The tragedy of Marion Barry.

(H/T: AoSHQ) To wit: by now he’s a known walking rhetorical disaster, so nobody actually relies on him for anything.

At a news conference after the meeting, [Marion] Barry and several Asian American leaders sought to present a united front, saying that the dialogue is an important step toward defusing long-standing tension between blacks and Asians. Asked about the underlying sources of the conflict, Barry said the United States “has had racial tensions since it was founded.”

“The Irish caught hell, the Jews caught hell, the P[*]lacks caught hell,” Barry said, invoking a word that Polish people have viewed as disparaging. “We want Ward 8 to be the model of diversity.”

It’s so… wasteful, frankly.