tourism department.