I'M COMING OUT

Democrat's Garb Cloaks Closet Republicans (Courtland Milloy, May 4, 2003, Washington Post)

Why not come right out and say it, D.C.?

Mayor Anthony A. Williams, a so-called Democrat, is actually a Republican. And much of this city, which is said to be overwhelmingly Democratic, is in the closet with him.

This is nothing to be ashamed of. What's so unseemly is the city's need to pretend to be one thing while believing something else.

In a city of about a half-million or so, the ratio of Democrats to Republicans is said to be 10 to 1. Maybe that's what it says on those voter registration forms. But when it comes to three tests of a true Republican -- favoring the death penalty, favoring prayer in school and opposing abortion, D.C. passes with flying colors, according to various opinion polls of African Americans conducted in the late 1990s.

To be sure, the town sends mixed messages on these issues. In a 1992 referendum on the death penalty, for instance, D.C. residents voted 2 to 1 to prohibit it in local statutes. But that was because a senator from Alabama had forced the vote after a congressional aide was killed.

A Washington Post poll in 1997 found 52 percent of D.C. residents supported the death penalty, 42 percent were against it and 6 percent were undecided.

(A fourth test, of course, is favoring guns -- and while the District has voted itself one of the strongest gun-control laws in the nation, the fact remains that its residents probably have more guns per capita than the residents of Baghdad.)

Now comes Mayor Williams favoring a Bush administration plan for school vouchers. About 76 percent of District residents, according to a Zogby poll released last year, are opposed to school vouchers.

Where, then, is the outcry?

Mr. Milloy--though he couches his hysterics in race-baiting and homophobia--is correct, and the sooner blacks realize it the better. Posted by Orrin Judd at May 5, 2003 3:47 PM