saturday, november 16 , 2019. the washington post EZ RE a
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his week, I received an email announcing that
Vivek H. Murthy has endorsed Kishan Putta for
the D.C. Council. Thus, a trifecta: I don’t know:
1) who Murthy is, 2) who Putta is, or 3) which
council seat Putta is seeking.
Upon closer reading, I learned that Murthy once was
the 19th surgeon general of the United States, that Putta
is a D.C. advisory neighborhood commissioner, and that
Putta wants to occupy the Ward 2 seat currently held by
Jack Evans (D), but maybe not for long.
The 2020 D.C. election season is underway, and some
races are shaping up to be free-for-alls.
Six council seats are up for grabs: two at-large slots
currently filled by David Grosso (I) and Robert C. White
Jr. (D), and Wards 2, 4, 7 and 8 seats occupied,
respectively, by Evans, Brandon T. Todd (D), Vincent
C. Gray (D) and Trayon White Sr. (D).
Robert White does not yet have a Democratic primary
opponent.
Grosso has announced that after two terms in office,
he doesn’t want to serve on the council anymore — a
disclosure that most likely prompted shouts of joy from
Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D), business leaders,
and the entire Bowser administration. However, the sex
workers and johns who stand to benefit from Grosso’s
push to decriminalize prostitution, along with uber-
p rogressives across the city, probably are in mourning.
Job seekers are lining up.
First out of the box was Ward 8 State Board of
Education member and registered independent Markus
Batchelor, who declared in September, well before
Grosso had made up his mind to depart.
Batchelor will vie for the position against several other
independents, most notably Grosso’s former deputy
chief of staff Christina Henderson, now a Capitol Hill
staffer, and ANC commissioner Chander Jayaraman.
Former at-large council member Michael A. Brown,
ousted from the council by Grosso in 2012, is said to be
sniffing around the edges. To r ecall, Brown had to absent
himself from the District for a spell to serve prison time
in Alabama for taking bribes in an FBI sting. If nothing
else, Brown would add drama to the election season.
As with Evans, To dd, Gray and Trayon White — the
other ward incumbents — will not get free passes
through the June 2020 Democratic primary.
Progressive forces in Ward 4 are out to get To dd for
reasons having less to do with him and more to do with
his connection to Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D). To dd
delivers on constituent services. His votes are in the
mainstream. But he once worked as a Bowser committee
staffer, and her detractors regard him as a Bowser clone.
Their designated hitter is D.C. native Janeese Lewis
George, who is a former Philadelphia assistant district
attorney, a former assistant to D.C. Attorney General
Karl A. Racine and currently a Ward 4 Democratic Party
activist.
George has drawn the endorsements of Jews United
for Justice Campaign Fund and Black Lives Matter DC.
To dd appears to have a leg up with the ward’s e stablished
civic groups. It is a race to watch. Is Bowser’s mojo still
working in her Ward 4 home base?
On the other side of town, in Ward 7, Council member
Gray must be keeping a close eye on candidate Veda
Rasheed, a lawyer and ANC commissioner. Rasheed
entered the ring with some of Bowser’s Green Te am in
her corner as campaign contributors and strategists.
Three others — James Jennings, Kelvin Brown and
Anthony Lorenzo Green — have also registered with the
Office of Campaign Finance. How they will fare against
Gray, a former mayor with high name recognition,
money and an established record, is not quite an open
question. Against those three, Gray probably is good to
go. Rasheed, Gray’s strongest contender, also has a steep
hill to climb. No one will be watching this race more
closely than Bowser.
The Ward 8 race is tricky. Democratic hopefuls Stuart
Anderson, an ex-offender and community activist, and
Richard Campbell, retired D.C. government worker and
union shop steward, are legitimate candidates. A first-
term lawmaker, Trayon White is a retail politician who
knows his ward, who the voters are and where to find
them. That’s a hard-to-match political strength.
And then there is Ward 2. Who isn’t running against
Jack Evans, a fixture of D.C. politics now deeply
embroiled in an ethics scandal? Besides Putta, five others
have entered the primary race — in alphabetical order:
John Fanning, Jordan Grossman, Daniel Hernandez,
Patrick Kennedy and Yilin Zhang. It is a lineup made to
order for any incumbent, even one as politically weak-
ened as Evans is. With such a crowded field, a candidate
getting as little as 25 percent to 30 percent of the vote
probably wins the primary. Even an indicted Evans,
should that happen between now and primary day,
might be able to pull that off. Which should give Ward 2
voters — and the candidates — something to think hard
about.
It’s the season for politics in the District. The
candidates deserve our thanks for getting in the game.
But it’s the voters — if they show up — who get to call the
shots.
[email protected]Colbert i. KingJust about everyone
wants to serve on
the D.C. Council
BY HOWARD FINEMANI
n 1978, Democrat C harles “Pug” Ravenel was giving
Sen. Strom Thurmond (R), the former segregation-
ist, a tough race for reelection in South Carolina.
Ravenel was from a prominent, well-liked local
family, but had made the mistake of prepping at Exeter
and playing football at Harvard.
How do you tackle him? Well, if you were Roger
Stone, you somehow “heard” thirdhand that Ravenel
had promised at a private Manhattan fundraiser to be a
“third senator from New York.” You get that rumor
published in a minor New Yo rk rag. Then you and your
partner in crime, a young South Carolina hustler
named Lee Atwater, take this “news” and spread it from
Charleston to Greenville to Myrtle Beach. And then you
win the race going away, even as poor ol’ Pug protests
that he’d never said any such thing.
Stone proudly told me the Ravenel story years later.
As a political reporter, then and now, I talked with
Roger a good bit — we all did — and over the decades he
inevitably book-ended the conversations the same way.
They began, “You didn’t hear this from me,” and ended,
“Keep me out of trouble.”
I didn’t a dmit hearing things from him, but there was
nothing I could do, even if I wanted to, to keep him out
of trouble.
It would be reassuring to find a noble person to
embody the political age that runs from Richard
M. Nixon in 1972 to Donald Trump in 2019, some
OK Boomer who was and remains our moral compass
through the years, ensuring that we stay the sacred
course as the Last Best Hope of Mankind on Earth.
Instead, we have Roger Stone.
He is the gamey sinew that connects a second-term
president who quit in 1974 rather than be impeached to
one who seems almost eager to be impeached. Stone
admired, advised and did dirty work for both men.
Partly through his efforts, Stone’s former consulting
partner, Paul Manafort (now on jail on tax charges)
became Trump’s campaign chairman in 2016.
Now, at 67, Stone is, like Manafort, a convicted felon.
He is facing prison for lying to Congress and intimidat-
ing witnesses about his efforts to acquire and publicize
stolen Democratic emails. Ty pically for Stone, it’s not
clear how much malfeasance he committed and how
much he claimed to have done. He is the kind of guy
who likes to embellish his own bad rep: political
consultant as Times Square grifter.
He should be a footnote in history. Instead, the arc of
his life illuminates the descent of the Right — and much
of our political machinery — into a quicksand of cynical
shamelessness from which we are struggling to escape.
There never was anything philosophical about Stone,
unlike many other conservatives. He w as always in it for
something akin to social revenge.
As a boy, he hated the swells but wanted to be one —
in his own way. He was the Hungarian-Italian son of a
well digger, living in a tiny bungalow amid the
sweeping lawns of Pound Ridge, N.Y.
To stand out in school in the mid-60s, Stone chose
not to be a disheveled rebel of the Left ( that was for rich
kids of local country club Republicans) but an angry
dandy of the Right: aping William F. Buckley, lauding
J. E dgar Hoover and, most of all, idolizing Nixon, whom
he met and loved in part because of the fine quality of
Nixon’s suit and tie. “Nixon knew how to dress,” Roger
told me. This was his highest form of praise.
Nixon’s deeper appeal to Stone was his ruthlessness
and refusal to quit. Nixon’s aura drew Stone to
Washington, where he briefly attended college before
joining others to stir up trouble for the Committee to
Re-Elect the President, often aptly called CREEP. They
distributed fake “Socialist” propaganda on behalf o f the
Democrats, and a racist letter supposedly written by a
Democratic candidate.
After the Old Man left Washington in disgrace, Stone
stayed close, writing memos and setting up private
dinners with reporters. Stone soon figured out that his
best bet — for a big score and fine clothing — was to
advise Men of Means who had no political experience
but an ego-driven desire to run for, or at least threaten
to run for, elective office.
The hook-up with Trump was inevitable and served
both men’s purposes: Stone would suggest that Trump
was getting ready to jump into this or that campaign;
Trump would say, “That’s just Roger.” The routine
worked for a time: They could dabble without being
taken very seriously — until the moment when they had
to be.
That time came in 2016. In May of that year, I was in
Trump’s office in Trump To wer. He was, unbelievably,
the presumptive presidential nominee of the Republi-
can Party. “We have a mutual friend,” I said, looking to
see the reaction I’d get. “Roger Stone. I’ve known him
forever.”
Trump was silent for a moment. He smiled but
looked wary. Trump finally s aid, “He’s something, huh?”
And he shook his head in what seemed to be
appreciation.Howard Fineman, a former chief political correspondent for
Newsweek, is a news analyst for NBC and MSNBC.Roger Stone’s
lifetime
of dirty tricks
O
n a blank sheet of paper or candidacy filing
form, complete these 33 prompts. Then, in-
sert them in the announcement that follows.
You are too l ate for New Hampshire, but I am
sure that w ill n ot stop you.- Adjective: How you feel now that yet another
person i s entering the p rimary. Be honest. - Noun: “Billions of dollars,” i f you have them. If
not, a meaningless n oun used i n speeches. - Adjective: Thing you somehow think you are
but E lizabeth Warren isn’t. - Noun: A time that you feel Joe Biden wants to
take us to. - Noun: A time that you w ant to take us to but Joe
Biden doesn’t. - Verb that m eans “disappear.”
- Verb that means “relax.”
- Adjective that could m ean “ weird” but you h ave
taken to mean “encouraging.” - Noun: Either a word that means nothing, or
simply the w ord “ nothing.” - Proper Noun: A failed presidential candidate
who lacked charisma. - Proper Noun: A person as “authentic” as Al
Gore but n ot more so. - Adjective that means “buffoonish.”
- Adjective that also, when you come down to it,
means “ buffoonish.”
14. Verb: What you do at Platform 9¾, full speed
into a brick w all.- Adjective that m eans l aughable, unreal.
- Proper Noun: Person you should not listen to
but m any do. - Adjective that does not describe climate change.
- Number greater than the chaotic number of
Republican candidates in 2016, from which bedlam
Trump emerged. - Adjective that describes listening to your
friend’s child’s l ong-winded story. - Noun: Collective term for a group of billion-
aires. - Noun: S afe, w arm p lace.
- P roper Noun: Name of a place i n Real A merica.
- Noun: A time of day.
- Noun in which y ou record e vents.
- Proper Noun: Monosyllabic first name of a
man who you’d g uess played lacrosse. - Proper Noun that sounds like it could be a
1950 s Cabinet secretary’s surname or an old refriger-
ator brand. - Noun: A good thing a president should have.
- Noun: A body part.
- Verb: What a telemarketer call does during t he
dinner hour.
30. Adjective that describes something that is
disappointing but better than nothing.- Verb for what gerrymandering does to elec-
tions. - Verb for “to move forcefully from one place to
another.” - Noun: A bad place no one in their right mind
should want to go.
Yes, I am entering t he race. You’re [1, adjective].
I will bring [2, noun] to the race. Unlike Elizabeth
Warren, I am [3, a djective]. Unlike Joe Biden, who will
take us to [4, noun], I will take us to [5, noun]. I will
not m ention M ayor Pete or Cory Booker because w hat
I have just said applies to both of them, and if I
remember their existence, my w hole rationale f or this
campaign will [6, verb]. When billionaires are out
walking with their money and see me, they visibly
[7, verb]; also, I had a phone call with President
Barack Obama and it was [8, adjective]. I will bring
[9, noun] to this race, just by being myself, and I will
surely create a coalition. I combine the charisma of
[10, proper noun] with the authenticity of [11, proper
noun].
After I saw that To m Steyer was doing this, I
thought, “It is a(n) [12, adjective] idea for him, but it
will be a(n) [13, a djective] idea for m e!”I am [14, verb]-ing because I received a(n) [15, ad-
jective] letter from [ 16, proper noun], saying t hat all I
had t o do was get into t he race a nd I would surely win.
I have always believed that if I ever hinted at becom-
ing president, lots of people would want me to lead
them. This is d efinitely [17, a djective].
I also read somewhere that there needed to be at
least [18, number] candidates, or something terrible
would happen. No, I am not sure w hat. It i s [19, a djec-
tive] that I ’m h ere.
(If the candidate is a billionaire, add the following
sentence: I am a billionaire, and I am fighting to
protect my [20, n oun], and our money-[21, noun].)
I hadn’t initially intended to run, b ut then I read an
op-ed in the [22, proper noun] [23, noun] [24, noun]
in which [25, proper noun] [26, proper noun] called
in ringing terms for me to step f orward, and I l ack the
[27, noun] not to answer.
I believe everything good that is said about me. I
believe I am the solution. The siren song of the trail
has reached my [28, noun], and I am going in. I am
bold enough to believe that I am the right person to
[29, verb] A merica with my [ 30, adjective] solutions. I
alone can [31, verb] it.
I hope t hat you will [32, verb] me to [33, noun] — a
high honor! It i s the l east I deserve.
Twitter: @petridishesalexandra PetriMad Lib: Why I must join the race for president
drawing boardB Y MATT DAVIES FOR NEWSDAYB Y LUCKOVICH FOR THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTIONB Y JIM MORIN FOR MORINTOONS SYNDICATEB Y MATT DAVIES FOR NEWSDAYUPLOADED BY "What's News" vk.com/wsnws TELEGRAM: t.me/whatsnws