ABCDE METRO sunday, october 24, 2010 LOCALOPINIONS 55, 9 a.m. 69, noon 71, 5 p.m. 63, 9 p.m.


Obituaries Robert Katz nearly landed in jail for “Death in Rome,” in which he accused Pope Pius XII of silent complicity in the Holocaust. C7


Find your way out Dr. Gridlock knows how to avoid traffic caused by races, rallies, and road and rail work. Visit his blog to plan your week. PostLocal.com


Ehrlich or O’Malley? With just over a week to go, seven Post readers try to close the deal for their preferred candidate in the Maryland governor’s race. C6


JOHNKELLY’SWASHINGTON


The road to renown Just who is Tuckerman, and what did that person do to be the namesake of so many streets? Answer Man offers some answers as well as a guess. C3


For Ehrlich, tough times might not be the ticket ROBERTMCCARTNEY


2 House liberals ponder voters’ threat to foreclose


T


he question now confronting con- gressional Democrats, especially the more liberal ones, is: What


went wrong? Two years after Democrats swept to a


historic election triumph, polls and ex- perts agree that Republicans will proba- bly take back theHouse, or at least come close, and might win the Senate, too. The national trend isn’t having much


impact in theWashington region, which is mostly safe for Democrats. But less than two weeks before they face the vot- ers, I thought it would be interesting to ask a couple of local, liberalHouse mem- bers – Reps. JimMoran (Va.) and Donna Edwards (Md.)—why national pros- pects for their side are so bleak. Apart from their shared progressive


ideology and the likelihood of being re- elected in predominantly Democratic districts, the two could hardly be more different. Moran—who represents Alexandria,


Falls Church, and parts of Arlington and Fairfax counties—calls to mind the lateHouse Speaker Tip O’Neill.He is a thickly built, white-haired Irish Ameri- can and a 20-yearHouse veteran. Edwards, who represents parts of


Prince George’s andMontgomery coun- ties, is a younger version of Del. Eleanor HolmesNorton of the District. Edwards is a slim, stylish African American wom- an just finishing her first term. Some of their answers, in separate in-


terviews Thursday, struck me as right on target. They said Democrats did a lousy job of explaining to voters why bailouts, stimulus spending and other big govern- ment programs were necessary to fight the recession. They failed to convey the important, complementary message that they realized it would be necessary to cut spending later to reduce the defi-


mccartney continued on C4


Teachers inD.C. hold key election


Future of Rhee initiatives depends in part on outcome of leadership vote


BY BILL TURQUE There’s one election this political sea-


son in which D.C. residents — public school families in particular — have a major stake but no vote: for leadership of theWashington Teachers’Union. Much of the public discussion about


education reformthis fallwasdominated by the widely anticipated resignation of Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee and pre- sumptive Democratic mayor-elect Vin- cent C. Gray’s willingness to sustain the initiatives she launched. But the survival of Rhee’s agenda — especially for hiring, evaluating and firing teachers—will also be determined by those at the top of the 4,000-memberunion,whichspent heavi- ly to unseat her boss, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D). George Parker, who signed the game- changing labor contract with Rhee that was approved by members in June, is running for reelection to a three-year term. Reform advocates hailed the pact for provisions such as performance pay linked to student achievement and new latitude for principals to make hiring decisions. Parker faces challenges from three


veteran teachers who say he gave away too much at the bargaining table, weak- ening job security and other protections. His opponents, Elizabeth Davis, Christo- pher Bergfalk and the union’s general vice president, Nathan Saunders, also favor abolishing or substantially revising


teachers continued on C5


Voters describe struggles, express doubt about tax and job promises


BY AARON C. DAVIS ChristopherMoylan knows the depths


of the recession in Maryland. His wife’s employer cut her billing hours, leaving Lauri with $60,000 less in income. The Towson couple maxed out credit cards to cover their mortgage and living expenses


for three children. At work, he’s a collec- tions attorney who has pushed hundreds of fellowMarylanders to the brink, suing them to repay debts. Now he and Lauri have filed for bankruptcy. Moylan is the voter that former gover-


nor RobertL. Ehrlich Jr. (R) has spent the most time courting and needs desperate- ly to turn his way before Nov. 2 to retake the office. Moylan can answer only “no” when asked the Reaganesque question Ehrlich poses in his latest ad: “Are you better off today than you were four years ago?”


Yet Moylan — like most of the likely


voters hit hardest by the recession— says he is backing incumbent Gov. Martin O’Malley (D). “I think there’s a common sense that


we are all along for the ride together,” Moylan said. “We all bought,weall spent. We all have basements full of Beanie Babies and where did it get us? Besides, Ehrlich’s not an outsider, he’s the same guy we had. . . . The Republicans don’t have any better ideas how to fix this.” Strip away its 2-to-1 advantage for registered Democrats, its black-and-


“When the church is inward-looking, it’s dying. In the developing world, where it’s outward-looking, it’s exploding.” —Gerard Long of Alpha USA, which provides instruction on expanding church membership


white divides and other filtersmost often used to shorthand Maryland elections and one slice of voters Ehrlich seemingly should have been able connect with — those hit hardest in the pocketbook — has remained decidedly elusive. O’Malley on Friday put a familiar spin


on the release of new jobless data that showed Maryland’s private sector con- tracting and its unemployment rate con- tinuing to inch upward, from 7.3 percent in August to 7.5 percent in September


unemployment continued on C4


Police find drug lab in Georgetown dorm room


CHEMICALS PROMPT EVACUATION


3 arrested; officers say setup was to make hallucinogen


BY DANIEL DE VISE When students at Harbin Hall were


rousted from their beds by Georgetown University officials at 6 a.m. Saturday, some thought it might be a cruelly timed fire drill. It was something odder still: Campus


police had discovered a clandestine drug lab inside adormroomonthe top floor of the freshman residence hall. Police arrested two male students and


PHOTOS BY JUANA ARIAS FOR THE WASHINGTON POST


The Rev.Martha Clark conducts a service at the struggling St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church in SouthwestWashington. In 2007, the region’s bishop gave the church a deadline to become self-sustaining or face closure.


when the church itself needs saving Experts help dwindling congregations explore what they want and how to bring it forth BY MICHELLE BOORSTEIN


S


t. Augustine’s was facing a death sentence. The little Episcopal church on


the Southwest Washington wa- terfront had seen the signs. Since


its founders proudly founded St. Augus- tine’s as a racially integrated church in 1961,membership hadwilted from180 to 28. Keymembers passed away ormoved. Paint peeled off the ceiling.Mold grewin thebasement.The churchcouldn’tpay its bills. “Itwas literally dying,” theRev.Martha


Clark said of her parish’s state in 2007, when the regional bishop gave St. Augus- tine’s three years to become self-sustain- ing or be shut down. That’swhere BobGallagher came in. A


former Episcopal priest, the gentle 60- year-old is a professional church savior, a consultantwho travels the country trying to resuscitate houses of worship that are


A special kind of healer is invoked


Ryan Kittel Lassahn, 7, rests on the arm of his mother, Gretchen Kittel, during a service at St. Augustine’s. Bob Gallagher, a former Episcopal priest, helped the church’s members understand their options.


losing people and passion. With large swaths of organized religion in decline across the nation, Gallagher’s dance card is full. His initial meetings at St. Augustine’s


Fight, newlax-carding claims could slamdoor onU-Md. bar


Last week, police responded to a fight BY JENNA JOHNSON The Thirsty Turtle has been open for


only three years, but that’s long enough for the bar to develop a reputation and following among University ofMaryland students. Turtle, as students call it, is known for


its packed dance floor, loudmusic, sticky floors, cheap drinks and, as the College Park bar has been chargedwith, often lax carding at the door. “They call it the freshman bar,” said


Brian Hearn, 21, a senior communica- tionsmajor. “Itwasajokegettinginthere. I guess it still is.”


that turned into a stabbing on Route 1, which involved five intoxicatedmenwho had been at the bar. Three of the victims were underageU-Md. students. It wasn’t the first time drunk students


have been connected to the bar, said David B. Mitchell, the new chief of the university’s police department. Inthe first threeweeks of the semester,


26studentswerehospitalizedforalcohol- related issues, a sharp increase fromlast year. Several told police that they’d been drinking at Turtle, Mitchell said, which was also confirmedby student affairs and


thirsty turtle continued on C5


were emotional. He confronted people who had been focused on paying the mortgage with more wrenching ques-


church continued on C12


a campus visitor Saturday morning on charges of possession of drug parapher- nalia, hours after evacuating 400 stu- dents from the nine-floor hall. Officers initially believed they had


found a methamphetamine lab. After further investigation Saturday after- noon, they concluded the chemicals were forproduction ofdimethyltryptamine, or DMT, a hallucinogenic. Students struggled to reconcile the discovery of a drug lab with their image ofGeorgetown, a prim national universi- ty with a scholarly and somewhat preppy culture. “I would understand if someone got


caught doing it. Making it, that’s differ- ent. It’s shocking,” said Gina Park, 19, a sophomore fromHong Kong. A Harbin resident called campus po-


lice about 5 a.m. to report a strange odor coming from a room on the ninth floor. Officers went to the room and found “a variety of chemicals,” D.C. Fire Depart- ment spokesman Pete Piringer said. “They did have some heating equipment. They did have a ventilation system.” By 6 a.m., “people were going around pounding on doors, saying, ‘You need to evacuate,’ ” said Natalie Muller, 18, a Harbin resident. Hundreds of freshmen in pajamas


poured out of the building into the chilly morning air and were sent to the dining hall or student center. Seven people were evaluated for expo-


sure to the chemicals, which can be harmful if inhaled or exposed to skin. All


methlab continued on C4 Deadly fire rips through Suitland apartments C EZ SU


JIM DAVIS FOR THE WASHINGTON POST


A27-year-old man was killed early Saturday in a three-alarm fire that left at least 24 families homeless, PrinceGeorge’s County fire officials said. Story, C4.


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