Sheila Dixon expects to be part of the festivities when Barack Obama comes to town Saturday, a source close to the mayor said yesterday.
Maryland politicos have been buzzing about whether the president-elect, having just left behind a shady home-state governor, will appear on stage with the newly indicted Baltimore mayor. Speculation that Dixon would be disinvited grew as word spread that Obama would speak at the War Memorial Building rather than City Hall.
(Official details have yet to be made public, but insiders say they've settled on 4 p.m. at the War Memorial Building, which is on the other side of a plaza from City Hall.)
"She's scheduled to be a part of it," my source said.
Of course, it's hard to imagine Obama turning away Baltimore's black female mayor - a black belt at that - from the biggest political to-do in town. But isn't that what Rahm Emanuel is for?
Maybe theft, maybe gift
Mayor Dixon stands accused of being a thief, a liar and - worse - a regifter.
According to her indictment, the mayor took about $3,400 in gift cards meant for needy families, used lots of them to buy electronics and other goodies for herself, and gave away others to staff members as Christmas presents.
Oh, you shouldn't have!
Well, it's alleged, she didn't. Thank-you notes should be addressed to Ronald Lipscomb and the mysterious "Developer B."
At his news conference Friday, Dixon attorney Arnold Weiner ridiculed the idea that the mayor would be accused of stealing from Lipscomb since, elsewhere in the indictment, it's alleged that he freely showered expensive gifts and cash on her.
"Theft from Mr. Lipscomb? Give me a break," Weiner said.
Perhaps not the world's most robust defense - why would Dixon need to steal from the guy if she's already on the take? - but one that does highlight a contradiction.
In two separate counts, theft and fraudulent misappropriation by a fiduciary, Dixon is accused of stealing gift cards that Lipscomb meant for the poor. But in two other counts, perjury and misconduct in office, she is accused of failing to disclose the very same gift cards on city ethics forms as gifts from someone doing business with the city.
So what do we have here, illicit gifts or thefts? Shouldn't the prosecutor pick a theory and stick with it?
Actually, no, said Warren A. Brown, a veteran defense attorney who has been watching the case but isn't involved in it. The "dual theories" are no different from when a prosecutor charges someone with murder and manslaughter in a single death, Brown said.
