SIMMONS: Catania outburst, Barry anger the product of deep-seated antipathy

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

Do not for one second expect Marion Barry and David A. Catania to kiss and make up after their un-Hallmark-like spat on Valentine’s Day.

It isn’t gonna happen.

At a D.C. Council retreat on Tuesday, Mr. Catania hurled a personal insult at Mr. Barry, calling him a “despicable human being,” according to news reports. For his part, Mr. Barry characterized Mr. Catania as anti-black, saying, “David has a pattern of attacking black men.”

Now, it doesn’t matter what you think of either politician — one a black civil rights activist who was born and reared in the conservative politics of Jim Crow’s Deep South and the other an open homosexual who has made quite a name for himself fighting as a staunch supporter of gay civil rights.

Those points of view are in their respective DNA and cannot be changed.

And while members of the media have long watched these two men go at it and seen Mr. Catania lob stinging rhetorical barbs at his fellow council members and witnesses at public hearings, his profanity-laced outbursts Tuesday were disgraceful nonetheless.

Here are some hints to describe some of the terms the potty-mouthed Mr. Catania spewed.

In one tirade, he used a four-letter word that most family newspapers do not publish. Suffice it to say, that word begins with an F.

The other word, made up of eight letters, is alluded to in Tennessee Williams’ “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” in which one of the main characters, Big Daddy, uses a favorite saying, “bull,” whenever he tosses someone’s point of view in the toilet, where it belongs.

So you see, what Mr. Catania said is that he has no respect for Mr. Barry as a human being and he dislikes Mr. Barry’s points of view.

Council Chairman Kwame R. Brown said Wednesday morning that he’ll speak with Mr. Barry, Mr. Catania and their colleagues to ensure they all respect the institution that is the D.C. Council.

But he must not tread in the arena of free speech with this one.

Heated arguments among lawmakers are part and parcel of public discourse in this heyday of reality TV, as they give the public a close-up look in living color, if you will, at a legislator’s true personal motives and intent.

All that said, at the end of the day, even if apologies are made, sanctions are leveled and lawmakers are encouraged to make nice and always use their inside voices, it’s illogical to think Mr. Barry and Mr. Catania would ever sincerely embrace each another.

By any means necessary

By hook or by crook, the people of Mayor Vincent C. Gray’s beloved Washington are trying to throw him under the bus.

The plucky Mr. Gray, who dispensed a gaggle of Democratic also-rans in 2010, is stuck between the proverbial rock and a hard place.

Voters want him gone, and they are using the courthouse and the court of public opinion to kick him to the curb.

Half of the city didn’t elect him in the first place, and if speculation about a federal grand jury probing public corruption proves true, Sulaimon Brown, Mr. Gray’s onetime-opponent-turned-Fenty-antagonist, will get the honors of having the last laugh.

See, while Mr. Gray handily dispatched all rivals in the 2010 Democratic mayoral primary, four of the city’s eight wards favored the incumbent, Adrian M. Fenty.

That’s right. Economically, racially and ethnically diverse Wards 1, 2, 3 and 6, which are represented by white council members, voted for Mr. Fenty in 2010, while the largely black Wards 4, 5, 7 and 8, which have black lawmakers, placed their bets on Mr. Gray.

Now, barely 13 months into office, the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics has green-lighted voters by approving language in a petition to recall him and Chairman Brown.

The ruling, which the board made Tuesday, begs the question: Is Mr. Gray’s “One City” vision based on fact or fiction?

• Deborah Simmons can be reached at dsimmons@washingtontimes.com.