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Dixon present at Obama's address, but not mentioned
At the start of Barack Obama's whistle stop tour to Washington today, the president-elect hailed the "outstanding" mayor of Philadelphia, Michael Nutter. In Wilmington, he acknowledged Mayor James M. Baker by name.Not so in Baltimore. Mayor Sheila Dixon was one of thousands of Obama supporters braving hours of sub-freezing temperatures to greet him at War Memorial Plaza. "It's an extremely huge deal for me," she said in an interview before Obama's address. "Words can't describe how ecstatic we are." But even as he gazed at City Hall, the man who will be the nation's first black president did not acknowledge that Baltimore's first black female mayor was in attendance. He thanked Nancy Pelosi, a Baltimore native and House speaker, as well as Gov. Martin O'Malley and all "state" elected officials, but not his municipal host. Then again, neither Nutter nor Baker are facing criminal charges of public corruption, as Dixon is. Her attorney has said she is innocent of all charges. Officially, the line from both the Obama and Dixon camps was that the 12-count indictment levied by a state prosecutor against the mayor last week had no impact on the ceremony. Demaune Millard, Dixon's chief of staff, said the indictment, which includes charges of theft and perjury, never came up in conversations between the mayor's office and the inaugural committee organizing Obama's triumphant train trip to the White House. Chris Mather, a spokeswoman for the inaugural committee, deflected questions about Dixon, insisting that the team's entire focus was on "renewing America's promise." Posted by: Fred 2009-01-19 |
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