What is up with Marion Barry?

[Anonymous]

Am I missing something here? Does this man just get to illegally use city funds, and continually engage in sketchy activity and be paid by taxpayers?

[Anonymous]

Bitch set me up! C'mon, without Marion Barry, would the District be a complete national embarrassment? Okay, perhaps. But admit it, he's entertainment!

[Anonymous]

Having grown up in DC I can tell you that I don't totally get it either. He has been an embarrasment even before "The bitch set me up" scene!
BUt I am looking forward to seeing the documentary recently made about him that was recently bought by HBO- I think its called the Nine Lives of Marion Barry.
If you see photos of him from the 60's , you can tell there was something there, but why people have stuck with him (politically) for so long is really beyond me.
he seems to have "done a lot" for the poorest parts of DC, but I am not totally clear what that was-- I think he gave people jobs, but not necessarily the job training that they needed to be successful in the jobs. Anyway, even in the most recent situation there are people quoted in the Post article who are in the 50's who say Barry gave them their first job and for that they will always support him.
Sadly it seems that all subsequent Mayors ,Kelly/Dixon, Williams, Fenty- have had to work to get us out of the bureaucratic mess he got the city in.

[Anonymous]

Unfortunately I've heard that the Nine Lives of Marion Barry doesn't really explain much about him. I had been planning to go see it at the Silverdocs festival at AFI Silver until I read that review. But I'm looking forward to checking it out on HBO.

Part of it is that I think there are a lot of people who have been seriously wounded by racism (especially the older generation) and they see Barry as their defender, which I'm sympathetic to. But the other part is I think your basic codependent relationship -- he may be a drunk/junkie but he's our drunk/junkie, no matter how much he lets us down -- which I think is damaging to the community.