Robert S. Bennett’s latest pro-bono assignment won’t be as thankless as probing priest sex abuse in the Roman Catholic Church.
But it may be a close runner-up.
Bennett, the consummate Washington insider best known for defending Bill Clinton against a lawsuit from Paula Jones agreed earlier this month to investigate whether D.C. councilman and former Mayor Marion Barry violated ethics rules when he gave his then-girlfriend Donna Watts-Brighthaupt a $5,000-per-month government gig.
The investigation pits two old political warriors against one another. Bennett, who specializes in extricating powerful people from jams, has represented former World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz, former Secretaries of Defense Clark Clifford and Caspar Weinberger and former New York Times reporter Judith Miller, among others. He is a former amateur boxer not known for pulling punches.
Barry, who styles himself a defender of the downtrodden, is a wily adversary. At 73, this son-of-a-Mississippi sharecropper has risen from the political ashes so many times that a new HBO documentary about his life is called The Nine Lives of Marion Barry.
While serving as mayor in 1990, Barry was videotaped smoking crack cocaine in a hotel room with a former girlfriend-turned-FBI informant. After serving a six-month prison sentence, he was re-elected as a city councilman on the slogan, “He May Not Be Perfect, But He’s Perfect for D.C.” In 1994, he was re-elected to his fourth mayoral term, and in 2004, won a seat on the council to which he was re-elected last year.
For all his personal failings – the latest being a conviction for failure to pay federal and local taxes - Barry is still lionized in his 8th Ward district in southeast Washington for getting people jobs and city contracts and also, perhaps, just for surviving.
Which may be why, after he was arrested July 4 for driving erratically, some suggested he had been unfairly targeted - just as they had in 1990.
The traffic charges and another claim that he had been stalking his ex-girlfriend, Watts-Brighthaupt, were quickly dropped. But reports that Barry had been paying Watts-Brighthaupt $5,000 a month to “research and formulate guidelines to implement the Emerging Leaders of Ward 8 program” spurred questions about possible misuse of public funds.
Soon after, the City Council voted to give Bennett subpoena authority to investigate that contract, as well as others Barry awarded. Bennett has said that as part of his probe, he will help the city create an ethics policy.
The matchup between the two men is likely to produce fireworks. In a sign of their outsized personalities, both showed up at a recent City Council news conference to talk about the investigation.
After Bennett made brief remarks, Barry read his own statement, according to BLT, the blog of Legal Times. “When Mr. Bennett finishes his investigation, he will find that [Watts-Brighthaupt’s] qualifications exceed the requirements, and the work product exceeds the $15,000 she was paid.
“I also want to say I believe in innocent until proven guilty.”
Two other city council members reportedly walked out, expressing disgust.
In a subsequent interview with the Washington Post, Barry said that people criticizing him didn’t understand how things work in the district.
“You all think it is inappropriate to hire a girlfriend,” he told the Post. “I don’t think it is. In fact, there is no law against it.”
When asked whether he would hire another woman he becomes romantically involved with, Barry said, “Unless the law changes, why not?
“Some people either don’t know the law or have their own conservative views,” he said. “As long as it is not illegal, citizens ought to allow people to do what they want.”
Barry also released a 30-page document that he said proves Watts-Brighthaupt did work to justify her $15,000 city pay, according to council records.
“She produced a quality work product worth more than $15,000, worth probably $30,000,” he said. “She put the time in . . . She certainly wasn’t just sitting around talking to me. Some people talk like all we did was pillow talk.”
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1 Comments
#1. david clohessy 07.24.2009
Given how little America’s bishops have changed their handling of clergy sex crimes and cover ups, I can’t help but wonder if Mr. Bennett wishes he and his colleagues should have been more vigorous in their short-lived ‘oversight’ and ‘investigation’ of the on-going scandal.
David Clohessy, National Director, SNAP-Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, 7234 Arsenal Street, St. Louis MO 63143 (314 566 9790 cell), SNAPclohessy@aol.com, SNAPnetwork.org
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