CROSSING THE (WHITE) LINE

A Washington Post writer is apologizing for calling District of Columbia Council member and former mayor Marion Barry a "crack addict" in an e-mail to Barry's aide.

Tim Page, a Pulitzer Prize-winning music critic, wrote the e-mail after receiving a news release on Barry's views of the financially troubled Greater Southeast Community Hospital.


In the e-mail, Page wrote, "Must we hear about it every time this crack addict attempts to rehabilitate himself with some new ... and typically half-witted ... political grandstanding? I'd be grateful if you would take me off your mailing list. I cannot think of anything the useless Marion Barry could do that would interest me in the slightest, up to and including overdose."

Page said he had been cursed by a Barry staffer when he tried to have his name removed from the council's mailing list before he fired off the e-mail.

Executive Editor of the Post, Leonard Downie Jr., called Page's e-mail "a terrible mistake," and said internal actions were being taken, although he wouldn't say what.

Barry called for the firing of the critic who plans to take a previously scheduled four-month leave starting Jan. 1.

Good timing.

Photo by Baboona