"The city's in serious trouble, credibility trouble," Marion Barry, former D.C. mayor and current council member, told colleagues at a session to replace council chairman Kwame Brown. After being indicted last week by federal authorities on charges of bank and campaign finance fraud, Brown became the second council member in six months forced to resign. "We are the laughingstock of the nation," Barry added.
In his not-so-tactful opinion, the only crisis "more horrific" than the city's latest political scandal since the start of home rule in 1973 is the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
But councilmember Jack Evans could think of at least one or two worse periods in D.C. politics, including the time when then-mayor Barry was arrested in 1990 for smoking crack in a hotel room.
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(Photo: Andrew Harnik/The Washington Times /Landov)