Over the mayor’s first four months in office, we’ve confirmed a lot of things about him. He’s impulsive. He’s got all that energy. He wants control of the schools but may not have the most original of plans.

Comes now evidence that he’s not going to take any risks with the District’s ever-mighty senior vote. According to this story, Fenty is suspending the excellent D.C. law that requires drivers aged 75 and older to take a driver’s test before getting a new license. The law was a confidence-builder for anyone who plies D.C. roads and sidewalks. As individuals age, they lose reflex time, visual clarity, and so on. Seventy-five is a reasonable age at which to set the requirement. Fenty, though, is succumbing to the complaints of those seniors who’ve balked at the new requirement. It’s a short-sighted ploy that’ll only make our already hazardous byways even more so.

Yet you can almost hear it right now—-Fenty in at a 2010 rally at some senior housing accommodation in town: “Don’t forget who ended that discriminatory driver’s test for you folks!”