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Taking note . . .

Observations about public affairs in the nation’s capital
by the editor of The Common Denominator

CONVENTION NO SHOW: Mayor Anthony A. Williams’ official schedule for Aug. 31 put him on the floor of the Republican National Convention in New York City on the night that President George W. Bush was officially re-nominated as his party’s presidential candidate. But mayoral spokeswoman Sharon Gang said the District’s Democratic mayor "couldn’t make it" to the convention, as planned, because his 5 p.m. dinner with the National Association of Counties ran later than expected.

Earlier, when questioned about the mayor’s plan to attend the political convention, Gang told The Common Denominator that Williams "really feels strongly that he should be there." She said the White House provided the mayor with his floor pass.

D.C. Democratic Party Chairman A. Scott Bolden said he has no quarrel with the mayor showing up at many of the off-site receptions held in New York during the first few days of the GOP convention. Bolden said he understands and agrees with the mayor's contention that the city's fight for voting rights could be bolstered by promoting a bipartisan approach. But Bolden called the mayor's plan to attend the Republican convention "disappointing."

The mayor came under harsh criticism from some members of his political party two years ago when he co-sponsored a fund-raiser for then-incumbent Republican Congresswoman Connie Morella, who lost to her Democratic challenger. Williams also has been soundly condemned by many public school advocates and Democratic partisans for helping President Bush lead the Republican fight in Congress that resulted in the first federally funded school voucher program for D.C. schoolchildren.

D.C. Democratic National Committeewoman Barbara Lett Simmons, who led a failed effort earlier this year to recall the mayor, was hardly diplomatic in her reaction to the mayor's plan to go to the Republican convention floor. "I've been saying all along that he's a Republican," she asserted.

NEXT STOP: MLK? Interim D.C. Public Schools Superintendent Robert Rice recently expressed the school system's gratitude to two book companies, the Library of Congress and Congressman Rodney Frelinghuysen, R-N.J., chairman of the House Appropriations D.C. subcommittee, for their efforts to improve in-school libraries throughout the city.

Rowman and Littlefield Publishers Inc. recently donated more than 12 pallets of books to the schools, and a delivery from Simon & Schuster Inc. also is expected. Since last November, the Library of Congress Surplus Book Program also has provided more than 10,000 items to the city's public school libraries. DCPS also has used $2.4 million of the $13 million Congress appropriated to the system in its school voucher bill to purchase classroom library materials, Rice said.

"We are remarkably grateful for the generous donations…and for the behind-the-scenes efforts of Congressman Frelinghuysen to ensure that our school libraries offer students the resources they need to supplement their education," Rice said.

Copyright 2004, The Common Denominator