Now, suppose city leaders had screwed up their courage and asked these same dedicated corporate citizens to accept a special tax that generated $200 million (less than half the amount raised for baseball) to fix crumbling schools or provide child care or to build a model facility to rehabilitate troubled youth? City Hall, of course, would do no such thing. But if it did ask, it would get nothing in return but threats to pull up stakes and leave town.
Without question, baseball owners chose the right host city in which to recoup their losses.
Unless the D.C. Council balks, which it won't, the deal's done. Now comes the sales pitch, heralding the stupendous, spellbinding economic benefits of a team and a new stadium. But don't hold your breath waiting for the good times to roll. It will be years before the new stadium's gates open. By that time, the deal-cutters will have pocketed the booty and been long gone.
Not so with the House of Representatives, which will still be around to torment and humiliate the District.
It's hard to see how a future House could be any more malicious than the 198 Republicans and 52 Democrats who banded together on Wednesday to ram through a bill that, according to Del. Norton, makes it possible for D.C. residents, including children under 18, to own semiautomatic assault weapons. That legislative abomination would end all gun registration, and allow:
• Fully loaded handguns and semiautomatic weapons to be kept within reach of children.
• Gun owners to withhold notification from the police if their guns are lost or stolen.
• Chronic alcoholics or those who have negligently killed someone with a gun to carry guns.
It mattered not to those arrogant, insufferable hypocrites on the Hill that they won't let visitors enter their Capitol building without passing through metal detectors or that cars and buses are stopped for weapons inspections at checkpoints around the Capitol. Even as a callous and cynical House majority acted to make D.C. neighborhoods into armed camps and killing fields, those same members legislated behind a protective barrier of armed cops fiercely enforcing Capitol Hill's no-gun zone.
No doubt about it: Major League Baseball and the House of Representatives had their way with the District this week. Yet on Wednesday evening, Mayor Anthony Williams, adorned in a red baseball cap, proclaimed himself "elated." He should have been wearing a black armband. Maybe it's because he gets a luxury suite out of the deal.
Never thought I'd live to say this, but, if only Marion Barry were 20 years younger. . . .
kingc@washpost.com
