Kwame Brown: The Adrian Fenty of Media Strategy?
So the big news today, as LL is sure you're aware, is that Council Chairman Kwame "Fully Loaded" Brown has taken away Ward 6 Councilmember Tommy Wells' beloved transportation and public works committee, only six months after Wells took it over.
Why? Well, Brown says it's because he has a "unique opportunity" to rearrange the council's committees that "effectively [consolidates] areas of similar interest.” Everyone else, it seems, says it's because Brown is pissed at Wells for a host of reasons (including Wells' investigation of Navigatorgate).
Which brings us to the topic of this post: The ham-handed way Brown handled the move with the media.
Observe: Brown tells Wells last night around 9 p.m. about his plans. Wells then promptly takes the story to the friendly Greater Greater Washington blog, which breaks the news around 7 a.m. in a post that casts Brown as a vengeful hack trying to punish Wells for having the audacity to investigate l'affaire Navigator.
Brown is then caught flat-footed trying to explain the move to a skeptical media. Brown's inability to put the story out first himself, with his own spin ("Kwame makes council committees more effective!"), shows a real lack of awareness of how narratives are formed in politics. After all, this shouldn't have caught Brown off guard; it was his decision that set the whole thing in motion.
Now the story that everyone's chattering about has Brown playing politics and Wells becoming a good-government martyr. LL can't help but think that a more sophisticated pol would have found a way to handle this move better.
Then again, maybe there is no good way to spin a major committee reshuffling six months after the last one.
Photo by Darrow Montgomery
4:17 pm
There may not be a good way, but there's always a less-awful way.
Kwame Brown is worse than corrupt; he's an incompetent.
4:18 pm
Check out the revised D.C. Council Committee Chairs. Kwame Brown is an idiot. How can this guy chair the committee of the whole, public schools, and economic delvelopment? Lord, help us all. We are all doomed in the District of Columbia, under this idiot's leadership. I just seen Miss Piggy Alexander on Cable 13 sporting a new blond cruly wig clutching her fake white pearls. LOL
http://dcist.com/2011/07/here_they_are_your_revised_2011_dc.php
4:19 pm
Correction:
Check out the revised D.C. Council Committee Chairs. Kwame Brown is an idiot. How can this guy chair the committee of the whole, public schools, and economic development? Lord, help us all. We are all doomed in the District of Columbia, under this idiot's leadership. I just seen Miss Piggy Alexander on Cable 13 sporting a new blond curly wig clutching her fake white pearls. LOL
http://dcist.com/2011/07/here_they_are_your_revised_2011_dc.php
4:30 pm
What Wells is the victim now? Oh, please. Is the Anacostia river clean from Wells bag tax move? No, another bs tax that didn't do what it was supposed to do! Get these jokers out of office!
No Brown fan here but Wells is a self-serving drunk who cherry picks his issues.
4:37 pm
Better lede:
Kwame Brown: The Vince Gray of Media Strategy?
4:43 pm
yeah, calling Kwame the Adrian Fenty of media strategy implies that he has actually gotten something accomplished while being petty and vengeful.
5:08 pm
I just called this raccoon's office to express my disappointment with his boorish behavior. This raccoon has a problem with coming to terms with his own wrongdoing. I told his assistant to start looking for other employment because Brown won't be there for long.
Instead of Brown facing the music as a man would who is about to be sentenced for a crime he knows he committed, this little midget raccoon decides to slap Tommy's bottom. What a Catty Girl Brown is! Brown you are a fool, but more, a bona fide Ward 7 Minstrel! Your actions make Tommy Wells look even more like the good guy he is in your case of abusing taxpayer dollars.
Brown you should have stood down you raccoon-eyed clown!
5:10 pm
Kwame...you just keep sticking your foot in it and wondering what that smell is...not a Tommy fan but hey...timing my friend...geesh
5:21 pm
noodlez
July 12th, 2011
2:37 pm #44
DcNative DROPPED A NICE LIL’ DIDDIE REGARDING WELLS AND HOW HE CONDUCTED HIMSELF OVER THE PAST FEW YEARS. THE OBSERVATIONS DcNative MADE AND WELLS BEING FROM TEXAS, GOING TO SCHOOL IN ALABAMA AND MINNESOTA IS NOT A GOOD LOOK WHEN YOU ARE SYSTEMATICALLY SHUTTING OUT AND SHUTTING DOWN BLACK BUSINESSES THAT WHITE FOLK FEEL ARE EYESORES AND NOT SERVING THEIR NEEDS.
WOULD BE CURIOUS TO SEE WHAT JOURNALIST IS REALLY GOING TO CONNECT THE DOTS AND CREATE A TIME LINE TO PEN A STORY THAT WOULD HAVE FOLKS REALLY LOOKING INTO THOSE 'ALLEGEDLY' ETHICAL VIOLATIONS DcNative WAS MAKING?
OF ALL THE 'ALLEGEDLY' ETHICIAL VIOLATIONS DcNative CLAIMS THE FOLLOWING IS ONE THAT REALLY CONCERNS ME AS A NATIVE WASHINGTONIAN; “The Office of Campaign and Finance records show Englert made numerous contributions, via his businesses, to Wells’ 2010 re-election campaign. Re-election events for Wells were also held by Englert, who was recently quoted in The Washington Business Journal proclaiming, “We would be broke if it wasn’t for Councilmember Wells”. However, H Street, NE retail business owner Kendrick doesn’t share the same sentiments as Englert. Newman is upset and stated, “Nothing was in place to assist my landlord who lost his property in DC’s tax sale and now the new owner has asked me to leave. Now, everything dear to me is being taken away.””
NOT ONLY REDLINING CAN BE CLAIMED BUT SOME SORT OF BLOCKBUSTING AS WELL! MAYOR GRAY SHOULD HAVE NIXED STREETCAR DEAL LIKE HE WAS GOING TO!
LOOK IM NOT PRIVY TO THE INNER WORKINGS OF HOW AND WHY THINGS HAPPEN WITH REGARD TO BUSINESSES IN THE DISTRICT REGARDING THE HELP THEY CAN AND/OR SHOULD RECEIVE AND THE RELATIONSHIP THOSE BUSINESSES HAVE WITH COUNCILMEMBERS. HOWEVER ONE WOULD THINK THAT COUNCILMEMBERS WOULD TRY TO HELP ANYONE WITHIN THEIR WARD TO MAINTAIN NOT ONLY THEIR OWN PERSONAL STATUS BUT THE ESTABLISHED BUSINESS’ STATUS QUO.
IT SEEMS LIKE WELLS ONLY HELPED THOSE THAT HE CHOSE TO HELP AND NOT EVERYONE HE SHOULD HAVE HELPED. PLEASE DON’T TELL ME THAT EVERYONE ON THE H ST COOPERATIVE IS WHITE? TO PUT FOLKS IN CHARGE OF ANY AMOUNT OF MONEY THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ALLOCATED AND DIVIDED SOME WHAT EQUALLY TO ALL THOSE AFFECTED BY THAT BULLSHIT ASS STREETCAR DEBACLE TO ME WAS NOT ONLY UNETHICAL BUT NEGLIGENT.
I WAS SOMEWHAT SURPRISED HOW THOSE FEW BLOCKS OF H ST AROUND THE ATLAS SOMEHOW BLOOMED AND BLOSSOMED WHILE OTHERS JUST SAT IN LIMBO AND DECLINED. NOW I KNOW!!! IT IS APPALLING FOR THOSE ESTABLISHMENTS THAT KEPT H STREET AFLOAT SINCE THE RIOTS AND DRUGAGEDDON TO NOT GET THE HELP THEY DESERVE BUT THIS JOKER ENGLERT IS!
SO BARRY SENT A COUPLE DOLLARS TO THE DICKSUCKER AND GOT THROWN UNDER THE BUS, THOMAS SAID “FUCK IT” AND POCKETED THE MONEY OUT RIGHT AND FOLK (ME INCLUDED) IS CALLING HIS BAMMA ASS OUT, ‘FULLY LOADED’ CANT COUNT AND KEEP TRACK OF MONEY EITHER BY DESIGN OR IGNORANCE AND FOLK GOT HIS WHOLE FAMILY GETTING LOCKED UP, GRAY STARTED TO OVERPAY SOME FOLKS, WHO BARELY GOT THEIR 1ST PAYCHECK, BEFORE HE ACQUIESCED TO SENTIMENT AND REASON AND FOLK ARE STILL TRYING TO RUN HIM OUT OF OFFICE WHEN THE PREVIOUS MAYOR FUCKED UP DAMN NEAR EVERY MONTH HE WAS IN OFFICE. SO WELLS BY ALL ACCOUNTS FUNNELLED DOUGH TO HIS FOLKS LETS SEE IF IT RISES AND HIS ASS GETS BAKED!
6:01 pm
To suggest that Brown did something wrong by personally calling Wells is terribly disenguous, LL!
If Brown had done otherwise, it would be viewed by you as really vengeful.
Spinning news is reporting news.
6:07 pm
Charlie Sheen for DC mayor or Counci Chair. Charlie couldn't do any worse than these idiots.
6:08 pm
@Southeast Ken...so true...so true
6:34 pm
The words Kwame Brown and strategy should not ever be in the same sentence...
7:12 pm
"LL can't help but think that a more sophisticated pol would have found a way to handle this move better."
I have to agree with you -- but first, I have to state the obvious -- you need to start with a more sophisticated politician -- which is something Kwame will never be.
As I stated in an earlier post, KB does not have the stones to carry this retaliation through. Just wait until Catania goes on a tear -- Kwame will not even be able to restore order in the Council chamber.
Kwame & Harry Thomas -- the new millenium equivalent of Amos n Andy.
8:50 pm
So the "nobody puts baby in the corner" crew is in full effect (stole that line from another commenter...it was a great one).
Please he did what he had to do (in my training day voice)
9:48 pm
Kwame Kwame Kwame: you were caught "Lying" about government procurement practices!! Shame on you an the eleven other members who have aligned themselves with your, sleaziness. I really expected better from councilmembers: CHEH,CATANIA,EVANS,
ORANGE,BOWSER. I guess that was a bit foolish of me though.
Tommy Wells for: MAYOR,HE'S THE ONLY HONEST ONE IN THE BUNCH !!!!!!!!!!!!
9:57 pm
I'm just LOL over here. Biggest political power move this city has seen in a while. All this anger at Kwame but remember the vote was 12-1. Think about that. 12 votes. Its easy for Wells to play the victim after a beat down like that.
10:58 pm
Lol @ Jim Ed.
11:08 pm
The only misstake Kwame made was not
11:23 pm
...going to the media first but he wanted to give Tommy "The Town Drunk" Wells the respect of hearing it from the Chair first. But being the classy guy that "The Town Drunk" is, let's run to a GGW to get a little sympathy brewing, no pun intended.
Please investigate Tommy's relationship with the H Street Cooperative, something smells badly....damn drunks!
11:24 pm
Going to the media first but he wanted to give Tommy "The Town Drunk" Wells the respect of hearing it from the Chair first. But being the classy guy that "The Town Drunk" is, let's run to a GGW to get a little sympathy brewing, no pun intended.
Please investigate Tommy's relationship with the H Street Cooperative, something smells badly....damn drunks!
9:31 am
Now that Suzanne Peck is back at 441 4th street, we have all the clowns in place. Thanks Mayor Gray.
9:46 am
Hell yeah, Observer. Wells is no martyr. I don't trust him. LL, you need to check into Wells giving kick backs to some H Street businesses to the detriment of others. He is no astute politician; and that David Alpert is no reporter. He didn't give KB a chance to refute the dumb story; and every other media and citizen bought it hook line and sinker. Stupid. That's why real reporters need to report the stories. Instead we have dumb asses like GGW claiming they are reporters and then do one sided stories. LL, do your digging. Go Kwame. You beef up the Council. Wells done for me.
9:47 am
To suggest that Brown did something wrong by personally calling Wells is terribly disenguous, LL!
Well Alan is telling the truth. There is a better way in which Brown could have handled this. But then again, he undersestimated the Greater Greater Washington community.
9:48 am
Yeah, RealDC, i miss your comment. These fools in the city have no idea the real deal behind Wells. That clown only want to be mayor. U done, son. No support on the council. None come to your aid? Shoot, u need to check yourself. Go running to GGW. What's up with H STreet. And where the damn street cars that supposed to be running thru H St. I almost get hit by a car that couldn't manuver the tracks. Sheesh.
10:08 am
At this point, a summary of many of the comments here appears to be the following:
Wells picked on my man Kwame, and he beat his ass down! Yay for my man Kwame!
DC politics = cheap ass alley fight, not a contest of which policies are best for the residents, not a system of reward for upstanding leadership and mature public service, and it's supposed to be a nice long fabulous and untouched catwalk for people to strut their stuff among the fake it 'till you make it crowd.
11:05 am
WELLS IMMEDIATELY CALLED FOR INVESTIGATION INTO 'FULLY LOADED' CAUSING DAMAGE AND MONEY ON AN ISSUE THAT COULD HAVE BEEN HANDLED IN-HOUSE BY GOING TO BROWN LIKE A MAN AND/OR COLLEAGUE AND DISCUSS SITUATION TO BRING ABOUT A RESOLUTION.
SO AFTER ALL THAT BROWN WAS STILL MAN ENUF TO TELL WELLS FACE TO FACE ABOUT CHANGES HE WAS IMPLEMENTING THAT WAS WELL WITHIN HIS SCOPE INSTAED OF MAKING BROAD ANNOUNCEMENT ABOUT CHANGES. THEN WELLS RUNS LIKE A LIL BITCH TO GGW (WHO IS SOME SHIT BY THE WAY WITH THEIR SUBJECTIVE BLABBLE)TO DRUM UP NEGATIVE BLOW BACK ABOUT CHANGES.
THEN SEWERMAN QUESTIONS BROWNS APPROACH??
SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE!!!!!
11:20 am
"Kwame Brown is worse than corrupt; he's an incompetent."
Max B., don't be surprised if this is reprised in another, more friendly form at "Fully-Loaded" Brown's criminal trial.
11:25 am
@ Southeast Ken--
"Charlie Sheen for DC mayor or Counci Chair. Charlie couldn't do any worse than these idiots."
And Charlie is apparently already entitled to police escorts.
11:53 am
Oh of course, Noodlez, Wells along with every other concerned person in the District should have very quietly gone begging to Kwame to ask his Highness to please work on a correction to the fiscal immaturity running through his veins (when it was already all over the press for weeks, with not a single other Councilmember doing a damn thing about it).
Kwame paid back the residents yet, like he promised?
12:24 pm
Kwame must have bullied and threatened the other councilmembers to get their vote. This is political vengence at its most obvious and worst. What Kwame should have done was pay back the lease money owed the city on the SUV mess, said he made a mistake and moved on. That would have been the grown up thing to do, instead the child thinks he can rip off the District and sees no reason he shouldn't blame someone else and get away with it. Marion Barry move except Kwame needs more than Ward 8 to keep him in politics and keep his ego being fed. Cheh and Brown only care about getting power for themselves, no responsibility for good government other than to mouth the words and hope someone believes it. Neither Cheh or Brown actually want to do the work of the council or care about the District they just want the titles and the power.
12:25 pm
Didn't Brown have a "unique opportunity" to consolidate committees six months ago when he made the initial assignments? And for those of you who claim that this is "just politics", that it is a totally fair. But remember, politicians work for us to come to good city administration and policy decisions. Demoting someone because they caught you with your hand in the cookie jar is not good management for the city. You know what else is just politics? Recalls.
1:32 pm
Black and White… Jim Crow in the Nation’s Capital.
Wash. Post defending politicians who look like the Editor. “…You can’t do that to my boy…”; poor Tommy Wells.
Washington Post trying to influence POLITICS in the District. Lil’ Rupert Murdock.
Chairman Kwame Brown made a change at the Council got the 12 votes to secure it and a Caucasian is demoted.
I’m NO K.Brown fan…but he is the CHAIRMAN of the Council.
RACISM….RACISM….RACISM….
1) Michelle Rhee fired teachers and the Wash. Post cheered.
1a) Rhee fired the entire DCPS Central Office - no evaluations or chance to show improvement.[You folks liked that]. However, the new Rhee Central Office over spent their budget two times.
2) Adrian Fenty fired low END social workers [on the whim]…when several children died AT the hands of a mother who had a case filed with the D.C. Welfare & Children Agency. It was the managers who were guilty of case file OVERLOAD for each overworked social worker.
3) Fenty brought terror to the D.C. work force…say anything negative about Fenty or his posse and you were instantly FIRED. And, Fenty wrongfully fired a bunch of D.C. Managers.
4) Fenty fired the Director of Recreation because the director did not allow Fenty’s two sons to illegally play ball in the age group that Adrian Fenty selected for his sons.
Rhee and Fenty [to quote the Wash. Post and you Fenty Bloggers] to charge and went against main stream to do WHAT THEY THOUGHT WAS CORRECT.
Now, a Black politician exercise the same power of his office AND NOW THIS BLACK MAN IS vindictive…acting child-like or immature.
White folks do it …it's alright. Black folks do it…it all wrong.
Perhaps, that is Why Vincent Gray lack the fortitude to stand up to the media and not move on the selection of Dept. Heads and managers who were related to others on the staff. White Mayors do it all the time. Gray lacks fortitude while Chairman and now it showing as Mayor.
Gray needs a blood transfusion from Mayor Coleman Young –Detriot; Maynor Jackson –Atlanta; Carl Stokes –Cleveland, Kurt Schmoke and the Great “Harold Washington” Chicago.
Who questioned N.Y. Mayor Bloomberg’s selection of managers????
Washington Post there is only one Rupert Murdock…and it ain’t you; you wanna be.
As far as the other racist who support Tom Wells and his elite Capital Hill residents your actions have already painted you as belonging to the Dixe-Crats.
The more the Post use additional resources to delve into Black politicians behaviors [while hiding other politician dirt in the Style section. Or in Saturday’s edition] and the more D.C. residents want to recall… the MORE JIM CROW is coming out in the District.
That is a good thing…stop hiding behind this multi-cultural city, this diverse city. Allow RACISM to RAISE ITS “ UGLY” HEAD…come on you folks in the CLOSETS – Come out...we know that you are there.
Wake Up…Trusting Citizens.
Calvin H. Gurley
1:33 pm
Oh please...this same crowd was turning a blind eye when the former mayor did the same thing.
What LL is trying to say is niggaz need to stay in their place and excerise their authority when "we" say so.
1:57 pm
Wash. Post defending politicians who look like the Editor. “…You can’t do that to my boy…”; poor Tommy Wells.
Black and White… Jim Crow in the Nation’s Capital
Chairman Kwame Brown made a change at the Council got the 12 votes to secure it and a Caucasian is demoted.
I’m NO K.Brown fan…but he is the CHAIRMAN of the Council.
RACISM….RACISM….RACISM….
1) Michelle Rhee fired teachers and the Wash. Post cheered.
1a) Rhee fired the entire DCPS Central Office - no evaluations or chance to show improvement.[You folks liked that]. However, the new Rhee Central Office over spent their budget two times.
2) Adrian Fenty fired low END social workers [on the whim]…when several children died AT the hands of a mother who had a case filed with the D.C. Welfare & Children Agency. It was the managers who were guilty of case file OVERLOAD for each overworked social worker.
3) Fenty brought terror to the D.C. work force…say anything negative about Fenty or his posse and you were instantly FIRED. And, Fenty wrongfully fired a bunch of D.C. Managers.
4) Fenty fired the Director of Recreation because the director did not allow Fenty’s two sons to illegally play ball in the age group that Adrian Fenty selected for his sons.
Rhee and Fenty [to quote the Wash. Post and you Fenty Bloggers] to charge and went against main stream to do WHAT THEY THOUGHT WAS CORRECT.
Now, a Black politician exercise the same power of his office AND NOW THIS BLACK MAN IS vindictive…acting child-like or immature.
White folks do it …it's alright. Black folks do it…it all wrong.
Perhaps, that is Why Vincent Gray lack the fortitude to stand up to the media and not move on the selection of Dept. Heads and managers who were related to others on the staff. White Mayors do it all the time. Gray lacks fortitude while Chairman and now it showing as Mayor.
Gray needs a blood transfusion from Mayor Coleman Young –Detriot; Maynor Jackson –Atlanta; Carl Stokes –Cleveland, Kurt Schmoke and the Great “Harold Washington” Chicago.
Who questioned N.Y. Mayor Bloomberg’s selection of managers????
Washington Post there is only one Rupert Murdock…and it ain’t you; you wanna be.
As far as the other racist who support Tom Wells and his elite Capital Hill residents your actions have already painted you as belonging to the Dixe-Crats.
The more the Post use additional resources to delve into Black politicians behaviors [while hiding other politician dirt in the Style section. Or in Saturday’s edition] and the more D.C. residents want to recall… the MORE JIM CROW is coming out in the District.
That is a good thing…stop hiding behind this multi-cultural city, this diverse city. Allow RACISM to RAISE ITS “ UGLY” HEAD…come on you folks in the CLOSETS – Come out...we know that you are there.
Wake Up…Trusting Citizens.
Calvin H. Gurley
2:13 pm
Is Alan Suderman the least politically astute LL ever? I think LL needs to spend some time just going through the archives of past columns, and try to glean some information about the city's past before Fenty. It's true; there were actually other mayors, councilmembers and crazy things that happened. And neither Fenty nor Marion Barry were responsible for them. Maybe then we could analysis and political parallels that actually makes sense.
2:16 pm
After 2 years as an ANC Chair, then 6 years as the Ward 6 school board member and then 4 1/2 years as a Ward 6 Councilmember, its amazing that little Tommy could not find any allies in the 12-1 vote to strip him of his Committee. Kwame is no prize leader but he clearly understands a little something of politics and the need to exercise power. Leave little Tommy to count plastic bags and quarters in parking meters, pray for higher registration fees and more bike racks while the rest of us seek his permanent replacement on the Council.
2:51 pm
Can somebody in ward 4 run against Bowser please!
4:08 pm
Calvin Gurley your racial horseshit has no place in a modern city. But that's not what you want anyway.
4:26 pm
Ldc...Please continue to live in your hazed up la-la land. The media and many voters continue to play this covert game with clear racial undertones.
Why not just face it head on and talk about. That is better than the whole ostrich in the comments.
4:35 pm
Ostrich in the sand comments
12:50 am
Calvin Gurley,
Fenty is gone so stop obsessing over him. We have a new government and LL is just doing its job by scrutinizing it.
9:46 am
W6..ahaaa the whole just forget about the past. Yet the the rules for us folks will bring up the Marion Barry ghost of the 80's time and time again. Stop changing the rules. And maybe just maybe if LL and the get fresh crew would have been consistant with coverage and "scrutinizing" the last admin and their corrupt practices and their revenage tactics then yeah maybe you have something. But they didn't so take you get over tagline and shove it!
6:16 pm
MODERN CITY my azz!!
LMBAO at that stupidity!
In fact, LDC, you wouldn't know shit from chocolate if it was on your nose you coward!!!
AGENDAS, AGENDAS and more AGENDAS!!!
YOU CLOSETED RACISTS and uncle toms make me sick with this fake azz holier than thou stance that does absolutely nothing for the solution!!!
This guy SEWERMAN, along with MOST of the reporters here on LL WCP are Lazy, Drunks, Biased and Flawed in their approach and style of seeking/reporting issues!
Give me the meat and potatoes, keep your napkins and table dressings you dig!
Its time for the real to be just that all the time!
Real journalism
Real investigation
Real perspective
Real solutions
stop this crap shoot nit picking that does nothing for the root cause but further divides, MISCONCEIVES and hides FACT!