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In a letter to the Washington Post, Councilmembers Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) and Vincent Orange (D-At Large) defended their decision to vote against censuring Marion Barry (D-Ward 8) for accepting thousands of dollars in cash from contractors.

The Councilmembers explained that they were troubled by the fact that David Grosso (I-At Large) or Anita Bonds (D-At Large), members of the ad-hoc committee that investigated Barry’s wrong-doing, would get Barry’s committee chairmanship should he be stripped of it.

This was troubling in light of The Post’s earlier reporting that “should Barry lose the committee gavel, it could pass to Grosso or Bonds, who are the council’s most junior members and do not lead any committees” [“Censure sought again for Barry,” Metro, Sept. 17]. BEGA, which was void of any such conflict of interest in issuing its punishment, did not recommend taking away the committee chairmanship, which also results in termination of committee staff members.

They concluded:

Our moral moment included punishing Mr. Barry by supporting the BEGA pronouncement and a council censure — while avoiding the appearance of impropriety or conflicts of interest.

The Council voted 9-4 last week to censure Barry and recommend he be stripped of his committee chairmanship. The other two nay votes were Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) and Barry himself. In July, the Board of Ethics and Government Accountability censured and fined Barry, but did not recommend taking away his committee chairmanship.

The Washington Post’s editorial board responded today to Graham’s and Orange’s letter, and they were not amused.

We weren’t impressed when, to defend themselves, they impugned the motives of two of their colleagues whose only offense was doing a job they had been asked to do.

The editorial board took particular umbrage at the Councilmembers “moral moment,” a term borrowed from an earlier Post editorial.

Please. The last time we checked, neither Ms. Bonds nor Mr. Grosso had run afoul — as have both Mr. Orange and Mr. Graham — of any ethics rules. Neither Mr. Grosso nor Ms. Bonds asked to be on the ad hoc committee, and it was not an easy task, particularly for Ms. Bonds, who enjoys a long friendship with Mr. Barry, to recommend action against the popular former mayor.

The Council is expected to vote next month on Barry’s committee chairmanship.