According to a tipster privy to a D.C. Council hearing today, Ward 8 Councilmember Marion Barry had this to say about Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh: "Ms. Cheh you are attractive, glamorous, and have great femininity." Uh—I guess it beats getting called an "angry woman" and then receiving a bouquet of flowers for your trouble.

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

City Paper: Deez Nuts. What does the title of the piece mean?

John Johnson: "Deez Nuts" is just like, D.C. . . . I’m sure everywhere people say "Deez Nuts," but when I was in high school, it was like a refrain. "Guess what? Deeeeez nuuuuuts!" It was more of a chant or a cadence. People are familiar with it, you know what I mean? And it refers to a dude’s testicles. So it's a witty title for a show that talks about men’s experiences.

CP: Was Deez Nuts inspired by the Vagina Monologues?

JJ: The show was inspired by talking to men in the community, but the Vagina Monologues is a good reference point for the audience. . . . The world is familiar with the Vagina Monologues, so we used the name to make people understand what it is. This is an all-male spin on that concept, with a real local D.C. flavor. It's a perspective on everything from love to war to having children, being fathers. But unlike the Vagina Monologues, where the women talk a lot about their parts—you know, about hair on the vagina and having periods—Deez Nuts doesn't focus on the male parts so much. It definitely talks about sex and relationships, but it's more about all the things that affect these nuts, instead of the actual nuts.

CP: How have women responded to the show?

JJ: All of the women want to see how men think. That’s been the positive feedback from the show. But on the flip-side, they want to see the female version. They don’t want to see the Vagina Monologues. They want to see the female version of Deez Nuts. . . . The difference would be that it would focus on local, D.C. women. Some women have been brainstorming a name for it. Some suggested "The Honey Pot." It's got to be something clever that refers to women and whatever their nuts would be. Like "Deez Ovaries."

CP: What men did you interview in creating the monologues?

All of them are my artist friends, and they run the gambit from musicians to poets to actors. The majority were men in the arts community, so they can convey a message. They've been practicing that for years. Putting all of their stories under the umbrella of Deez Nuts wasn’t a difficult task to do.

CP: The Vagina Monologues is considered a feminist project, because it discussed issues affecting women that hadn't been addressed so publicly before . . . . Do you think Deez Nuts does a similar service for issues affecting men?

JJ: Ultimately, men and women are compliments complements. So if there’s any type of inequality on either side, it affects both of us. If women are oppressed, so are men, because we’re not enjoying the full potential of our compliment. So it's not against feminism at all . . . This show has all African-American men in it, which is a unique angle. The Vagina Monologues came from a very different vantage point. Deez Nuts is about Chocolate City. All the performers happen to be black men—not that it was initially constructed that way—but their stories definitely reflect that part of D.C.

Responses have been condensed.

Today, Post media columnist Howard Kurtz tackled the popular outcry over the Washington City Paper's Marion Barry "You Put Me Out In Denver 'Cause I Wouldn't Suck Your Dick" cover line. Some readers, Kurtz wrote, found the headline's final "three-word phrase" vulgar, obscene, and even racist. The Post declined to print the phrase, but I'll give you a hint: it ain't "Out in Denver."

Kurtz went on to contextualize CP's stories with a recap of Barry's past highly-publicized sex scandals:

This is, after all, a former mayor who was busted for cocaine possession in 1990 with a woman not his wife—uttering the immortal phrase "Bitch set me up"—and two years later was found to have received oral sex from a female visitor at a Virginia prison (a conclusion he disputed). In the current flap, the Ward 8 lawmaker gave Watts-Brighthaupt a $60,000 council contract while they were dating, then was charged last weekend with stalking her after a fight, although charges have since been dropped.

But the Denver story is, by definition, not another Marion Barry sex scandal. It is a Marion Barry not-sex scandal. The story isn't a quasi-pornographic account of a Councilmember getting his dick sucked by a campaign staffer. It's about what he did to her when she refused to suck his dick.

Here's what Marion Barry did to a campaign staffer when she refused to suck his dick:

“You put me out in Denver ’cause I wouldn’t suck your dick,” Watts-Brighthaupt yelled at Barry, according to a tape recording of the conversation.

Watts-Brighthaupt was referring to an incident that had occurred about 10 months prior, at the Democratic National Convention. At the time, Watts-Brighthaupt was working on Barry’s ultimately successful re-election campaign and traveled to the Barack Obama-crowning affair. For reasons that remain murky, she ended up assigned to the councilmember’s hotel room in the Crowne Plaza hotel. Once behind closed doors, Barry allegedly asked Watts-Brighthaupt to perform oral sex on him. She refused, whereupon Barry threw her clothes out of the room and barred her from coming back in. She slept in the hotel’s parking garage, in a Cadillac Barry had rented.

No, this is not another story about Marion Barry trying to get some, bless his heart (as one commenter wrote, "At least he still has blood rushing through those veins"). This is a story about the misogynistic, abusive behavior of the councilmember from Ward 8. Watts-Brighthaupt's subsequent year-long on-again-off-again fling with Barry—the barefoot casino fights, the crazy voice-mails, the money promised to a woman suffering from the physical and financial strains of her cancer treatment, the arrest for stalking—speaks to a pattern of psychological abuse.

As we all know, an elected official receiving a blow job from a staffer qualifies as news to most media outlets. Shouldn't the way our elected officials treat women—and their employees—be newsworthy to us, as well?

Still think "suck your dick" is vulgar? Obscene? Indecent? Express that sentiment to Marion Barry, and you would be out on your ass, sleeping alone in a Denver parking garage in a rented Cadillac.

Mike DeBonis' cover story on Marion Barry and his alleged stalkee's relationship-caught-on-voicemail is breaking news. The cover image is forever. The Washington Post has capitalized on selling commemorative copies of its Election 2008 issue, its Inauguration 2009 issue, and its Michael Jackson is dead issue. The Washington City Paper's "You Put Me Out in Denver 'Cause I Wouldn't Suck Your Dick" collector's edition is FREE, and available on newsstands tomorrow! Get 'em while they're hot.

Why did Marion Barry, who led a chant of "No to same-sex marriage" at an anti-gay-marriage rally last week, decline to oppose the gay marriage bill? Oh: He didn't realize what he was voting on. According to DeBonis, Barry realized his mistake minutes later and moved for reconsideration, firing up the Council debate on marriage.

No take-backs, Marion Barry. No-take backs.

Local government, though, appears more than ready to introduce the legislation. The D.C. Council moved on Tuesday to strengthen the retirement benefits in the domestic partnerships of District police and firefighters. And the only current Councilmember who opposes gay marriage, Marion Barry, says he would support the measure anyway, "despite his personal feelings on the issue."