Robinson, yet again

Eugene Robinson has a column today on the travails of Marion Barry. The idiocy is so widespread it's hard to even know where to start:

That's one reason I'm not making fun of Barry's return: Others may have lined their pockets with public funds during his tenure, but he didn't.

So Robinson is giving Barry credit for something he's not supposed to do anyhow -- embezzle taxpayer money. Barry, in Robinson's line of thinking, apparently deserves respect because he wasn't as corrupt as the people he surrounded himself with. Unbelievable.

And, whether you have any fondness for politics and politicians, it's hard to dislike the guy. Getting reelected mayor after being videotaped smoking crack should make him a shoo-in for the Politicians' Hall of Fame. Barry has as much of that special charisma, that all-eyes-on-me presence, as any politician I've ever met. At 69, he can still light up a room.

Yeah, well, a number of people have described Kim Jong Il as charming, but I'm not sure that qualifies him as Man of the Year.

Yes, he's what my grandmother used to call "a mess." And no, I can't be sure that we know the whole story of his recent reported robbery. Did he actually open the door to two guys he didn't really know?

Two things: Robinson should have listened to his grandmother more and that the details of the robbery don't matter. The only thing that does matter is Barry's asinine response to the robbery.

But Barry is one of the few politicians these days who bother to notice poor people. He has the ability to connect with single mothers earning the minimum wage, pensioners on fixed incomes, young men slouching on street corners. As gentrification rampages through Washington and other cities, making the streets safe for Starbucks and Pottery Barn, poor people are shoved pitilessly to the margins. If Marion Barry really intends to be their voice, then his Act XVII will be an act of personal redemption.

This is just jaw-dropping. While Robinson can't seem to muster the courage (or really, just common sense) to condemn Barry, he is not all reluctant to speak out against the real problem facing D.C: gentrification.

Now, let's compare, shall we. Under Barry the murder rate was higher (increasing from 194 in 1986 to 434 in 1989. Who do you think most of the murder victims were? The rich folks in Georgetown? Doubtful. While I don't have the stats I would be willing to bet that more people were on welfare and the general standards of living in the city were lower. I have yet to meet a single veteran DC resident that believes things were better back then.

As for gentrification, who does Robinson think works the construction jobs at the all of the condo developments going up in the city? Who gets the new retail jobs? Hint: not the rich.

This column in many ways shows what is wrong with the left: A refusal uphold Black "leaders" to any kind of real standards. An emphasis on style over substance. And, perhaps worst of all, a belief that it's not whether you're right or wrong that matters, but how much you care.