Professional courtesy

I'm interrupting my regularly scheduled perusal of comics and columns to bring you this tidbit, so you know it caught my attention in a big way. Hat tip, Andrew Sullivan.

Marion Barry, D.C. councilman and former mayor, was robbed at gunpoint last night. Apparently the robbers helped him carry his groceris from his car up to his apartment, then pointed a gun in his face and stole his wallet. But the real news here is this quote:

"There is a sort of an unwritten code in Washington, among the underworld and the hustlers and these other guys, that I am their friend," Barry said at an afternoon news conference in which he described the robbery in detail. "I don't advocate what they do. I advocate conditions to change what they do. I was a little hurt that this betrayal did happen."

Apparently this man really is sleazier than Bill Campbell. I didn't think that was possible.