We reported in early May that Councilmember Marion Barry (D-Ward 8) was looking for a communications director. Well, it seems he’s found one, but she’s coming to the job a day late.

The Examiner reported yesterday that Barry had hired LaToya Foster, host of WJLA’s Sunday morning show “In The Know,” to be his spokeswoman. She’s probably as good a choice as any—she’s got extensive media experience, after all, and likely has just about every journalist in town on speed dial. The only problem is that Foster is stepping into yet another of Barry’s confounding public moments—and probably a day too late.

During a testy debate yesterday over who should be selected to take the D.C. Council’s two leadership posts, Barry decried the state of ethics in city politics, saying he’s never seen it so bad. Things are in such disarray in D.C., he claimed, that only 9/11 was worse. (That wasn’t the only hyperbole of the debate, though—he also compared At-Large Councilmember Vincent Orange to Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg.) The comment turned quite a few heads. 9/11—really? That’s breaking the first unofficial corollary to Godwin’s Law.

So when a press release arrived in journalist’s in-boxes yesterday at 5:30 p.m. with the headline “Barry Urges Media to Quote Him Accurately,” you’d think maybe his staff would find a creative way to say that the mayor-for-life had merely been misunderstood. Not so. The press release, below in its entirety:

Councilmember Marion Barry today issued the following statement regarding his comments during today’s Council vote to elect a new Chair:

“This is the greatest governmental crisis since Home Rule. I can’t think of anything except 911 that’s been more horrific”.

So, there you have it. During the debate where Barry first made the claim, it was Councilmember Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) that mentioned what many of Barry’s colleagues were thinking—maybe the last time something so horrific happened was when Barry himself was mayor.