To say that I am appalled at yesterday's Council vote is to grossly understate my reaction. Last night, I was indignant. This morning, I woke up quivering with rage.

After sitting through the Brooklyn Democratic County Committee meeting last month, I felt certain that farce would be the most ridiculous political theater of the year. But, leave it to the New York City Council to come storming back a mere month later with a production so well-orchestrated and rehearsed that it deserved Broadway's most ostentatious marquee.

At least, the Brooklyn Democratic County Committee meeting had no pretension. All of our electeds, except Charles Barron, dutifully read through the script in a homogenous monotone that laid plain the emptiness of our faux democracy. To his credit, the evening's chair Marty Connor practically admitted that our attendance was all just for show.

Charles Barron called this morning, wading in on the Al Vann/ David Yassky/ 11th Congressional brouhaha. He took the expected Baronesque position: that Yassky shouldn’t run, and that the seat should be in black hands. And just as Al van Winkle, Annette Robinson, Major Owens and company, Barron doesn’t get it. His biggest flaw is that he lets his obsession with 'race' trump his common-sense, near everytime downfield. 

If this situation was reversed, and Yassky was a black person running against 3 whites, with the demographics of the district also reversed, what do you think Barron would be doing right now, if white electeds were calling for the black to withdraw from the race?  You tell me (as if we all don't know).

The race for Congress in the 11^th Congressional District works best when viewed as a morality play, allowing the audience to comfortably weigh their own competing values against one another, while pondering their irreconcilability. At the end of such a play, one can walk out satisfied that one has exercised their intellect, and then one can discuss it for hours on end over a double latte or a crisp white pinot, without ever actually feeling obligated to convert one’s conclusions into an actual course of action.

The race for Congress in the 11^th CD works worst when viewed as an actual election, because once the curtain falls, one is obligated to actually vote for one of the candidates.