Fenty Has Some Super Competition

When I last checked in on my DC beat, I was raving about how awesome the District was when it came to employment.

By the end of the week, I had been laid off. I believe they call that bad karma, or something.

Well fear not - my love for the District is still strong, and now, I have even more hope for its future.

When it comes to leaders, DC has a difficult history. Marion Barry was a special case. No doubt Barry did some great things for this city, but there is no bigger doubt that Barry had some problems, and could have been a much better leader. Anthony Williams succeeded for two terms as DC Mayor following Barry's short retirement from politics, and since 2007, Mayor Adrian Fenty has tried to continue the path towards a better DC, focusing on improving public schools and lessening crime.

For better or worse, these have been serviceable, and certainly dynamic, leaders. To win re-election though, Fenty is going to have to overcome some Obama-quality competition.

Before he has even announced his run at re-election, the following have announced their candidacy for Mayor of DC:

Batwoman


The Atom


the Green Lantern


Bat Girl


Super Man


Wonder Woman


Cyborg

and

Spiderman.

Clearly Mayor Fenty has seen this coming long before any of us, and has been relentlessly fundraising long before one would ordinarily expect. Some collegeagues were getting worried he was fundraising too much, but Fenty must have known that with the announcement of 8 potential superheroes for Mayor, finding funding would become difficult. I wonder if he'll call on Rihanna Fenty for support?

Not much is known about why all these superheroes are descening upon the District. There might be some answers here? I'm trying to figure it out myself. I mean, surely there is a city in greater need of leadership. But hey, maybe Obama won't be the only superhero we see around town these days.

I'm not making any endorsements - I'll leave that up to my fellow Gentlemen and true comic fans - but I would just like to point out that I believe Obama already has:

Tomorrow is July 4th, right?

We were playing Foosball (as we do every single day, Feldman and I), when we heard a large crash and a bang.

We were startled! What a NOISE! And our door! Open! Could something have entered? The dire possibilities were endless! We even had to pause our game! Horrendous!

Then the dog began barking, loudly! Yapping and squealing - clearly something she disapproved of had approached. We knew this was a time for caution.

I approached, carefully, steadily. No sign of movement beyond the frame of the door. Behind our screen day, an empty space. At my feet, a pack of paper.

I reached down, and removed the rubber band.

What is it? Feldman asked with his eyes, showing curiosity.

"Well, a page of advertisements," I say, beginning the list of things in the packet. "A renter's insurance form for you, something for Loren, oooh my paycheck, ummm, something from Wells Fargo for ya?, and, tomorrow's newspaper."

I paused. I know I read that right. Did you read that right? Feldman pauses too. Then approaches. He had been reaching for the insurance forms but then, resisting hesitation, aims for the newspaper. He grabs with his left hand, as I hold the other side of the paper in my right. And we look. We double check the date. We look at the photos. We look at the headlines. We triple and quadruple check the date. Then we both say it aloud. Just, to be sure:

"It's Saturday."
"No, it's Friday."
"What's friday?"
"Today. Today is Friday."
"July the 4th."
"No, tomorrow is the fourth. We just talked about what we're doing tomorrow for the fireworks downtown. It has to be tomorrow."
"It's 2009, right?"
"Yeah. And today's the 3rd."
"I don't know, I didn't have work today. You did."
"I did. That was today, right?"
"I dunno. Where have you been all morning?"
"At work at the station."
"Well then yeah. We're trusting you then."

Well folks, from the looks of it, Tiger Woods will head into this weekend's AT&T Congressional tournament in Bethesda atop the leaderboard, the security gates to the National Mall will open at 10AM tomorrow morning (the Red Line will be running at full speeds but you should still expect delays of up to 30 minutes), and there's a rumor leaking that Mayor Fenty has hidden in a locked safe many documents proving DC has many firefighters that would not pass a background test - including many with charges on their records such as asault with a deadly weapon, and DUI's. Huh.

Sure is a strange phenomenon though, right? I mean, why would someone deliver this to us! Why us? I mean, no one here has a subscription to the Washington Post. Why would we get this?