As the clock rolled through midnight, there sat Marion Barry, hunched over in his too-big suit, red Nationals cap pulled low over thick glasses, interrupting the chair. He spoke haltingly, with long pauses, as he made his roundabout point, while Linda Cropp alternately reclined in exasperation and leaned forward over the desk, glaring at him in incredulity. Barry hushed Kwame Brown and David Catania by their first names as they attempted to clarify his statement, and he brushed aside Cropp’s acid protestations, calmy repeating himself until the chair was forced to recognize Robert Bobb, who gave the Council his assurance that Mr. Barry’s suggestion, that excess funds from development rights be delivered to the Community Benefit Fund, could be safely included in the emergency legislation. When the Council adjourned shortly thereafter, Council Member Barry posed for photos with Chairwoman Cropp and Mayor Williams, as the parties involved warmly invoked Barry’s efforts to secure the bill’s passage. Barry “showed real leadership” said the Mayor, according to D.C. Wire. “I think the Mayor was accurate,” responded Barry when told of the compliment.
Some hours later, Barry was scheduled to appear for sentencing, having pleaded guilty in a tax evasion case. With the morning rags still warm with news of his late night triumph, Barry learned that his judge in the matter, U.S. Magistrate Deborah Robinson, was postponing Barry’s court date out of frustration. The judge had been angered to learn that only on Wednesday had the Council Member filed the problematic tax returns, and he had not filed other paperwork necessary in the case at all.
In the end, it is Robinson who will decide the penalty Barry will face, and this latest mis-step increases the odds of jail time for the former Mayor, who already faced a revocation of his release for drug violations. For Barry, the dignity of office never lasts very long anymore. Last night it was clear how badly members of the city and its government wish to write redemption into Barry’s story line, but this may well have been the Mayor-for-Life’s last hurrah. As this agreement erases the vacant lots and industrial buildings of the South Capitol Street corridor, Barry will see how his role in the Council shaped the city, and he’ll see how completely the city has removed itself from him.
