![Councilmembers Tommy Wells and Harry "Tommy" Thomas, Jr.](http://www.thegeorgetowndish.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/featured_article_image/article-images/tommies.jpg "Councilmembers Tommy Wells and Harry "Tommy" Thomas, Jr.")
“Politeness is organized indifference.” -- Paul Valery
For many years I killed time in the grocery store checkout lane by reading Ed Anger’s column in the Weekly World News. A typical piece would begin, “I’m madder than,” followed by something like “a one-legged man at an ass-kicking contest.”
The substance of Anger’s argument mattered very little to me. What brought me back was the manner with which Anger conveyed indignation. He was never polite about it, because sometimes polite just won’t cut it.
Which brings me to tainted Thomas and timid Tommy. Two D.C. Council members making news.
Tainted Thomas is Ward 5 Councilmember Harry Thomas, Jr.
Numerous voices in the media and three of his council colleagues have called on Thomas to resign. At least two other council members have hinted that he should go. It’s not a difficult call. The D.C. Attorney General issued a report that said $300,000 in taxpayer money intended to benefit children was plundered by Thomas to fund personal extravagances such as an Audi SUV, golf outings at prestigious courses, travel and meals that included at least one visit to Hooters.
I’m madder than a kid who just got his candy stolen.
In a settlement reached with the D.C. Attorney General, Thomas agreed to pay back $300,000 to the city, but he admits no wrongdoing and there are no punitive measures. Basically, he got a zero-interest loan from taxpayers.
Is there a reason for me to be delicate or polite about this? I don’t see any.
In my opinion, the Attorney General’s findings are enough for any reasonable person to arrive at a simple conclusion: It is plain to see that there is no place for Harry Thomas Jr. in government. He should resign and plead for mercy from the U.S. Attorney, who is investigating possible criminal activity.
To make things easy for Thomas, I wrote a statement. Feel free to cut and paste it, Councilmember: “I screwed up and so I’m not going to stay in this job collecting a taxpayer-funded salary that will help me pay back the $300,000 I owe to the city. That’s insane.”
Now for Timid Tommy, more formally known as Ward 6 Councilmember Tommy Wells.
Council Chair Kwame Brown recently orchestrated a successful vote to remove Wells from the WMATA Board and take away his chairmanship of the powerful Public Works and Transportation Committee.
Most Council watchers agree that Brown was punishing Wells for investigating the “Fully Loaded” SUV fiasco that very much embarrassed Brown. Meanwhile, Brown’s 2008 reelection campaign is the subject of a scathing Office of Campaign Finance audit that led Board of Elections and Ethics chairman Togo West to declare, “We think there's criminal activity here and it needs to be looked into.” The case has been referred to
the U.S. Attorney.
Wells needs to take a lesson from Ed Anger and learn to express a bit of outrage. While Brown may be able to wield influence over his council colleagues, in the court of public opinion he is politically weak. Wells should have seized the opportunity to decry Brown’s actions as a petulant abuse of power. Instead, he made a mild-mannered statement about how his support for good government and ethics “may make some of my colleagues very uncomfortable.”
That’s not how you handle a tyrant; especially one who has attracted the attention of the U.S. Attorney.
You look a tyrant in the eye and get all Obi-Wan Kenobi on him: “You can't win, Darth. If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.”
When Brown brought Wells’s fate to a vote, councilmembers unanimously voted against Wells. He now knows that he has few, if any, friends on the council. By that virtue, Wells can position himself as an outsider, willing to suffer in the name of reform whatever punishment Brown can dole out.
Moving forward, Wells stands to lose nothing by confronting Brown. He has much to gain by pointing out corruption, abuse of power and malfeasance. If Wells claims the mantle of good government and ethics warrior he can use it to clean house (or at least make the miscreants squirm) and possibly carry it to higher office.
But the spotlight on Wells is fading. He was the third council member to call on Thomas to resign. That’s a good start, but it isn’t leading.
Tommy Wells, you should be madder than a balloon trapped in a cactus garden. Let your colleagues and constituents know it.
Chuck Thies is host of WPFW's D.C. Politics show Thursdays at 11:00 am on 89.3 FM.
4 Comments For This Article
Chuck,aren't you the same scoundrel who worked on Phil Mendelson's reelection campaign and gave misleading information (sorry that's probably too polite)? Why would your opinion hold any weight? BTW, Wells is hoping no one will notice his close relationship with Chip Akridge!
If all you do is out corrupt politicians this will
Be more than a full time job for you Why can't
DC council be more like congress and just
out themselves on twitter and facebook
Come on Chuck, we all know there's more to it than just Navigator-gate. The causes behind Tommy Wells' losing his committee assignment make sense to anyone who looks at the bigger issues, which you normally do.
Let's start with the more obvious: Kwame Brown's campaign headquarters have traditionally been in Ward 6 on H Street NE. One of the biggest group of critics of Wells' have been the Black business owners on H. They argue Wells used a taxpayer funded shuttle bus for the benefit of his own staff (his campaign manager ran the shuttle program) and mostly white nitelife business owners on H (by running the shuttle only at night). I'm sure these business owners had Kwame Brown's ear and raised a stink. So by dissing Wells, Brown may have benefited supporters.
Wells had also burned Kwame Brown on the Bag tax bill, claiming full credit for passage even though they'd introduced the bill together. Kwame Brown may have faults, but poor memory's not one of them. People have a tendency to remember when you burn them in politics.
Tommy Wells' track record running his prior committee had been a bit iffy, and his oh so extended six month tenure with transportation seemed to be more about smoke and mirrors than actual legislation or progress. So why's everyone so upset that Wells got burned? Because he raised a stink about it? I'm mad as a hairless sheep at a porcupine convention that folks are so up in arms over Wells losing this assignment!
Meanwhile, Mary Cheh's proven to be a true progressive and has made sincere efforts to offer folks in DC an environmentally friendly and healthy city (she was dogged in her pursuit of healthy meals in schools, for example). Given that transportation, environment and public works had been under one Committee for years, there's no issue with combining them again. Cheh's legislative track record is impressive and she knows how to work the Council. She also does it without making enemies.
I agree that Kwame Brown's decision to strip Wells was likely more about politics than anything else. But let's not start acting as if Tommy Wells was some saintly do-gooder who never had any controversy. Tommy wasn't Tip O'neil.
As for the "other" Tommy? He needs to resign. Ward 5 has great leaders who could step into this seat and really do something for the hard working people of Northeast.
I've read about Wells and Joe Englert, but not the Chip Akridge connection. Please, do tell more about Wells and Chip Akridge?