From a Post article on a mayoral forum yesterday, sponsored by the Washington Interfaith Network:

Each candidate was asked to respond to three questions: Would they dedicate an additional $500 million to neighborhoods, $350 million to youth services and at least $117 million a year for affordable housing? Their answers — an unbroken string of yeses — were recorded in foot-high letters on a big, white board.

And the following:

“Others have come before us, and they said they would put neighborhoods first, and it didn’t really happen,” the Rev. Christine Wiley of Covenant Baptist Church told the crowd. “Read my lips. We are aware of the promises in the past that were made and not kept. We’re going to hold you accountable.”

Hmm. That’s democratic. Ask the candidates questions they couldn’t possibly say no to — especially if they add close to $1 billion in spending to the District’s budget — and then discretely indicate that should they not live up to those promises, they will suffer the consequences. Sounds vaguely like extortion, doesn’t it?