Don Peebles

For a guy not running for mayor, Don Peebles still seems to be testing out his stump speech.

Both D.C. Wire and City Desk are reporting on Peebles’ appearance at a meeting last night of the D.C. Federation of Civic Associations, where the developer and erstwhile mayoral challenger ripped Mayor Adrian Fenty a new one, going as far as to claim that Fenty does not respect his wife.

In his speech to the group, Peebles recounted his rags-to-riches life story, established his hometown credentials and quickly transitioned into a searing condemnation of Fenty’s rule. “Over the course of recent years, especially the last three, our city has grown increasingly divided,” he said, arguing that services for the poor have gotten worse and that while homicides may have fallen last year, other crimes increased. “As a native Washingtonian, a successful business person and a compassionate citizen, it is inconceivable for me to believe such staggering realities exist in the capital of the United States of America,” he said. “We can do better and we must,” he closed. At least with his prepared remarks, anyway. Things got way more personal after that, it seems.

Here’s just one example, via City Desk:

As predicted, the Fenty administration’s attempt to oust the estranged wife of Marion Barry from her space at a city-funded tennis center became prime campaign fodder, prompting this vein-popper: “Does he think he’s gonna be mayor forever? One day his wife will be the former first lady. Then I realized he probably doesn’t have much respect for her.” Yikes.

Most speeches with this kind of rhetoric end with, “And this is why I am running for office.” But not this one. Peebles remains the District’s biggest political tease, threatening to use his personal fortune to take on an incumbent mayor, while still not actually doing so. All the while, Fenty is sitting on his $3 million campaign war chest, waiting for the campaign to start. Unless we’re missing something, it doesn’t really feel like an election year yet.