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MARION BARRY DOESN'T CARE IF YOU'RE SORRY
The former President has been on a crusade since he left office. He's not looking for forgiveness. He's not looking for a comeback.
Ryan Lizza | The New Yorker | October 29, 2012

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On a pleasant Thursday afternoon in mid-September thousands gathered in Central Park for what could be dubbed the largest protest of the decade so far. The sun brightly shone on around eight hundred thousand who turned out in anger against America's continued action in Iran. The event had been promoted for weeks. The speaking roster was unsurprising - very few prominent political figures with the exception of Congressman Paul Hackett, always a thorn in the President's side, and likewise for former Presidential candidate Barbara Lee. Yes, the rally was addressed by the usual suspects of the anti-war world, the likes of Glenn Greenwald, Jesse Jackson, and Tim Robbins. Or so one would think.

At 4:45 P.M. on that Thursday afternoon, an unexpected figure rose up to the pulpit to give a fiery and impassioned sermon on the evils of the war. He spoke of young children who had been afflicted with white phosphorous rounds deployed by America's great ally in the conflict, Israel. He told a story of the lies peddled to the American people and the international community by Secretary of State Stephen Hadley. He spoke of insurgent groups utilizing U.S. Humvees and other equipment to further their own goals and commit heinous acts. He appeared to be a man with a mission. To cheers and applause so deafening they could be heard a hundred miles away, he issued a message directly to the President;

"I know you don't give a rat's ass about me or those rallying in opposition to your crooked war. Mark my words George Allen, you get out of Iran or we get you out of the Oval Office!"

As he stepped down from the platform, the audience were still somewhat mystified, some did not even know who he was. Some would not even consider him sorely missed. But for the majority, the man on stage was an icon. He was a throwback too. He was Marion Barry.

It was only 15 years ago that he found himself forcibly removed from office by a coalition of jubilant Republicans, ecstatic at painting the Democrats as the party of drug pushing and crime, and concerned Democrats including Barry's own vice president. When asked if he would ever forgive them in an interview with NBC's Tom Brokaw in 2004, he replied "That is not my judgement to make." He has not spoken to Ed Rendell in over ten years, according to Rendell's allies.

Many would call him bitter. Some would call him righteous. He would call himself "simply living each day the best I can." He resides in a humble home in the Anacostia neighbourhood, usually on his own, having been divorced from his wife Effi in 2000 and relinquishing his Secret Service protection in 2002. He says it isn't a lonely life, having regular dinners with prominent members of the political class. Kweisi Mifume, the erstwhile Maryland Governor, was in attendance only a week ago.

This certainly isn't Barry's first burst back into headlines. He made news last year when he traveled to Baghdad to meet with Iraqi President Qusay Hussein, a key U.S. ally, pleading with him to end his alleged "campaign of terror" against Kurds. Secretary of State Hadley did not mention the meeting in an attempt to evade what many commentators referred to as a "diplomatic embarrassment."

Whenever Marion Barry is brought up in mainstream discourse, the question arises; is he to Democrats what Nixon was to the Republican party? The bare bones outlook would tell us yes - they were Presidents who had fiendishly loyal bases and were removed from office, quickly becoming a millstone around their party's neck. Barry, of course, disagrees. He considers the comparisons to the late President Nixon not only unfair, but inaccurate. "Not only did Dick Nixon write books for twenty years after Watergate, all the people he associated with - they got off. Henry Kissinger still gets booked for lectures. Meanwhile, no one who stood by me got a fair shake." Furthermore, he says that "Ed Rendell wasn't half as capable as Gerald Ford. Ford tried to take up his role with honor and dignity. Ed just pushed me off a cliff and attempted to hog the glory of getting rid of me."

Barry believes that the difference in treatment is, of course, due to race and the nature of his accomplishments in office. "See, Nixon appealed to what the top 1% wanted, what the powerful wanted. They couldn't stand me. I went against their grain. I challenged them all." Some staunch defenders of President Barry have pointed to his plan for a federal jobs program that was unveiled immediately before proceeds for impeachment as evidence for a politically motivated "hit job". At the time, Barry himself referred to the process as a "high-tech lynching," which would go on to be the title of his best-selling autobiography.

"It's strange because you go round a lot of the black community, and even some parts of the white community - they say I was the best president they ever had. I fought for the working class, black and white. The powerful interests, they didn't care for that. They were shocked I was even able to win in '92. That's why they wanted me out."

The consensus on Barry and his presidency, and especially his removal from office, has shifted somewhat significantly since his removal, mainly among liberal leaning groups. Senator Jesse Jackson Jr., a leading Democrat, came out and endorsed Barry's remarks on MSNBC, saying "Undoubtedly part of the reason we didn't talk about Marion for years was because we didn't want to acknowledge his truths or what he meant to the black community."

In response, he was slated by commentator Chris Matthews, who retorted with "We didn't talk about Marion Barry because he got busted doing crack and cheating on his wife, Jesse. Don't live in denial over what he did." Georgia Governor Ralph Reed concurred as Jackson shot a harsh look at Matthews.

Yes, many do not disagree with the severity of Barry's drug-pushing, though some do call into question the relationship between crack cocaine and the black community. Recently, the black writer Ta Nehisi-Coates posited the following scenario in an article for the Nation;

"Let's say that Marion Barry was not President. Let's say that instead of the black Democratic Governor of D.C. we had the white evangelical Republican Governor of South Carolina Michael Barry. Let's say that in 1997 it came out that Michael Barry, a proud white evangelical Republican was caught possessing powder cocaine. Let's say that after investigation by the FBI it had turned out to be a reoccurring pattern stretching back over a decade. He might still be forced out. Then again, would he claim God's forgiveness,, as the likes of Swaggert and Colson had done, and stay on? And if not, would he be invited back to Republican fundraisers? Would him speaking at a rally draw intense criticism?"

It's an interesting point to consider, especially as many of Barry's Republican rivals at the time went down in scandals of only a slightly smaller nature, something which goes unmentioned in most historical reflections on the 90's as an era.

Former D.C. Governor and Secretary of Transportation Adrian Fenty staunchly defends Barry, insisting "the man did more for D.C. than anyone else." He continues, saying "He almost single-handedly ended the district being treated like a plantation by congress. He fought for home rule and then statehood. It was an effort unmatched by another." Asked about his indiscretions, Fenty responds with "he was a politician like any other. The difference being people were willing to take him out."

It's important to remember where the country was at the time of Barry's fall from grace. It was 1997, he had won a convincing, if slim, re-election over a divided Republican party only a year prior and it seemed as if people were growing accustomed to the practice of a black president. His accomplishments at that point were pretty remarkable given the overwhelming cynicism from those in the opposition and his own party. Unemployment was climbing down and America seemed to be slowing manufacturing decline. Palace intrigue stories about dissatisfaction from the vice president had seemingly gone away. Suddenly, all of that was gone in an instant. The peace and settled prosperity of the mid 1990's was replaced with breaking news of the President of the United States caught up in a drug bust. Networks spoke of "national embarrassment". It became fodder for the world of late night and stand up. Eddie Murphy's portrayal of the President on Saturday Night Live became legendary.

Many have claimed the investigation and media circus surrounding Barry to be a witch hunt. Some have even turned his ousting from office into a conspiracy theory. The belief goes that the President wasn't guilty of any crime at all, and that the FBI set him up and paid a woman to act as his mistress, leaving aside the facts that his crack use had gone back to the early 1980's according to some reports and his affair with Rasheeda Moore had a similarly reported length. Barry himself denies any involvement or co-operation with the theory.

I asked Marion Barry the all important question, one that Richard Nixon never got to answer. "Do you want people to forgive you?" I put it to him in as kind and gentle a manner as I could, acknowledging the patronising undertones. He took some time to respond.

"I paid the price for what I did. I got shut out for fifteen years and counting. I was still the best fighter for the working man by far, and I fight for them every damn day. I don't want to go on a big apology tour saying sorry for my indiscretions, that's wrong. I couldn't spend the rest of my life saying sorry. That goes double for those saying sorry to me. I'm not looking for forgiveness. I am my own man, and I don't care if you send regrets my way."

They're surprising remarks to hear from someone so often described as "disgraced", though its important to remember that even Richard Nixon never particularly looked for forgiveness in the years following his impeachment. "Why should Marion Barry look for forgiveness?" wrote Coates in his aforementioned article. "Forgiveness isn't what an ex-president should aspire to. We never asked Phil Crane to seek forgiveness even after he declared war on a generation of young black men. It's unlikely we'll ask George Allen to seek forgiveness after his reckless war in Iran causes untoward death and destruction. Ultimately what Marion Barry needs to look for is up to Marion Barry. If you think otherwise, it's unlikely you know Marion Barry, a man whose message to Democratic party colleagues in the aftermath of his removal from office was 'get over it'."

Barry will continue his slew of activism, which includes a variety of things ranging from poverty and homelessness to the current deployment of American forces overseas to his son's bid for D.C.'s at large congressional district, until the day he dies, he says. He is currently prohibited from seeking office, so that at least will not distract him. The 2012 election isn't of critical importance to him, though the defeat of Rahm Emanuel, Rendell's chief of staff and key figure in the impeachment process, in the primaries brought him a lot of joy. "I don't know who I'm voting for, because I'm sure as hell not voting for George Allen," he begins, "but you know I'm unsure about who we've got this time round. Who on earth is Jamie Dimon? I fought him. I fought his type. And then he goes and gets the nomination? No, I cannot in good conscience back that."

Whatever the case, Marion Barry will keep fighting, as he did on the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in his youth, as he did on the D.C. council fighting a hostile congress in an effort for home rule, as he did once again fighting for statehood to be signed into law by President Udall, as he did during the Crane administration attempting to mitigate the War on Drugs, as he did pushing against the thinly veiled attacks of Senator Rodham, as he did winning a closely fought election to become the first black president and an inspiration to millions of young men across America as an example that their dreams could be more than just that, as he did fighting Dick Cheney, Dick Armey, and eventually his own Vice President. Regardless of how he's viewed, whether it be a race-hustling disgrace or as an unsung hero laid low by his own vices, there will never be a man quite like Marion Barry. For some, that will be a relief. But for him, that is nothing to be ashamed of.
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