for suicide prevention. live coverage begins at 10:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. >> this week on "q&a," pulitzer prize-winning colbert i. king discusses his career as a writer at "the washington post," as well as the latest issues of governance in the nation's capital, washington, d.c. >> colbert king -- your august 18 column had the headline "who else will fall in d.c.'s corruption tale?" it started this way -- this is no tale of fiction. what is the whodunit? >> it covers a wide spectrum.

we start out with a guy named sulaimon brown who was a gadfly in the 2010 mayoral campaign. he was a candidate, a less well- known candidate. i moderated one of the debates. i noticed that brown was constantly going after mayor fenty. zinging him with comments, crazy comments. the audience was lapping it up. the other candidate -- vincent gray, was sitting with a look on his face. through the democratic campaign -- after the campaign, when gray defeated fenty, it turns out sulaimon brown was given a job in the new gray administration, but was fired for a number of reasons.

brown and then complained and said that he had been given money to stay in the campaign, the primary campaign, to harass adrian fenty and was paid by the gray campaign to be there. that set off an investigation. since that time, this has spread like a cancer. now, the question is, who are the other people who are going to fall in this campaign? up to this point, you had not directly related to sulaimon brown, but one council member resigned, was found guilty and is serving time in the penitentiary in alabama. another council member -- council chairman resigned and confessed to a felony.

we have had to tap campaign aides for the mayor exit, all pleading guilty to felonies in a better record connected to the campaign. still there are unknowns -- who gave the money to sulaimon brown to stay in the campaign? the person who gave the money says, i gave him the money but i did not authorize the payment, somebody else authorized the payment. the u.s. attorney knows but has not yet identified the person. there is another person who comes into the picture, who gave a large sum of money to a top aide of vincent gray to run a shadow campaign, off the books, not reported to the office of campaign finance. that person is referred to as

another confidential source, no name, but they know who it is. on top of that, there is a person who conceived of the whole idea of running the shadow campaign, and that individual has not been identified. all of these people have been identified in prosecutorial documents as individuals involved. this does not get to the other spreading cancer of d.c., related to the d.c. lottery. there was a big dispute about awarding the very lucrative contract. there was a dispute -- the person who won the contract was rejected by the council. another person came along and got the contract. there have been protests about it, and also complaints in court that the individual officer who made the award was fired because he resisted pressure to change his decision,

political pressure to change his decision. he was fired. meanwhile, there is an investigation taking place to find out more about the award of these contracts, what money is involved. we do not know where this is all going to end, but there are spreading tentacles of corruption. >> for those who do not know the stories around washington, i want to show a clip of adrian fenty, who was the mayor of washington d.c. he ran again for mayor in 2010 and lost to vincent gray. here is what the previous mayor looked and sounded like. >> just under 600,000 -- like a lot of other jurisdictions, the city started to be mismanaged and people fled the city. the district of columbia

suffered, but we are on the rebound. there has been a net growth of 30,000 residents. all over this city there is great development happening in downtown, in neighborhoods. as we continue to show the city is heading in the right direction, people will continue to move here. our last challenge is, like most cities, making sure we have a world-class school system. >> why was he defeated? >> he lost touch with the people. the worst thing that happened to adrian fenty was that he won every precinct in the city. every precinct. you could not tell him anything -- he was not in touch with people. i think he did a very good job managing the city. he took over a city that was being run by anthony williams, the previous mayor.

he was a good mayor, but he lost touch with the people who put him there. there was a sense that he was more concerned about the newcomers to the city than the old guard. that is where the racial issues come in. there was a sense that he had lost touch -- he did not even carry his own ward. it was a ward council member who voted heavily for him -- he did not even carry that in the election. that shows you how much he had grown apart from the people who put him there. >> you were here three years ago. we talked about the district. he referenced the fact that the district was below 600,000 people. in 1950, it was 800,000. let's talk some about the district of columbia and, for those far away from here, explain what it is.

>> it is a little piece of maryland and virginia. both states gave up some of their territory to create this thing called the district of columbia. it happened because, interestingly enough, during the continental congress some of the great veterans had not been paid. philadelphia has been the capital of the united states -- the veterans marched on philadelphia to demand payment. the congress at the time, they asked the local police to support them. they had no local police, of course. after that, they said, this will never happen again. we will have our own territory. the congress will be there. we will control it. if we have to call for help, we

will be able to call for it because it is our territory. so they created this place called the district of columbia. the constitution gives congress full control over the district of columbia. what congress has done, this was done in 1973, was to delegate some of its authority to a locally elected government to manage the affairs of the district, with congress retain oversight authority. up until then, we had various forms of government, a government appointed, a mayor appointed by the president, and a city council. at one point, we had appointed units -- they were responsible to the congress, but we in the city had no votes at all. not until 1973 did we get the right to vote for our own local government.

that is what we still have now. this is what mayor fenty was referring to. during the 1950's, we had a big transition. part of it was due to segregation laws. there was a movement of whites out of the city. that was accelerated in the 1960's, not so much by race, but by crime. the crack epidemic, the struggles -- we had a lot of middle-class african americans moving out of the city as well, not just because of crime, but for better schools. we had a decline in the population. we hit rock bottom -- the city had lost control of financial affairs and the congress created a control board. they appointed a control board to run the affairs of the city.

this was during the fourth term of mayor marion barry. they took control away from barry and give it to this board and appointed a chief financial officer, a man named tony williams. the best thing that ever happened. tony williams and the control board took the financial affairs and got them in order. they were as a degree of fiscal discipline in the city that we had not had for decades, certainly from the first 20 years. we have the discipline now, i think, regardless of the corruption being uncovered. i think the discipline is there with some of these new leaders that will never go over that financial cliff again. they have had balanced budgets for nine years now. that says a lot about the discipline there.

>> more statistics -- there are 13 members of the district council. >> yes. >> all elected by the public. >> yes. >> they make $125,000 a year. >> yes. too much. >> what you say that? >> it is a part-time job. we have the highest-paid city legislators in the country. they are not worth it. they do not do anything to earn that money. there is no accountability there. >> the budget is around $9 billion a year. how much of that comes from the taxpayer around the country? >> not as much as people think. the overwhelming majority of the tax dollars in the district of columbia are locally-raced. the federal portion of it may be $2 billion or $3 billion.

the locally raised money that pays for the city by and large -- the odd thing is that the city has no control over that. even raising taxes must be approved by congress, which is really outrageous. >> so the mayor has to go to congress and testify. >> the nature and the chair of the council, after the city and at the budget, goes up to the hill and it waits for congressional approval and testifies for what they want to do with their own money. >> in 2005, a poll showed that 78% of americans did not know that the district had less representation than them. almost everybody. >> yes. that probably remains the case now. the city has tried in various ways to publicize that fact. this week, the city will try to

go to political conventions to make the case about representation. they did not get a chance to do it at all at the republican conventions. there is some question whether they will be able to get much at the democratic convention as well. getting a place on the podium to talk about it. >> these numbers move -- 123 public schools, 46,000 students. this has declined over the years. i want to put a picture on the screen of the current mayor, vincent gray, and marion barry, who had four terms as mayor. when you see that picture, describe, after all these years, how is marion barry staying on the council where he is now? >> you have to look at the area he represents. he represents ward 8. it is the most impoverished ward in the city, the ward with the least amount of political participation.

generally, it is a low turnout. marion barry has significant support in that impoverished area of the city because he runs against them, they, the outsiders who are doing this to us. he projects himself well as a protector of the exploited. he is the voice of the voiceless, that he is standing at the gates against all of the encroachers and those who do harm to women and children in ward 8. he demagogues it -- sometimes with a smile, sometimes without a smile. he plays that very well. marion barry could not win citywide in this city.

he could not win a race for mayor and could not win a race for at large council member. he could not win a race for chairman of the council. he could not win a race for delegates to the house of representatives. those days are gone. the demographics of the city have changed. he will not get anything except that piece of territory there. >> he was mayor for three terms and then went to prison -- then came back and won again? >> he came back for a council seat and was defeated, but then he ran again for mayor and was elected. >> why did he go to prison? >> let's see -- it is may be better to describe what he did not do wrong. he had a situation where he was caught smoking crack cocaine in

a sting by the federal government and local police. he was convicted. not of selling or distributing crack cocaine, but he was convicted on a felony -- >> there is video of that. >> he went to jail for that. then he came back, sought forgiveness, claimed to change his ways. he does not pay his taxes on time. he is behind on his taxes. he has been caught several times. >> has he ever found -- i remember one story, setting up one of his girlfriends with a grant in the city? >> it was complaint -- he was censured by the city council for this use of money. subsequently he was exonerated, i believe.

he was censured for that use of taxpayer dollars to give to his girlfriend for a grant proposal. she produced a document that was compiled from some other documents. >> is it fair to say -- i read your column every saturday -- that you are on a tear? >> i am not on a tear. i am just angry. it is offensive, to have people take on a position of public trust and an abuse it. to do it in such a way that it -- to almost thumb their noses at that individual. i find that difficult to take. i thought over time i would get accustomed to it. you cannot get accustomed to it. >> one column you wrote, you were trying to get a hold of somebody who had given money to

one of the campaigns and they would not answer your column. you went out to rockville and knocked on their door. >> the campaign finance laws are fairly clear. the individual is limited to how much money they can give in the total campaign. the way they went around in the district of columbia is using fat cats -- big developers, big business types. they create these limited liability companies. they create them, and through these companies they contribute money to campaigns. >> so up phony companies? >> they are companies that it is hard to tell what they do. in some cases, they are formed around a development project. most development projects are

-- you have an llc to prevent lawsuits from coming to the entire ownership. they create these small companies. there is one person who funnels money to these companies. what i was trying to demonstrate is that, contrary to what the law seeks to achieve with limitations, there are individuals who circumvent the law by using these companies as conduits to give money to candidates and individuals. i think i was able to demonstrate that in the case of several members of the council for receiving large sums of money from different llc's controlled by one person. how did they do it? i went to virginia, maryland -- go to a building and you see 12 limited liability companies with the same address. in that building.

on the same floor. in the same suite of offices. and you look -- it is owned by this large developer. it is clear this person is masterminding -- it gives this individual an utsized influence. >> the checks are signed by the same person? >> sometimes they are signed by its treasurer. >> of all the different -- >> all the different llc's. i talked to the treasurers -- sometimes they say, we just like this candidate. technically they may be right, but that is not the intent of the law. these individual companies,

under the law, they appear to be separate. but when you trace back and look at the source of the funds, it is pretty clear what is happening here. what makes me so upset about this, is the root of the problem, why we are what we are as a city. we have an institutional failure in the city. you have an office of campaign finance that needs to do its job. failure of an inspector general who was traded by the same family that treated the chief financial officer, an independent person to look at government, who only goes after low hanging fruit, somebody at the department of motor vehicles selling licenses on the side, but meanwhile there is some big fat cat who has circumvented the law. you also have civic weaknesses.

there was a time in the city when a strong voice for change, for reform, ethics, progress, came from the clergy. that is gone now. why is it gone? i am talking about largely the black clergy in the city. we had significant individuals in these large churches. the people who moved out of the city in the 1960's, 1970's, 1980's -- a move to surrounding counties. the churches tended to follow them, or the churches remained there and had no real grounding in the city. drive around town and go to any of the large so-called black churches.

look at the license plates. they are maryland, for the most part. some virginia. few from the district. what does that mean? this pastor no longer has a constituency in that the city. that constituency is outside the city. so they do not have a voice. they do not have a collective voice. they do not comment on the morality or immorality in government. the few who show up to say something are all politically motivated in one way or the other. for example, you have these revelations about corruption in the city. people pleading guilty. people going off to jail. a council member forced to resign from the council, the chairman.

two of the most prominent black pastors in the city -- what do you hear? we have to protect our mayor. he is innocent until proven guilty. ok, fine, but what about the criminality? what you say about the criminality? >> here is mayor vincent gray, so the folks who do not live in the city can hear what he sounds like and looks like. >> we have a robust non-profit community in the district of columbia that provides a host of services. many of them do not have places to hang their hat. we are looking now at creating partnerships as a quid pro quo. it says, look, we do not have adequate staff to operate the centers. you need a place to hang your hat. why don't you come with us in terms of operating programs at the recreation center? services will be provided by nonprofits to come in and locate in the centers so we can

continue these kinds of important services to our community but do it without raising costs and in some instances reduce costs. >> he was chairman of the council. has he in any way had any trouble himself during this process you have been writing about? >> he has not been charged with anything. he has not been indicted. he says he was unaware of the efforts to pay this individual, sulaimon brown, to stay in the campaign in 2010 and harass mayor fenty. he expressed surprise and shock that some of his top campaign aides have admitted to having committed felonies connected to his campaign. he was shocked that his council member -- council chairman

kwame brown committed felonies. he expressed disappointment that council member harry thomas committed crimes and is now serving time in jail. let me say, the vincent gray is probably one of the hardest- working mayor's we have had. he works hard. he comes in early and stays late. he works hard. that is not what is at issue. at issue, notwithstanding anything else that might happen from this point going forward, it is that he has been a poor judge of people and put -- in putting together his campaign, which in putting together his administration, he has had a number of problems in putting together a candidate. people say there is nepotism, cronyism -- is it because he is

more concerned with the mechanics of government? i do not know. i do not think we see the end of this. i have talked to him directly about his involvement. he is -- he looked me in the face and told me he was unaware of any of these activities that took place. that he was not involved in any criminal activity. that he is just shocked and surprised and disappointed. three different times he has told me that. so we will have to see what happens over the next weeks and months. >> what is the story of jean clark harris? >> one of his oldest friends. all of a sudden, she ends up in court and admits that she, in

fact, did run at this campaign, this shadow campaign, and gave money to people to engage in the kind of conduits to give money to the gray campaign when in fact it was their money. she took money from somebody else, given to individuals to put into the campaign, for which they got reimbursed. she ran this. that is what she did. a lot of people, some of them said, i did not know my name was even there. >> is there a limit on how much you can give? >> and she had 16 people that gave at least $2,000 each? >> yes.

>> and now, you have written about this, too. awful suspicion of where that money came from? >> yes. it came from a confidential -- not a confidential source. co-conspirator one. >> this comes from the u.s. attorney, a federal official? >> yes. he takes her to court, and she admits it. the documents talk about co- conspirator, and she identified who was. >> do you know who it was? >> well, there was speculation, pretty informed speculation, that it was a businessman named jeffery thompson in the city who once held the largest contract that the city could give on health care. >> $300 million? >> yes. and he also started an

accounting firm that also did a lot of business with city government as well. this was money we gave to him, and he recycled back to our politicians. they kept giving him more contracts. it was insidious. >> from the race standpoint, the u.s. attorney is an african- american, right? >> yes. >> what is his name? >> it is rondo macin. >> and he works for who? >> the u.s. attorney is pointed by the president of the united states technically, but he works in the justice department. >> and hairy colder is the attorney general? >> yes. >> jean clark harris, has she pled guilty, or is she going to prison?

>> she has bled guilty. thomas gore, who was a campaign treasurer and pleaded guilty to destroying federal property. he was supposed to be sentenced this week. he went to the court, and the prosecution asked that his sentence be delayed. that suggests to me at least that he and the prosecution are continuing to have -- this was called an exchange of views on what is going on out there, and they don't want to do that. it is possible that jean clark harris, having been convicted, now has an opportunity as part of her plea agreement -- they all agreed that they would cooperate with the prosecution. there is a pledge of cooperation with all of those plea agreements, whether it is

hers, thomas gore's, howard brooks. they have all entered into plea agreements. a condition of that is that they will all cooperate with the federal government, the prosecution. they are all still having an exchange of views and sharing what they know. >> to let people know who aren't familiar with the details, this group was under 40 years old, a very young group. >> yes. >> was there any scandal around them? >> no. they were all talented people. i liked the previous chief who went to philadelphia. but i think that our current chief of police, like him just fine. >> here you have adrian running for mayor, and you have this

suleiman brown who was paid to go after him. when it was over, did he get a job? >> he was giving a job, but he was fired from that job for a couple of reasons. a, was he qualified, and there were some questions about difficulty he was having with staff. but he was fired. then it was pointed out he said he was promised a job, that this job was given to him as one of the conditions of staying in the race, not only the money that they would give him, but also that he would stay in the race and when he was finished with that, he would get a job in the government. mayor gray said look, there was never really a promise of a job. he said he would give him some consideration. but i think it is going to be established that, i think, that he was promised something specifically.

>> going back to gray again. suleiman brown is hitting on him, and you had jean harris clark and others who funded this $653,000 fund separate from mayor gray's campaign. >> from the official campaign. where did all the money come from, and he says he didn't know about that? >> he says he didn't know about that. it is also, i think -- it has also been said that he learned from jean clark harris that this individual, jeffery thompson, was willing to help in the campaign. he was known to finance campaigns throughout the city, and even some federal campaigns. and in fact, jean clark harris arranged for them to meet at her home over the dinner table

to talk about thompson's participation. thompson was the type of person, before he would give a dime to the politician, wanted them to know this is coming from me. that session took place. what i'm told is that it was never mentioned to -- what people say is gray was never told there would be a shadow campaign, in the amount of $6,000, that he was just told this individual would participate. and it wasn't until jean clark harris came to him after the campaign to say there were some outstanding up voices that had not been paid that ray realized some of this had not been reported, and he told her to report it. he memorialized it with an e- mail, telling her what she should do. >> you also write about the s

of former secretary of commercial, ron brown, who was killed in an airplane accident in bosnia years ago, his son michael brown. where has he stumbled along the way? >> well, michael brown is not his father's son -- well, he is his father's son, but is not a ron brown. he has run successfully on his father's reputation, as a legislator, he is pedestrian. but he is best known for failure to pay his income taxes from the city or the federal government. he had some leens placed against his property, but he had paid them now. he has had some difficult with his finances.

he was convicted of campaign finances himself by funneling money through a senator's campaign through individuals who actually were reimbursed for their payments. he gave them money to give to the campaign, and then they got reimbursed. i was convicted of that by the federal government. >> let's go back for a minute to the chairman of the council, kwame brown. what did he do wrong, and why is he going to prison? >> it is interesting about kwame brown, and it tells you sms about the institutions you have here. his re-election campaign was under investigation by the office of campaign violations,

and they refer the matter to the u.s. attorney for prosecution. as so often is the case, and which is happening here, as they looked at kwame brown, they discovered other things. in this case, an instance of bank fraud where he obtained a loan from a bank, a federal institution, misrepresenting himself, the amount of money he had and job he had. he got the loans primarily on the strength of his name and being a council member. but he also lied when he said that he had x amount of money from another source, and he didn't have it. and that was a felony. so they got him on a felony conviction.

>> but you talked to him in the middle of it, and he told you he had not done anything? >> not one person i have talked to has said i want to take this opportunity to tell you i am guilty. not one. they have all said i don't know what this is about. to me, this is the other thing that is bothersome, and it sounds like a stretch. ok, you can tell that to me. my job is to do what i do, and you do what you do. but they turn to their supporters, they are wrong, the government after me, they do it because i am black and i am trying to support you people. they use that argument, and the people believe them. it is one thing to commit the crime.

but then when you turn around and say to the people who want to believe in you, i didn't do it. and they invest on you, that is despicable. >> you mentioned in a column that there is something like adam clayton powell in marion berry. for those who have never heard the name, who was he? >> he was a political institution in new york, representing harlem. >> charlie rangel's district? >> yes. he had that district, and he was made a pastor of a baptist church. that was his platform. a powerful speaker, a mesmerizing individual. he could work the us against

them angle very well. >> let me interrupt you and show a piece of video from adam clayton power? >> black power means black dignity. just as surely as you are proud to be white, we are proud to be black. black is beautiful, baby. it is cabrera. i said baby, don't worry about the why chicks. we have everything in our own race. black is beautiful? black power means dignity. it means we have to walk side by with you or through you. we are going to be with dignity and dignity and integrity. we don't want anymore than you have, and we are not going to accept any less than you have. >> what happened to him?

>> he died. >> besides that. [laughter] >> he ran afoul of his own colleagues in the house of representatives. absentee record, flamboyant record, questions of illegal activity. they censored him, and he fought that. he was a flamboyant figure. with all of this talk about black power and stuff, and he was a democrat. he got upset with the democratic party when they were running adley stevenson and decided he would endorse dwight eisenhower

the republican. what was that about? that was him thinking stevenson is not going to win, so i am going with eisenhower. >> what do you know from talking to folks as to why they believe people like powell or marion berry after they have made a mistake and stay with them? what is the purpose? >> we believe in redemption. we believe in redemption. a person falls. confesses. begs forgiveness. who doesn't forgive them? stays with him. they are going to forgive him. that is part of the culture. plus the other thing is there

is this feeling that yeah, he got too big for his britches, and they knocked him down. so we can't let them knock him down. yeah, adam did this, and marion did this and that. when you are a strong black man, they are going to come after you. >> is this a white-black thing? >> yes, it is a white-black thing. it's a white-black thing. it's a middle-class/poor thing. both held themselves out as representatives of the downtrodden. i am going to speak up for you. they became the voices that the voices didn't have. sure, that behavior you saw was audacious, but that was the audacity that they didn't have. but it was being spoken in their behave, and they were saying go ahead. he is saying what i wish i could say.

but he is saying it for me. marion was saying get over it to the white part of town when he won the location. get over it, said marion. adam said that is what they are trying to do, but people are not going to tear down adam because he is carrying the torch for us. he could deliver, but you know, he doesn't have that kind of power to deliver, but he is standing up for us. >> have you -- you have been the lead on writing about all this. have you gotten any accusations of being an uncle tom in this? >> no, no. i talk todd marion berry. it doesn't matter if they say uncle tom. i would accept the

charge except that is just didn't hold up, and i will tell you why it doesn't hold up. i am offended by individuals who misrepresent who we are. marion berry is marion berry. marion berry is not the african- american population. he may try to appropriate that for his political purposes, but he is not. and neither is adam clayton powell. and there are standards to which you must be held and against which you must be judged. white, black, brown, yellow, there are standards, and you have to rice to those standards, meet them or exceed them. but if -- but you don't have separate standards for this kind of behavior.

i don't like the idea that people would conclude that marion berry reflects the values, hopes and aspirations of the african-american community of this city. we are far too diversified a population to say anything like that or to suggest anything like that. there are things that are right and wrong, good and bad, and we ought to hold ourselves to those. >> we didn't talk much about harry thomas, who was a member of the council and what happened to him. >> he was a champion of young people, youth. he oversaw the recreation department as a member of the council.

he came from a family of civic leaders. s father was a member of the council. owe took his fare's seat. his mother was a very good person. he used his position to get money that he directed to a program that in fact gave the money to him for his own personal use. he was guilty. >> how did he do it? >> well, what he would do, they would earmark money, appropriation money, to go to certain organizations. >> from the district pot of money? >> from the district pot of money, to go to certain organizations that were performing public service programs for kids. in one particular case, the money went to the organization,

but the organization seppings kicked it up. the organizations supported by harry thomas bought cars, golf -- hear thomas, bought cars, and. what about kwame brown, the automobile story? >> kwame brown wanted to have a bigger s.u.v. after he was elected as chairman of the council. that comes with the territory, a car. but he wanted a certain kind. he wanted a big black -- what was it called? was it the cadillac? >> no, it wasn't the cadillac. it was an s.u.v., but he wanted it fully loaded.

when called, he said i didn't know it cost that much. i will pay the difference. >> it was like $2,000 a month. >> yes. but the problem was, and i thought about this a lot. i moderated one of his debates as well. the question was about his own personal finances. there had been some discussion earlier in the year about indebtedness that he had. i wondered whether shed ask a question of him from the audience. he said my financials are all in order now. i felt they were all up collusive, but i have taken care of it, but he hadn't. he really had champagne ideas with a soda water pocketbook. it turns out he bought a yacht,

a big boat that he kept docked, couldn't afford. a lot of things he couldn't afford, but he wanted to live big, and that was a failing. >> for those who live outside of this area, 600,000 people in the district. the whole area is about six million people. so this is the hole in the doughnut. >> yes. >> the communities outside watch all this happen, and i know you don't want this question, but what is the impact of this from the congress? i know you don't want congress to get their hands into the district. what is the future of a couple of senators and a representative? >> we are going to have to wait on that for a while. my biggest concern is given what we went through with the financial crisis and the intervention from congress, what would be the result of the

city having further changes, not just losing a council chairman, having one council member go to jail. but if we had other casualties in terms of our political leadership -- >> like the mayor? >> like the mayor. like other members of the council. if that were to happen, what would be the response from the hill? that goes back to my earlier point about civic weaknesses. we need to have the ability to say to the congress on behalf of ourselves that we have the ability to handle this matter. we don't need intervention. we can handle it. and that means we have to have an effective. inspector general, an effective office of campaign finance and election board. we have to have civic duties who hold people accountable.

evidence of those things happening would be enough to gain intervention from the hill. >> what are the constituent services funds they have? >> slush funds. >> where does the money come from? >> lobbyists. constituent services fund, they decided -- these are funds that the council members have. they decided they had to have, in addition to whatever the city does, they had to have a pot of money themselves that they could take care of constituents who had emergencies and things like that. so they created these funds. then they would go out and have if you said raisers. who would they turn to? lobbyists, people who do business with the city and developers. you look at their reports, and you see all the fat cats and

influence peddlers kicking money into their funds. careweren't always taking of the lady who couldn't make the electric payment or couldn't get the mortgage money together, or the cupboard was bare, no. they were going to buy baseball tickets and throwing parties. >> what was the deal between the baseball team and the council? >> well, the council just negotiated a deal for themselves and the mayor where they would get x number of tickets. >> free? >> of course free. what happened was the mayor got all of the tickets and wouldn't give them to the council members. they are weeping and wailing and their world was about to come to an end as they knew it. then back and forth, it came out they shouldn't have had the

tickets in the first place. >> was washington stadium built with any taxpayer money? >> tax payer bonds, yes. of course, this is not our baby. it belongs to the people who run it, but we put the bonds up for it. >> when do you expect the next shoe to drop? remember think it will be before the middle of october. when we get the conventions out of the way. if we go back and look at what happened earlier in the year, the u.s. attorney held off in the primary in april so that nothing he was doing could be construed as interfering with the local election. but around may and june, he started. he will get the conventions out of the way, and before we turn

to our elections in november, i think the window of opportunity would be the last part of september, early part of october, we are going to see some things that will make our hair stand on end. >> what do you think will happen to the mayor? >> it's hard to say. >> you have been writing now for the "washington post" for how many years? >> well over 20. >> if people want to go back and read all these columns that you have written, how can they find them? >> "washington post," appears in the post on saturdays. so it is online. you go to post online, go to my name, and it will show you the archives are all there. >> and you should know that colbert king was born in the district of columbia hospital.

you say the theme song playing in the background of this story is barrett strong's 1959 hit money. that is what i want. the best things in life are free, but you can give them to the birds and the bees. i want money. that is what i want. the best things in life are free but that you can give it to the birds and the bees. that is what is this thing. thank you for being here. >> thank you for having me. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> for a d.v.d. copy of this program call 1-877-662-7726. for comments visit us at qanda.org. >> if in four weeks the first of the presidential debates live on c-span, c-span radio and c-

span.org. watch and engame. next, british prime minister, david cameron takes questions at the house of commons. then republican vice presidential candidate paul ryan in nevada, and vice president bynum campaigns in ohio. >> tomorrow on "washington journal" a look at the week ahead. ahead.