There were marches for jobs and justice, appeals for voting rights for District citizens, and, of course, the big crowd for the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial dedication.
Mayor Vincent Gray, officially welcoming everyone in West Potomac Park, stood center stage at the dedication. Not mincing words, he focused on the city’s right to self-determination and voting rights in Congress.
“As we celebrate this momentous dedication,” Gray said in a firm voice before the crowd, “I implore all of you. I implore you, Mr. President. I implore the members of Congress. Stand with the people of the District of Columbia. Stand with the legacy of Dr. King. Remove the shackles of oppression, so when Americans dutifully recite the Pledge of Allegiance, we truly mean liberty and justice for all.”
Gray and his team thought that the mayor’s strong call for President Obama’s attention to D.C. voting rights would carry the day and make news.
Unfortunately for Gray and the city, his opening remarks were not the most dramatic development in local politics on that warm Sunday morning.
Gray, the city and tens of thousands of visitors here for the King memorial woke up to a screaming headline in the most prominent front-page position of The Washington Post:
“Gray campaign under vigorous U.S. scrutiny”
“Grand jury probes D.C. mayoral race”
“Sources tell of immunity offer, fingerprint requests”
That’s right, it was the lead story on the front page with three headlines.
The Washington City Paper’s Loose Lips columnist Alan Suderman noted that the story “doesn’t have any major revelations for the general reader to get excited about, but there are plenty of interesting details for regular followers of one of D.C.’s most bizarre soap operas.”
Accompanying The Post story was a huge graphic on an inside page listing the players and sequence of events. “It just makes people nervous,” said one prominent citizen familiar with the legal drama.
Late Monday, Mayor Gray spoke with reporters about the embarrassing Post story. Unlike his aides speaking in private, Gray declined to criticize the newspaper, saying the whole Sulaimon episode has flummoxed him.
“Look, I’m surprised that this thing happened in the first place,” Gray said to reporters in his office on Monday. “The fact that we’ve had to spend months working on this — if anybody had suggested to me that this is what we would have to spend our time on, I would have said ‘No way.’”
The prominent play of The Post article prompted a range of responses, with more than 350 online by Monday afternoon.
“Oh, my God, we need Fenty back,” was one of the most popular reader comments.
In Gray’s defense, another reader groused that The Post seems to have it in for the beleaguered mayor:
“So, the Post decides to re-hash stuff already published elsewhere, pile it all together like it’s new, and front-page it for the Sunday paper…Wake me when the feds come down with a ruling or if something actually breaks in the story. Until then, WaPo, I’ll assume your Gray ‘coverage’ will continue to be the same feckless, agenda-driven sideshow your local coverage has become.”
That’s the problem with scandal stories here in the District. Some people see conspiracy in the headlines and the placement of stories. Others see a “Post agenda.” Others see good journalism.
And many see the big play of the story as a sign that the separate criminal investigations into Gray’s campaign, D.C. Council Chairman Kwame Brown’s 2008 campaign committee and Ward 5 Council member Harry (“Tommy”) Thomas will all be wrapping up soon, one way or the other.
What really matters is what we reported last week from U.S. Attorney Ronald Machen and his appearance on “The Politics Hour” on WAMU 88.5 FM.
“These are significant matters,” he said of any investigation. “And there’s a real difference between potentially inappropriate or offensive conduct and criminal conduct. And our job is to make sure if there is criminal conduct we get to the bottom of it and we take appropriate action.”
“If you learn anything,” Machen told us in the interview that also played on News4, “you should learn how seriously we take it.”
He said the “steady stream [of lower-level government worker convictions in both the federal and local governments] demonstrates that if there’s a violation of public trust we take that very seriously. And obviously, it goes up the scale the higher you go up in public office. And so, I think if anything, you should be encouraged by the fact that we do have a track record of success in these matters.”
■ A positive note?
It wasn’t all bad news for the mayor this past week. On Friday, Washington Business Journal reporter Michael Neibauer had a major piece on Gray and the business community.
Neibauer found Gray mostly has been good for business despite the aura of campaign scandal.
“The scandals and distraction are certainly annoying,” writes Neibauer, a respected local journalist. “They’re noise. They’re worth investigating. And if controversy turns a potential office building buyer, or lessee or investor away from the District, then obviously it’s a problem. But based on what we’ve heard, those things just haven’t happened.”
The mayor’s staff thought the article was so good for the mayor that his press office promptly emailed it out to other reporters. Assistant press secretary Doxie McCoy wrote, “Here’s an article of interest.” She pointed out, “The article notes that Mayor Gray remains focused on moving the District forward in smart, strategic ways that will pay big dividends for the city.”
