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Potomac Confidential
With Marc Fisher
Post Metro Columnist
Thursday, April 10, 2003; Noon ET
Potomac Confidential fills the midday lull with discussion of the latest news and a rigorous slicing and dicing of the issues that define who we are and where we live.
In his weekly show, Washington Post Metro columnist Marc Fisher veers wildly from serious probing to silly prattle, and is open to topics local, national, personal and more.
The transcript follows.
Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control
over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.
Marc Fisher: Welcome aboard, folks. So where is Saddam, and will all those people selling Saddam collectibles on E-bay really rake it in? Today's column looks at the role the Colonel Brooks' Tavern plays in Brookland, where three restaurant workers were murdered over the weekend. Lots more on your minds, so let's get to it...
Philadelphia, Pa.:
Marc, Great piece on the Colonel Brooks tavern ("Brookland Grieves Over Family Loss," today). I am a Catholic University alum who spent many an evening with friends in Brooks. I plan on patronizing 'Brooks next time I am in town as a show of support. I hope that others will do so as well.
Marc Fisher: Judging from the calls and emails I've been getting, I can say with confidence that Colonel Brooks' will come back as strong as ever after the police take down the crime scene tape. But will the D.C. police solve these murders? Chief Ramsey seemed pretty optimistic the other night, but the track record is not so terrific.
Rockville, Md:
Marc, Just heard on the radio that Mayor Williams would like Chief Moose to change the title of his book so it won't include the words "D.C. Sniper." It will give the city a bad image. Please. Does Williams think that Moose's book will turn people off of coming to the District. Perhaps if the restaurant taxes weren't so high or if the streets wouldn't explode, people would start reappearing. Williams seems to be able to come up with every excuse in the book to blame the city's drop in tourism on someone else.
Marc Fisher: Actually, the city's tourist numbers aren't bad. Hotel occupancy rates are doing better than expected, given the war and terrorism and the fact that the authorities have done everything they can think of to scare visitors away and shut them off from many of the major sites on and near the Mall.
But anything anyone does to undermine Chief Moose's book is a public service. The chief's determination to defy the county ethics board and charge ahead with his book is stomach turning. He should just go ahead with his threat to quit and head off to Hollywood.
Arlington, Va.:
Before we get too caught up in the images from Baghdad, let's remember that we saw similar scenes in Kabul a little over a year ago. Have you heard any U.S. officials crowing lately about how well things are going in Kabul?
Marc Fisher: Good question--there are of course huge dangers involved with nation-building, the very process that this president derided as Clintonian grandiosity during the campaign. But given the success of the military operation, it's fair to give the administration a chance to show that it is indeed serious about helping Iraqis create a stable government. We should be able to see just how serious that effort is in the next few weeks.
Takoma Park, Md.:
I am an unemployed artist living on government assistance. I was planning to attend Saturday's war protest downtown, but the scenes of ecstatic Iraqis dancing in the streets and cheering American troops saddened me. What shall I protest now?
Marc Fisher: You could protest the anti-war protesters' refusal to acknowledge that even Arabs long for basic freedoms. There is a persistent bias bordering on racism in the anti-war movement's assumption that those who live in the Middle East are incapable of governing themselves and therefore should be left to suffer under the same sort of dictatorships that these protesters were happy to criticize when they were in Europe.
Long Beach, Calif.:
Speaking of Saddam collectables, shouldn't the Marines be saving those
statues for EBAY? And when will they start
using their noodles and refrain from putting
up the stars and stripes?
Marc Fisher: Well, which is more offensive, the Marines' enthusiasm to wave their flag and tout their achievements, or the alacrity with which the brass get on their satphones and order those U.S. flags taken down for fear of offending the Arab street?
Washington, D.C.:
Now that we have taken a big step towards bringing democracy to Iraq, when are we going to do the same in DC? Do we need to obtain some WMD first?
Marc Fisher: It's a fair bet that pretty much any tinpot dictatorship is more vulnerable than the congressional stranglehold over the District. But we have our own weapons, if we're willing to use them. The citizens of the District are about to be given the gift of the first presidential primary in the nation--will we use it to force presidential candidates to pay attention to the plight of democracy-deprived Washingtonians?
Arlington, Va.:
Marc, I go to Colonel Brooks once or twice a month and I am shocked at the killings there. Do you know if they are scheduled to open for business again? It is a bar that is what a bar should be with an extremely mixed clientele.
Marc Fisher: Police say they hope to let the tavern open again "soon," whatever that means. It sounds like a matter of a few days; ideally, the place will be open again by this weekend.
Re: D.C. Sniper:
The main thing about the sniper case is that it was not in D.C. but in the suburbs. The same suburbs that live off the name D.C. but are part of a group that steals 1.4 billion (according to a Brookings report) in unpaid taxes each year.
Marc Fisher: You're completely right, of course, and the city never did make enough of the fact that this was the place to be to avoid the sniper, but still, we all live in the Washington area, and we take with that all the good and bad that attach to the name. Suburban commuters have been leaching the city for decades and should be at the forefront of the battle to direct to the city a portion of federal taxes paid by commuters--a move that would not cost a single commuter an extra penny.
Glover Park, Washington, D.C.:
So is Gov. Erlich trying to irritate the entire state of Maryland, or is it just me? Why does he have a cabinet secretary still hanging around after she was rejected by the senate? Does he really think this can be anything but bad for him, after he grossly mismanaged the whole slots debacle?
Marc Fisher: To his credit, the governor issued himself an F for his handling of the slots issue, and an overly generous B for his overall performance in his first legislative session. But he's clearly just being a stubborn bully on the question of his environment secretary. Will he show a more cooperative manner next session? Hard to see that he'd change his personality, but he's going to want to get something done, and that will require compromise.
Harness Fan:
Will the defeat of slots in Maryland lead to the imminent demise of Rosecroft? I'm afraid the new owners -- Centaur -- were in the deal only for the slot money. Now that extended gambling isn't coming soon, can the track survive with the increased purses?
Marc Fisher: I don't think any of the slots proponents were betting the farm on this quick shot in the legislature; my sense is that they will give it a much more concerted and organized effort next year. After that, if slots go down in flames once more, you might see some, um, reorganization of the state's tracks and horse industry.
Silver Spring, Md.:
So you support the Orioles boycott called for by "your man Boz." Do you also share his O's season tickets?
Marc Fisher: Fair question--lucky for me, I'm not in that economic class, so season tix are not part of my vocabulary. But I've been calling for a boycott of the O's in my columns for more than a year, and I've been only too happy to participate in my own little protest against Peter Angelos by refusing to put any of my Washington dollars into Baltimore's team. (That said, I have to confess my own weakness for the Yankees, the team I grew up with, and if someone were to magically offer me tix to see them anywhere, even in Baltimore, I'd be a wavering man.)
Washington, D.C.:
How ironic is it that the D.C. school system paid a FINANCIAL ANALYST, $280,000 in six months to help them with their BUDGET! I hope his first words of advice were something along the lines of, "OK, first off ... don't hire any more people like me."
Marc Fisher: See Justin Blum's article in today's Metro section for a jaw-dropper of a read about this consultant who's getting filthy rich off D.C. schoolchildren.
This is par for the course in the District government; for years, people have wondered where all those billions disappear to. The answer is really amazingly simple: The city is awash in consultants who make stunning salaries, vastly more than the bureaucrats who hire them. Former mayor Sharon Pratt, as The Post's Yolanda Woodlee reported the other day, is among the latest of those raking it in; she's now advising the city on bioterrorism!
Washington, D.C.:
Why is the Col. Brooks triple slaying getting more coverage than the triple slaying in Landover Hills? Is it the neighborhood? The victims? The clientele of the two clubs (Landover Hills was a strip club -- owned by a former PG assistant prosecutor)?
Marc Fisher: No, yes, and yes. It's not the neighborhood, but it is indeed the victims and clientele and the nature of the establishment. It's obviously a more unusual and upsetting story when people are killed at a beloved and peaceful local restaurant than it is when people are killed at a known trouble spot that traffics in sordid behavior and has had more than its share of problems.
Far from over:
Let's not forget while watching jubilant Iraqis (and I have SUPPORTED going to war)
1. This is not a typical military occupation in which militarily neutralizing the enemy is the primary objective. Having "won" in that sense does not mean we've achieved meaningful change.
2. Iraq is a nation of artificial borders drawn without regard to indigenous population patterns. We don't know if the southern urbanites and northern Kurds will be able to build a nation togther.
3. We thought we had "won" Iran in the 50s by supporting the Shah. We won't know for a couple decades if we have acheived long-term alliance with the Iraqi people.
Marc Fisher: All good and correct points. There is no easy recipe for putting a country back together, especially when it's a place that has no natural reason to be together. We should have learned that lesson in the Balkans. Almost the entire Near East is made up of artificial political constructs, relics of British and other colonial fantasies about which tribes belonged with one another.
That said, dictators do occasionally have some success in inculcating a people with a sense of nationhood. Can new Iraqi leaders pick up on that sense of belonging without using the same brutal tactics? Tough to say, especially since the Kurds may soon be able to claim their traditional homelands as a de facto nation. It won't be pretty.
To Takoma::
Maybe you could go and protest the dictators of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, with whom the U.S. has excellent ties. And don't kid yourself by thinking that the U.S. went there to liberate the country.
Marc Fisher: That would be a hoot to see--American protests against the House of Saud. Go for it.
20906:
Maybe Takoma Park could protest people who take government assistance when they should be trying to make a living, like the rest of us do.
Marc Fisher: Uh-oh, getting nasty.
Long Beach, Calif.:
If the remnants of the Baath Party skidaddle to Syria, do you think there's a chance the war will spill over the Syrian border, based perhaps on shelling from the Syrian side to protect the fleeing Iraqis?
Marc Fisher: It's not likely that we'd pursue a war into Syria, but clearly Rumsfeld and Bush are in a mood to find friendlier leadership for Syria. Hey, the troops are already in the neighborhood.... But seriously, I don't see that happening.
Arlington, Va.:
Although I am not saddened that Saddam is no longer in power, I am very much concerned about the sabre rattling going on in the administration such as Rummy's warnings to Syria yesterday. I'd have some confidence in this administration if the people plotting these wars had actually fought in one.
Marc Fisher: I think those days are long gone. This is no longer a country in which a representative cross-section of Americans serve in the military, so you are unlikely to see future administrations of any party or ideology in which the leaders are people who have served in the armed forces. That's just a fact of the all-volunteer force and the nature of the country's workforce.
Re: Your article in the Magazine section:
Do you think that Nick received more support from the school/TFA than Josh did, or was Nick just a better teacher? Did Nick have to deal with as much in terms of being an outsider in the community?
Marc Fisher: This refers to my cover story in last Sunday's Post Magazine, about two teachers in a D.C. public school. The story is available online, as is the transcript of Monday's chat on the story.
Both Nick Ehrmann and Josh Kaplowitz complained about the lack of support they got from Emery Elementary's principal, and their accounts of the support they got from the D.C. schools varied in tone, but not very much in substance. Both were pretty much on their own, and both found colleagues on the school faculty who helped them quite a bit. But yes, in the end, Nick's personality was better suited to adjusting to the stresses of teaching in a tough school.
Clifton, Va.:
As a former commuter to D.C. I didn't take anything from D.C. The Washnington Navy Yard, the garden spot of Southeast, provided Fire, EMS and police. Couldn't leave the yard for fear of muggings. Did contribute to tax base by paying sales tax for delivery of Chinese. If you don't like the current situation, move out of D.C. You knew the situation before you moved there.
Marc Fisher: That's just silly. The area around the Navy Yard is blooming with shops and restaurants, and the streets are not at all dangerous during the day.
Those who choose to live in the District do not give up their constitutional rights by moving here. And those who are born here should have the same expectation of voting rights as any other American.
Herndon, Va.:
Mr. F: I will, believe it or not, gladly pay a commuter tax. Of course, that's as soon as the D.C. government shows it can actually function, so I figure I'm safe for the rest of my working life. P.S. Could I get a few hundred thousand to study bio-terrorism??
Marc Fisher: Sorry, that's a loser of an argument. If we're going to start judging our governments' standing to maintain their authority according to their efficiency of operation, we're going to have to start revoking a whole lot of gov't charters all around the country. The District is a mess, in part because it is poorly run and in part because of basic structural problems, such as the lack of legal authority and the lack of a sufficient tax base. Both of those problems can be fixed through granting the city home rule and a commuter tax.
Woodbridge, Va.:
I'm confused by your statement: Suburban commuters have been leeching the city for decades ... How exactly does that work. I know for the long year that I had to work at the Navy Yard, I asked nothing of the city other than having decent roads to get to where I needed to be. Those roads need to be maintained for everyone using them, whether they are local, tourists, or commuters. I carpooled in and out, sometimes ate lunch out, and don't understand how that equates to I was leeching the District.
Marc Fisher: Even if you were in the federal confines of the Navy Yard, you were dependent on the city's water and sewer facilities, police, fire and ambulance services, public utilities and all manner of other District services. Commuter taxes are standard procedure anywhere else in the country; there's no reason they shouldn't be used here.
Germantown, Md.:
Great column this morning about Colonel Brooks. As a Catholic U. alum, I spent many hanging out at a place we affectionately called CBs. You did a great job highlighting what was so great about the tavern -- it was a real part of the community and all parts of the community were regulars. It's kind of funny, when people in many parts of the suburbs find out I went to Catholic, they are always surprised that anyone would go to school in such a dangerous area. Your column highlighted why I loved that neighborhood.
Thank you.
Marc Fisher: Thanks--it always amazes me when we get posts, as we have today, that lump all of the city into one bottom-line statement about how it's a dangerous place. What was so remarkable about the Brooks' Tavern murders is that they seemed so out of place in that neighborhood and particularly in that corridor between Catholic U and the tavern. Sure, there are parts of the District that are scary and dangerous. But there are also parts of the suburbs that are equally rough, yet no one would say they avoid all of northern Virginia because of some rough sections.
Vienna, Va.:
While I am no fan of D.C. by any means, the fact is that Mayor Williams is right ... virtually all of the sniper shootings did NOT take place in D.C. Nor is there much, if any, evidence to show that either Muhammad or Malvo were born, raised, or lived in, D.C. Mayor Williams does have the facts (and perhaps the law) on his side.
Chief Moose had better seriously consider changing the name of his book, or else he might be guilty of libel or slander. This is no laughing matter ... it would look pretty silly (but not out of the question) if Williams sends D.C Police Chief
Ramsey across the border to arrest one of his colleagues (Moose) for something like this.
Marc Fisher: Well, it is indeed out of the question. You can't libel a city. (Though you can have a lot of fun trying to.) Moose is free to call his book the D.C. Sniper or the Chicago Sniper, if he thinks it will sell more books. What he's not free to do is to write and publish his book while working for Montgomery County.
Alexandria, Va.:
Again with Moran. In addition to what was reported (I was at the meeting), he also used a similar line to the one he used on Jews in Reston on Catholics, as if to excuse his anti-Semitism by attacking his own religion. Please tell me that the challengers running against him have a decent shot ... or are we relegated to another term from a dirtbag Congressman?
Marc Fisher: It all depends on how many such challengers there are. Obviously, from Moran's perspective, the more the merrier. So is he trying to drum up more opposition by making more anti-Jewish comments? I doubt he's quite that cynical, but he's got to be thinking about how to sneak by next time, and to do that, he'd probably like to have three or four opponents rather than one strong primary challenger.
Griffith Stadium:
Why root for the Yankees? Is that why you want a franchise in D.C., in order to
provide a farm team, a la the Kansas City A's
of the 1950's? Damn Yankee fan!
Marc Fisher: I grew up in the Bronx, when the Bombers were under the Angelos-like control of CBS, so I feel both obliged and excused in supporting the Yankees to the death. That said, the new Senators would be a very close second in my heart, and for my kids and their friends, the new D.C. team would be the first one they could truly call their own.
Re: Takoma Park:
I thought it was fairly obvious that the entire question was tongue-in-cheek!
Marc Fisher: Yup. And so were all the responses, right?
Washington, D.C.:
Did you notice the lack of women and girls in the streets of Baghdad yesterday?
Did we liberate only the Iraqi men and boys?
Marc Fisher: Yes.
Now do you want us to reinvade after the establishment of a new government, this time to liberate the women and girls? Because no matter who takes over, you can bet that the unequal treatment of women will continue.
D.C. resident:
I work for DOD -- an employer registered in the state of Va. I never step foot in Va. because my office is in D.C.
I still have to pay taxes to Va. I'm about to move to Md. I will still have to pay taxes to Va.
If I understand the issue, Va. residents who work for employers based in D.C. don't have to pay taxes.
Marc Fisher: Right. And isn't that just a bit unfair?
Burke, Va.:
I've got no problem with a commuter tax AS LONG AS it comes out of existing federal tax revenue. Please don't make me pay an additional tax to D.C. (or fill out one more tax form!) It's not as if I ASKED my employer to move from Crystal City to the Navy Yard!
Marc Fisher: That would indeed be the easiest way to do it, but politically, it seems unlikely since it would require the feds to give up a big chunk of change.
Arlington, Va.:
Given the American public's short memory span and the flood of intervening events, is there really great enough interest out there for Chief Moose's account of the sniper case to justify his big payoff?
Marc Fisher: I can't imagine it. There are at least four sniper books in the works, one of them by my colleagues here at the Post, and the track record of such books is not hugely encouraging. On the other hand, good stories well written do sell; the challenge here is to write an honest and engaging account with lots of new material. Anyone who does that will have a fair shot at finding an audience. It is hard to imagine that the chief's will be the one that fits that bill.
Springfield, Va.:
So what happens next? Does the administration already have a list of acceptable leaders, one of whom the Iraqi people must "elect"? Once the U.S. has targeted the future leader of Iraq they are going to give that person unlimited resources to take control of the country. So we are back to square one. He who has the gold rules.
Marc Fisher: The administration's been talking and meeting with Iraqi exile leaders for years, but they've also been searching for actual Iraqis to deal with. The British have already approached local sheikhs in Basra to discuss them taking over local administration for the interim government. The ideal solution is to convene the sort of meeting of tribal, religious and ethnic leaders that took place in Afghanistan and have decisions about the first round of leadership come from that body.
Vienna, Va.:
Marc ... as far as Iraq's next government and unequal treatment of women, let's wait and see what happens first. I agree that you probably won't see something along the lines of the U.S or an ultra-liberal country like Holland, but you can bet it will be a far cry from, say, the Taliban and their ridiculous full-length suits and veils. Like it or not, we're not in the 12th century anymore ... even there.
Marc Fisher: Quite true. Everything's relative.
Washington, D.C.:
Sigh...keep spiking, I'll keep posting. Guess I'll just have to note you spiked in my blog...
Hey Marc, did you happen to read Lloyd Grove on the 2nd? I'll quote the relevant 'graph:
'Why is "Prince of Darkness" Richard Perle svelter than ever? The New York Observer credits Perle's conservative publicist, Manhattan-based Eleana Benador, who "wants right-wing hawks to look nice on television." The fortyish Benador tells the weekly: "I'm very meticulous. Clothing. Attitude. Hairstyle. I'm always fussy about it. Some of them, if they're putting on weight, very gently I will go to them and say, 'You have two choices: You go to my doctor who makes you lose weight, or you buy a new suit.' Very gently." Yesterday right-wing hawk Michael Leeden, another of Benador's wards, told us: "So that's why Richard went on the Atkins diet!"'
Hmm...so, when can we expect you to have your new column in the Washington Post Magazine on this? After all, back in '99 you found the exact same thing for Al Gore to deserve a special article, "Known Quantities", so being, like , objective and unbiased, I can only assume another hard hitting investigative piece on this one, correct?
After all, either Perle, Ledeen, and all those other neocons have been "duped by over-eager aides, or we can say these are men who do not know themselves, men who are unknowable, unreadable and therefore not fit to hold power."
Or did you just re-type media bandwagon CW on a guy you all just didn't like much for a nice hatchet job? Which is it, Marc?
Marc Fisher: Huh? Think you got the wrong guy. Lloyd's on line Friday at 2 p.m., right here, and you can ask him yourself.
Oakton, Va.:
Just bring back Marion Barry ... that will solve all of D.C.'s problems.
Marc Fisher: Don't joke--Ch. 4's Tom Sherwood reports this week that Barry is mulling a race for the Ward 8 D.C. Council seat.
Marc Fisher: Out of time--thanks for coming along, folks. More in the column on Sunday and next week, and we reconvene here, same time next Thursday. Don't pick those cherry blossoms.
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