Credit: Photograph by Darrow Montgomery

Marion Barry has gone through plenty of transformations throughout his career, from Pride Inc. firebrand to Newt Gingrich‘s unlikely pal. But tweets from Barry’s Twitter account in response to this morning’s Council panel recommendation that he lose his committee chairmanship may have inspired the mayor-for-life’s most unlikely persona yet: Marion Barry, stickler for the rules.

Someone with access to Barry’s Twitter account tweeted at ad hoc committee chairman Kenyan McDuffie this afternoon, claiming that the committee can’t legally recommend that Barry lose his chairmanship of the Committee on Workforce and Community Affairs:

The account followed up with more tweets, including a plea for someone, anyone to just follow the rules:

The argument appears to rest on the idea that the ad hoc committee can’t reshuffle other committee chairmanships. That’s immaterial, though, because the resolution forwarded by the committee for a vote in tomorrow’s Council hearing doesn’t do that. Instead, it asks Council Chairman Phil Mendelson, who actually can change chairmanships, to take away Barry’s chairmanship of the Committee on Workforce and Community Affairs. (Mendelson’s chief of staff tells LL that it’s too early to comment on any restructuring.)

LL doesn’t need the wisdom of Alanis Morrissette to see the irony in Barry, who could receive his second censure in three years, complaining that someone else isn’t following the Council’s rules. But according to Barry spokeswoman LaToya Foster, Barry wasn’t behind the tweets at all.

“As much as CM Barry LOVES to tweet, there are occasions when others have access to his account, and harmlessly tweet on his behalf,” spokeswoman LaToya Foster writes in an email to LL and McDuffie. “This is one of those occasions.”

LL asked Foster who sent the tweets and whether Barry agreed with them.

“The tweets are not CM Barry’s thoughts nor his quotes, and I am uncertain who’s behind the tweets,” Foster replies.

Followers of Barry’s Twitter account will remember that this isn’t the first time the identity of the account’s authors have been in question. Maybe it’s time for a new password?

Photo by Darrow Montgomery