Crack-smoking mayor returns
Marion Barry the
Crack-smoking mayor returns The people in Washington are more forgiving of crack smoking, whore mongering and incompetence, then the rest of the country is of decades old potential shirking and false bravado. I have to admit I don't understand the mentality that would concider re-electing a loser like this.
As political comebacks go, Marion Barry's is hard to beat.
The former mayor of Washington DC, infamous for being captured on an FBI videotape smoking crack cocaine, has made it back to city hall.
Mr Barry, 68, yesterday won the Democratic Party nomination to represent Washington's poorest district in the city council.
The nomination for the Ward 8 district all but guarantees his election on November 2 as Washington overwhelmingly votes Democrat.
...
Mr Barry was once dubbed "mayor for life". But when the FBI filmed him smoking crack with his girlfriend in 1990, his third term in office came to a premature end.
He admitted an addiction to cocaine, sex and alcohol and spent six months in prison.
But he made a stunning comeback, returning to council via Ward 8 and using that as a springboard to win a fourth term as mayor in 1994.
He did not run again in 1998 after Congress stripped the mayor's office of most of its authority, a move many saw as being aimed directly at him.
In 2002 he abandoned plans for another tilt at office after police found traces of marijuana and crack cocaine in his car. During his absence he has undergone surgery for prostate cancer.
His latest campaign focused on attacking mayor Anthony Williams, raising speculation he will make yet another bid for the highest office in the US capital.
"For Marion Barry, it was another improbable victory in a political career that has defied expectations and dominated the district's civic life for more than a generation," the Washington Post said in an editorial yesterday.
"Few politicians anywhere have shown more resilience."
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