”Be careful what you pray for,” the Chinese cookie fortune read. ”You might get it.”
”I don`t get it,” I told the cabbie, who had saved it for me.
”Aren`t you the guy that said Jesse Jackson ought to run for mayor of D.C.?” he asked.
I admitted that, some months ago, I had written a column suggesting that if Jackson could get himself elected mayor of this city, he might solve a lot of his problems and at least one of ours.
”I just left LeDroit Park in Northwest D.C., and Jesse`s got people fixing up that house he bought up there,” the cabbie said. ”You Jesse backers better know what you`re asking for.”
That the prospect held some advantages.
”What were the two biggest raps on Jackson when he ran for President?”
I said. ”That he had never been elected to public office, and that he had never run a major organization. If he ran for mayor, he could cure both problems.
”Just think of it: He`d have to prove his ability to attract competent staff and give them major responsibility. He`d have to show that he can get along with both the White House and Congress. He`d have to demonstrate his ability to deal with budgets, balance competing demands, raise revenues, improve education and clean up the dope problem.”
”I`ve also thought about the way Jesse flits from one headline to another,” the cabbie interrupted. ”How`s he going to keep his attention on D.C.?”
”That`s the beauty of it,” I said. ”Since his presidential ambitions would require that he be an effective mayor, he`d have to stay put.”
The cabbie seemed to be thinking it over. ”Let me ask you something,”
he said at last. ”Why don`t we just re-elect Barry?”
Two reasons, I told him. ”In the first place, too many of his top aides have been convicted of crimes. Even if he`s personally innocent, you have to wonder about his proclivity for picking aides with no more ethics than a buzzard.”
”And what`s the other reason?”
”Well, the man is in his third term. Even if he has been a pretty good mayor, there comes a time when he ought to just move on.”
”And what about Jesse?” the cabbie said. ”You put Jesse Jackson in City Hall, and what have you got? Another mayor for life.”
