Mayor Adrian Fenty was a guest on Larry King Live early this morning, somewhat surprisingly serving as one of four “experts” invited on the show to parse President Obama’s speech and economic plan. The other three pundits were libertarian talk show host Larry Elder, Sacramento Mayor (and Michelle Rhee’s rumored boyfriend!) Kevin Johnson, and Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.).
President Obama “showed great leadership, very focused on the issues, even visionary,” Fenty said in his opening remarks.
“On the front lines, and mayors tend to be on the front lines, you see that these economic hard times are hitting people,” Fenty continued. President Obama’s plan “isn’t going to solve things completely,” he said, “but it’s going to bridge the gap. It’s a short term strategy with long-term benefits.”
Fenty has never been a particularly effective communicator on TV chat shows, but the beginning of this appearance was more uncomfortable than most. You got the impression the producers of Larry King Live got stuck with a C-list cast of pundits to hit up on Obama’s speech. Fenty stumbled a bit to answer a question from King about Gov. Jindal’s criticism of Congressional Republicans in his televised response after Obama’s speech (“I think people have strong opinions” was about all he could muster before fumbling his way back into boilerplate Obama talking points)—but really, why on Earth would Larry King think Adrian Fenty was the person to direct that question to?
After about ten minutes though, King thankfully turned to the D.C. Voting Rights Act and Tuesday’s successful cloture vote.
“I think this is going to pass the Senate, and the House, and be on the desk of President Obama for his signature,” Fenty said, calling the bill the “biggest advancement in voting rights for D.C. residents in 200 years.”
Fenty looked pretty tired during his appearance, so we’re going to hope he didn’t really mean what he said in his final sentence, delivered at 12:34 a.m.:
“Our founders promised that every American would have representation in Congress; this would be the last chapter of fulfilling that promise.”
The LAST chapter? So, no senators, no statehood, nothing beyond the current bill? We hope you get some sleep, Mr. Mayor!
