Baltimore, Nancy Pelosi and Old Politics

Story A:

"A contractor named Dominic Piracci, who seemed to have a corner on the city's garage-building business, was convicted of fraud, conspiracy and conspiracy to obstruct justice. Piracci and Tommy had long been friends, even before Piracci's daughter, Margie, married Tommy D'Alesandro III.

Piracci had erased some names from his ledgers. Among the names deleted: Nancy D'Alesandro. On the witness stand in Piracci's trial, Nancy admitted getting six checks totaling $11,130.78 from Piracci. But she swore that $1,500 of it was a gift to their newly wed children, Tommy III and Margie. The rest. she claimed, Piracci lent her to pay off debts incurred in her feed business and a venture with a skin softener called Velvex."

Story B:

"On Tuesday, bakery magnate John Paterakis and City Councilwoman Helen L. Holton, a Democrat, were indicted for allegedly violating campaign finance rules stemming from a $6,000 check prosecutors say he wrote to pay for a political survey for the councilwoman.

Holton previously had been indicted for bribery in connection with the survey, but those charges were dismissed in May. Prosecutors are appealing the dismissal.

At least outwardly, city government appeared unfazed by the new indictments, with the city's Board of Estimates voting Wednesday morning to authorize about $500,000 in bond funds to improve streets near Paterakis' Harbor East development."

What do these two stories have in common?

In both stories, we have public officials accused of granting deals to developers on the basis of financial "assistance". Both stories took place in Baltimore City, the first one in 1954, the second in 2009. Both events were excused by many citizens at the time as just another day in Baltimore - Think about all the jobs that are being created!

Story B is from this week, as part of the latest indictment of current Baltimore mayor Sheila Dixon. Within the past year, Mayor Dixon has been accused of many things, including using thousands of dollars in gift cards donated to be given to the poor on personal expenses. In a separate case, when prosecutors were seeking evidence on whether the city was working with businesses that were restricted due to conflicts of interest, they couldn't find enough evidence. The head of the office in charge of maintaining the records, which were incomplete, is a personal friend and appointee of Dixon. Dixon's reputation is so bad that President Obama took back an invitation for Dixon to meet with him at the White House and more than 70 mayors.

In Story A, Tommy D'Alesandro III is Speaker Nancy Pelosi's brother; Nancy D'Alesandro is her mother. Her father, the late Thomas J. D'Alesandro Jr., aka "Old Tommy", was the mayor of Baltimore at the time. Much of the coverage of Pelosi's Baltimore past describes it as "rough and tumble" or some other terms that makes her sound wise and experienced. In November of 2006, the Washington Post ran an excellent story about Nancy Pelosi's roots in Baltimore, Maryland, where Old Tommy was mayor from 1947 to 1959.

One of Pelosi's first experiences in politics was screening requests for audience with her father. "When she wasn't racing to school at St. Leo's in her blue uniform or buying sweets in Mugavero's Confectionery or playing on front stoops up and down the block, Little Nancy sometimes worked the front desk at the family home at 245 Albemarle St., taking down the requests and sad stories of the folks who arrived to seek help from Big Tommy, her dad."

"Little Nancy" learned about the art of trading support and favors for political influence. "More than a civic duty, politics during her parents' day was about survival for the sons and daughters of Italian immigrants forging their way in a big city. It was about jobs. It was about favors of the political ward bosses. It was about patronage." As long as the mayor's actions were "good for the community", many people, including juries, were willing to look the other way.

Of course, these exchanges were not entirely free of controversy. "Big-city machine politics, no matter where it was practiced, often was a magnet for criminality. If a person betrayed the boss's loyalty, the consequences sometimes weren't pretty. Corruption often went with the territory."

From these beginnings, Nancy Pelosi has become one of the richest members of Congress, mainly through "investments". As Speaker of the House, she is the highest-ranking female politician in U.S. history and second in the line of presidential succession. (Hilary Clinton is fourth) She was nominated to be Speaker by Rahm Emanuel, the current White House Chief of Staff.

Now, if I were President Obama, looking for someone to implement new-style politics of hope and change, I might look for an outsider, someone with fresh ideas, to draft major legislation for me. However, Obama has delegated responsibilty for writing major legislation to Pelosi, whose roots are firmly planted in in the machine politics of Baltimore City, where the same politics rule that were in place 50 years ago. Pelosi seems more suited to implementing the same old politics nationwide than to putting aside the "old ways of doing business".

But, if Obama was looking for someone with knowledge of how to dole out government funds for "shovel-ready" construction projects, she seems to have plenty of experience with that.

America - what a country!