Marion Barry, National Shame

WASHINGTONIANS are normally proud of their city, eager to brag about their clean streets, beautiful monuments and low unemployment. But ask them about their local politics, and they will run and hide behind the Lincoln Memorial.

Washington, D.C., Mayor Marion Barry should resign.

Before a prosecutor indicts him, before more evidence about his shady behavior comes out, before his own aides give up on him, Barry should leave with what he can, at least preserving memories of his decent political activism and service to the city.

Barry, a third-term mayor who began as a civil rights activist, has been beset by charges of drug use, consorting with drug dealers, misuse of public funds and adultery. Barry not only tainted his office with scandals, but apparently he has been ignoring his duties on the job.

THE latest storm surrounding him contains all the traditional elements of Barry turmoil--drugs, police mistakes and accusations against the media. Barry apparently visited a Virgin Islands official named Charles Lewis at a Ramada Inn at least three, and probably six, times. Barry claimed to have been there only once to give Lewis a report. In fact, the report had already been delivered.

A maid at the inn claimed that Lewis offered her cocaine, and Washington, D.C., police officers investigating the complaint left the hotel after encountering a Barry security guard in the hall. Lewis has since disappeared, and police found traces of cocaine on a table in his room.

As usual, Barry's response has been weak. He accused the "white" media, i.e. The Washington Post, of harassing him. Barry said he would investigate the matter and offered no explanation of his presence in the hotel room.

This is nothing new. Two years ago, Barry faced difficulties caused by Karen Johnson, the woman who claimed to be Barry's mistress and may have sold him cocaine. She went to jail rather than testify against him. When she got out of jail, many alleged that friends of Barry had paid her to be quiet.

IN addition to the Johnson controversy, there have been the indictment of 11 city officials, including Deputy Mayor Ivanhoe Donaldson, one of Barry's best friends, as well as reports of Barry harassing a model and visiting strip joints, not mention $98,000 of undocumented expenses in Barry's own accounts. Not a week passes, it seems, without some charge of corruption, misuse of funds or influence-buying being brought against a Barry aide or friend.

Barry lacks credibility in Washington. Even among the Black community from which he draws most of his support, Barry seems to be losing many voters. A recent poll of voters found that 46 percent thought Barry should resign, and only 31 percent thought he is not involved with illegal drugs.

It is this second number that is so worrisome, for Washington has a drug plague. 372 people were murdered in Washington in 1988, almost all in drugrelated killings. Police link 60 percent of all homicides to the drug trade. Barry cannot be effective in fighting drugs if he uses them, or if most people believe he is using them. In a city with scores of open-air drug markets, a mayor tainted by drugs is a sure formula for a booming narcotics business.

There is also a growing feeling that Barry no longer governs the city. The Post closely followed the mayor for a week and found a record of missed appointments, meetings and ceremonies planned months in advance. The paper also found that Barry was out of the city for 108 days last fiscal year, including a visit to the Virgin Islands. Add this to Barry's notorious reputation for excessive partying and the results are unpleasant, to say the least.

EACH of these incidents alone is forgivable, perhaps even explainable, but taken together they show a disgraceful record and a mayor who is a national embarrassment. Perhaps Barry will avoid indictment again and claim complete vindication. But even the remote possibility that all the incidents have been blown out of proportion by the media does not excuse his laziness, his indifference to propriety and his poor political appointments.

If Barry resigns now, he can leave with thanks from the city for his civil rights advocacy and for two effective terms as mayor. Stay on, and he disgraces Washington by holding it up as a model of political corruption and faces the prospect of losing whatever control he retains over a city that is rotting outside from its drugs and inside from its government.