From the time that I started in the State Attorneys Office in 1982 Katherine Fernandez-Rundle was known for having the knowledge gap to which I have referred. She also has always had the reputation for being unintelligent, which is related but not identical to having insufficient knowledge. Naturally, she is sensitive about this but the reputation has been largely self-inflicted. An unhappy admixture of a knowledge gap with a tendency to speak as if she had none has repeatedly produced telling and embarrassing incidents which have perpetuated her reputation.
The setting is a reception, a gathering of her County Court chiefs and their police counterparts hosted by the former for the latter. It is an opportunity for "outreach," for "liasoning," for smiling handshakes and good-feeling, for political point-scoring.
The politician's goal at these events is to make personal contact with each person. A simple greeting and wishing well is the aimed-for limit of conversation so that the politician doesn't get button-holed by one loquacious soul and miss out on meeting others. Even the most callow politicians quickly learn these rules and have their moves choreographed: Read the person's nametag, smile, greet, shake hands, move on. It's like a dance step: read, smile, greet, shake,...1,2,3,4..., 1,2,3,4...
On this occasion Rundle is at her vivacious and charming best as she adroitly reads the nametags unnoticeably, extends her hand and moves from person to person making the rounds. Read, smile, greet...1,2,3.
"Nice to meet you, Detective Marbury," she says smiling.
The choreography is flawless but the dancer still falls flat on her face because in this instance the large African-American male with the nametag that read "Howard Marbury" was not a detective (as she assumed from his being large, African-American, and male). He was one of her chiefs of County Court.
-David Ranck
