Morning Roundup: Goodbye, Abe Edition
D.C. Police Seek Suspect in Series of Bank Robberies
Suspect in 9-Year-Old's Murder Found Dead in D.C. Jail
Photo of the Day: November 25, 2009
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It still amazes me just how little D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty seems to understand about talking to reporters. The more he categorically refuses to answer a single question about the process that took place to enroll his two sons in the high-performing Lafayette Elementary School, even though their neighborhood school is West Elementary, the more journalists are going to keep after this story. If you've ever wondered what it's like to talk to Fenty in the middle of a press scrum, just check out the video below, courtesy NBC4's Tom Sherwood. Mike DeBonis has a write-up with full audio of yesterday's heated exchange over at City Desk as well.
The important thing to note here is that Sherwood and the other reporters present actually try to give Fenty an out here by asking him to explain how any D.C. child would go about enrolling as an out of boundary student at a school like Lafayette, and this mayor, who wants to be known almost exclusively as an education reformer, won't even answer that question. Mr. Mayor, all you have to do give them a little nibble on the process, say you followed the rules (as has already been reported), and then we can all move on.
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"Mayor Stonewalls Response to Allegations of Stonewalling."
I voted for this guy but I am being constantly amazed how stupid he is. He is acting more imperious every day which apparently a big war chest and no opposition will do to a person. I am seriously considering voting for Faith if Fenty doesn't straighten his act out. It's almost like having Barry but without the fun of the booze and the drugs and the women and . . .
Absolutely no charisma or tact whatsoever, all he would have had to say was "contact the school for a more detailed answer, but let me tell you that I followed the correct process for enrollment." That would have been it, but instead he creates a shitstorm out of his own stubborness.
Señor Wence's hand puppet Johnny could have "handled" this fiasco better. We should dig him up and run him for office. Too bad DC continues to be so hostile to dead Spanish ventriloquists and their creepy hand puppets.
si
Saright!
Does he give you taco flavored kisses?
burrito, burrito, taco, taco, taco, burrito, burrito
Will Eric Cartman and JLo please leave the forum...
Adrian Milhous Fenty. As stonewallers go, perhaps he should heed that old saw that the fallout from a coverup is usually worse than the underlying crime. And apparently there isn't even a "crime" in this case. And try as they might, politicians don't get to decide what's news, the media does.
DeBonis looks ridiculous in this situation in the still-frame.
is it the sunglasses?
Those are from the new Jim Graham Collection over at Hour Eyes.
It's the sunglasses plus the circa '94 facial hair plus the fact that he is up against Mayor Brazeness...
for the record, I don't know DeBonis and quite possibly he's a cool guy...he just reminds of some character circa '92-'94 and in this photo he looks like he's saying "can I finish? can I finish?...ok, I'm finished"
Is it just me, or does anyone else here think that Adrian Fenty sounds a little like Elmer Fudd when he talks?
Dude was born and raised in D.C., but he's got some weird-ass robotic accent.
As much as Fenty can get on my nerves politically, as a parent I respect his unwillingness to discuss this issue with the press. It is not news that he and his wife could cherry pick a school for his kids. Also as a parent of a DCPS student, I wish that I had that privilege or perk but I didn't fun for or get elected mayor. Barry's son, Christopher, never went to a DCPS in Ward 8. He traveled uptown to the better performing schools.
The press need to drop this and cover more important stuff related to the schools. Teacher's contracts come to mind. The schools that failed to meet testing goals. How lower enrollment numbers will affect the number and assignment of teachers. Safety in and around the schools all easily come to mind.
This has nothing to do with his kids and everything to do with a process that seems to have been circumvented. Seems to me if he pulled strings to get his kids ahead of other kids on the wait list, he needs to admit or deny it. Refusing to answer the question is just stupid. I mean, c'mon, the guy shows up at a press conference naked, covered with blood, with a green banana hanging out of his you-know-what, the press is going to ask questions and keep asking them until either he caves or someone else shows up with even more blood on them. And no amount of "I'm not going to respond to questions about my clothes or fresh fruit at this time" is going to cut it.
File a FOIA request for the Lafayette lottery results and move on. They added an additional class over the summer to the 4th grade this year to compensate for the movement of 6th grade to middle schools and out of the elementary schools which may have aided the mayor.
I am hearing more outrage from DCPS parents that he didn't send his kids to their neighborhood school than concern that he subverted "the process". Again we have a case of those outside of the system telling us the story and they have it incorrect. Even the citation of the DCUM Forum by DeBonis is misleading. Most of the discussion centers on leave him alone and what he did is an insult to West.
http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/66615.page
Aaagh! A DC Urban Moms link!! Abort! Abort! Get your extinguishers ready for flame wars!
Really this time its not horrible. It doesn't involve vaccines, babies crying it out or discipline.
mommyworks, don't you know that all of those topics are "the worst things ever" and any mom who considers them "shouldn't have had children in the first place." Have I summed up much of DCUM's posts right there?
Ha ha, that site was entertaining for a while, but as the same topics get rehashed cyclically, boredom set in.
I didn't bring up breast feeding versus formula. that causes your CPU to explode violently. I only cited it because DeBonis cites it and misleads readers that the general tone on DCUM is outrage that Fenty skipped the line which is not how it reads among the majority of the posts.
mommy, I came thisclose to reporting you for using DCUM in a classy blog like this here one.
he's the fucking MAYOR for christ sake! he should be able to send his kid to any school in the city he wants.
this notion that people in gov't don't deserve ANY perks is just idiotic.
incorrect
Lawyer: Your Honor, my client has instructed me to remind the court how rich and important he is, and that he is not like other men.
Mr. Burns: I should be able to run over as many kids as I want!
"This notion that people in gov't don't deserve ANY perks is just idiotic." No it isn't. Those small, barely helpful, mere perks line a disastrously slippery slope.
Illinois & the Univ of Ill. are in the midst of a huge crisis over revelations that offspring of the politically connected received preferential treatment in applying to college/grad schools at the U of I. So many perks for so many people - they maintained records to keep it all straight. (cue Nelson: Ha ha!)
The usual scenario seems to involve students who got in with grades/scores lower than classmates who were rejected. Of course, that happens all the time. But the Trib's Pulitzer-worthy investigation found a pattern of such favoritism - perks! Great series. (I have no friend/biz connection of any kind to the Trib or related compaies, etc.)
"DC: Last Colony" meant - we do not want a monarchy. I think some DC residents fail to appreciate that elected officials are not royalty. They do not get to do whatever they funkin' want. Cities and states with a longer history of real self-government have a longer past they're condemned to remember. Learn from them.
Sick attitude that treats our corrupt politicians as royalty. Go and cry over Diana some more.
I'm yet to be convinced this is a news or even blog worthy event. Leave his kids out of it. Fenty IMO is right to stonewall in this particular instance.
It's not just a "perk" when he's taking a spot away from someone else. This isn't him using a security detail to pick up his dry cleaning, it's him stealing from two children who were next in line. If you think stealing from children is just a "perk" then our government will continue to rot.
The fundamental question is whether Fenty uses his position to benefit himself and others. If he does it in this case then it's likely he does it in others. If we don't call corruption what it is then we deserve our Harriette Walters.
Think about the children!!!
I am with Fenty on this one.
The lottery is a one shot deal. If your number doesn't come up in the lottery in April they do create a wait list but the DCPS website that additional admissions are at the discretion of the principle.
http://dcps.dc.gov/portal/site/DCPS/menuitem.3d9831ab117a6a932c69621014f62010/?vgnextoid=038d91a61ea82210VgnVCM1000007e6f0201RCRD&vgnextfmt=default
Not much of a story here, though as always, his lack of political savvy is remarkable. While most reasonable people would agree that the mayor should be able to send his kids to the school of his choice, questioning him about the process is useful check against the inevitable ‘special privileges for the mayor’ mission creep. In other words, keep at him on the relatively small stuff in order to remind him that the stuff approaching the Harriette Walters level is unacceptable.
Exactly. Anyone remember the Williams Mayoral Mansion fiasco?
Though in retrospect, that was also sort of understandable coming as it did from a man who shared an apartment with his mother.
I also voted for Fenty at one time but am sort of regretting it. It's not even that I think he did anything wrong -- or even if it was, we're not talking FBI crack sting, which is the standard against which all other scandals are judged -- it's just this man's congenital inability to deal with the press.
Until I see compelling evidence that Fenty pulled strings to circumvent the standard OOB process--a process that is open to every single DC parent--to get into this school--one of five OOB schools his family is rumored to have applied for--I will reserve judgement.
Of course, once I see compelling evidence of chicanery, I will also not give a shit.
Right. Parents can apply to up to 5 out of boundary schools and rank them by preference. We don't even know if this was his first choice, let alone what if any strings he pulled to get in.
If he had any balls he would homeschool them.
If he homeschooled, then he'd get reamed!!! What, isn't DCPS good enough for your Fentylets, Mr. Education Reformer?!? Plus, homeschooling connotes religious fanaticism.
The bald head and Smart car threw me off.
I think it's pretty obvious what happened: Fenty didn't cheat the OOB lottery, he simply went through the back door and had either Rhee or the Lafayette principal let him in. It would be perfectly legal but frankly quite untoward if you ask me.
Y'all make it sound like he had to talk his (kids') way in. I'm sure the principals were drooling over those kids like NCAA coaches before the draft window closes.
Another hypocrite just like Obama. Us little peons get different treatment.
Mr. Mayor, I believe it is time to go around looking for babies to kiss.