Kim Hendrickson, political science professor at George Washington University, writes in with a look at new D.C. mayor Adrian Fenty:

More reminders from the District of Columbia that, in the words of the Godfather of Soul, sayin' and doin' it are two different things. Mayor Fenty’s first State of the District Address last week was a grab bag of things he’d like to do as mayor, things he plans to do as mayor, and things he’d like to get some credit for as mayor even if he’s not responsible for them and nobody really cares—“we've inspected almost 40,000 vehicles and adjudicated almost 45,000 traffic tickets… bought backup generators to keep important traffic lights running even when the power goes out, [and] opened registration for summer camp.” In other words, there are reasons his predecessors waited a year before informing the public of their accomplishments.

But no matter. The most interesting aspect of his speech, or at least the thing our local press has emphasized, is not what he said but where he said it—at a senior citizens’ center in long-suffering Ward 8, ground zero for the city's most pressing social problems. It's interesting to note, then, what issue the Mayor highlighted to bring hope to a poverty-stricken ward and to encourage community action. ??In terms of mitigating Ward 8’s pain (double digit unemployment and a poverty rate hovering around 30 percent), Fenty mentioned a library here, a wellness center there, a grant from FannieMae, but the rhetorical climax was a demand for full House representation (the lack of which he characterized as “shameful” and “unjust”). He ended his speech with an exhortation to the seniors to march on the Capitol, “where we'll demand our freedom.”

After the blandness of the Williams years, I have no objection to a little rhetorical excess, but this portends badly for the future. Marion Barry’s pre-mayoral claim to fame was more freedom for the District—a cause he continued to champion as mayor, even as he destroyed all semblance of order in our neighborhoods. District residents, one would hope, have had their fill of voting rights as a vehicle of self-promotion, or the blaming of Congress for problems of our own local government’s doing.  Further, the mayor’s characterization of a thorny Constitutional issue as a clear cut civil rights cause doesn’t suggest a mind or temperament ready for the complications of city politics. And once again, Ward 8 suffers the most from the distraction of protest politics.