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Sunday, April 12, 2009

The Last Word on Antonio Villaraigosa

After Antonio Villaraigosa won the City election on March 3rd, I was a bit surprised that no media resources contacted me for a comment afterwards. I understand that the election wasn't all that exciting for them....a sitting Mayor with a 3 million dollar campaign war chest going up against nine other men who combined didn't have 10% of the Mayor's money, fame, or access to the media. Not much of a contest in their eyes, so they didn't bother to write about it. It was a sad commentary on the death of journalism in this country . In most stories about the election, the so-called "journalists" didn't even bother to mention the names of his opponents.

It's too bad they didn't call me after the campaign, because I had some choice comments for them. Words I had held back on and refrained from using during the campaign. They didn't bother to ask me, so I decided I will go the independent route and use what has become the REAL and most innovative media in this country... I will blog it myself!
Who could make a better comment on the race for Mayor? After all, I was one of the men running !

When I was being interviewed on the radio by Patt Morrison of KPCC, I called Villaraigosa "the most dangerous man in Southern California". I don't regret saying it, but I may have been inaccurate. He might not be number 1, but he's in the top 5. Patt Morrison stunned me for a moment when she asked if there was "anything the Mayor had done right ?". I have to admit I hadn't thought about the question a lot, but I quickly answered that I liked the Mayors strong support of Israel. However, I actually have doubts that the Mayors enthusiasm on the subject is genuine. When he was in the State legislature he represented a somewhat different area politically than he does now, and I am not convinced that Israel was ever high on his list of priorities. Me, on the other hand, I went to Israel long before I got involved in politics, and I even have an old photo of me with a full beard wearing an IDF t-shirt (and I'm not even Jewish) . I'm not sure I could say that Antonios support for Israel was ever legitimate and not politically motivated.

I'm not going to demonize the Mayor and call him "a traitor" like a certain candidate and some of his supporters continually did. Antonio Villaraigosa is a man like any other man. He has his good points and his bad points. He came from a very rough social background and overcame some physical ailments early in his life. He struggled in his pursuit of an education but eventually overcame that to became Mayor of Los Angeles. So I will give him a little credit for that. But allow me to repeat a quote of mine from the Sunland-Tujunga debates held by the Mayor Sam blog...

"I don't think the Mayor is smart. I don't think he is talented. But this man is crafty. He is a political animal. He is almost like an old-style mob boss."

That is how I see the Mayor. An untalented, but hard working overachiever.
A man who "worked" his union connections to eventually gain political control of a major city.
A man who knows the value of political favors and a man who knows how to collect from those in his debt.
However, I also see him as a man who could easily become a dictator if given half a chance. He has worked for organizations in the past like the ACLU, and the teachers unions, and the Democratic Party... all groups who say that they support freedom.....as long as you do exactly what THEY want you to do!

Most of my opposition to him has always been on a purely ideological basis.

His liberal policies of continually growing the government and finding new and creative ways to levy new taxes are ideologies that I find highly offensive. I feel that Antonio Villaraigosas "non-enforcement" policies towards illegal immigration only encourage more lawbreaking and make our City less safe for its citizens. His tireless support of illegal immigration often makes me question his loyalty to the United States. His membership in a racist organization called "MECHA" while a student in college says a great deal about his poor judgement and his lack of character. His choice to preside over a gay marriage ceremony (in order to gain political capital with the far left) offended me because, as a Catholic, our faith doesn't allow that, and he knows it. I will spare you the details about his personal life, but again, there he shows an almost pathological inability to be honest with anyone.


To many voters, he will always be known as the man who made the famous speech in 2006 where he said "We clean your toilets!!" These are not words I want any elected leader of mine saying at any time in his career. I want leaders I can be proud of...not ones that I am embarrassed of... (which is how I feel about the current Mayor).

In my opinion, Villaraigosa is only Mayor for one reason.

James Hahn fired Bernard Parks.

The African-American community (and many Parks supporters) turned on Hahn in the election and voted for the guy who finished as runner-up in 2001. Little did they know they were voting in a man with Socialist ideologies. An illegal immigration appeaser who would end up doing more damage to the African-American community than they could ever have imagined.

Yet somehow, the 15% of the people in this city who voted on March 3rd saw fit to return him to the Mayors Office. The only part of this I understand is that most voters didn't have any idea of who the other candidates were. If any of the other candidates had raised a million dollars to spend on their campaign, this election would have been very different.

Villaraigosa may not yet be finished doing damage to citizens here. He seeks to be elected Governor in 2010.
Laugh if you want, but it is a prospect that should frighten L.A. voters. He actually has a shot at winning.
Several Bay area politicians are going to splinter the vote there, and Villaraigosa may be the only big name in Southern California to seek the job. He could take the Democratic Party nomination with a small plurality. After that, the voters of The Peoples Republic of California will do as they are told and put him in Sacramento.

God help us all.







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16 Comments:

Blogger Michael Higby said:

Phil,

Welcome to the blog!

I agree with about 80% of what you say here, I don't think Mecha is necessarily a racist organization, (a nationalistic organization PERHAPS) and I'm not opposed to gay marriage.

However the more important issues are how Villaraigosa operates and as such the negative impact it has on the City whether you're for conservative, liberal or whatever policies.

Good piece! Looking forward to more.

April 13, 2009 12:18 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

glad we'll finally be having some real objective reporting on the Mayor from a former candidate for Mayor who admits he couldn't think of one good thing to say about him except that he works hard and has overcome a pretty bad background.

Then there's always the old standby used by Koretz when the Times asked him if there's anything good about Vahedi: "he's nice to animals." Or was it the other way around? And isn't that always the case that candidates try to outdo each other by being nice to animals or at least posing with animals and claiming they do.

April 13, 2009 2:32 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

They don't usually contact the LAST PLACE GUY for a comment.

That means that the LAST PLACE GUY didn't know enough about the JOB to warrant a comment.

If you are thousands of votes BEHIND ZUMA DOGG, it means you know LESS than NOTHING.

That's why.

April 13, 2009 9:07 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Not 15% voter turnout. 17.9% voter turnout in the final tally.

http://cityclerk.lacity.org/election/archives/archives2009/primary/bulletin.pdf

Still the lowest in City History for a mayoral contest. Even lower than the classic Tom Bradley vs. whatshisname in 1989 that pulled in 20% voter turnout.

The real story here is the stupifying voter apathy and indifference. Can Los Angeles afford to have this degree of voter apathy in local elections? You get what you want.

April 13, 2009 9:12 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

232=Higby trying to make it seem like anybody other than he read this entry.

Not the first time Higby has done that,either

April 13, 2009 9:40 AM  

Blogger Petra Fried in the City said:

Phil, welcome.

Although I'm on the more liberal end of the political spectrum, I have always respected your opinion. On Tony Villar, we are in complete agreement.

Again, WELCOME.

April 13, 2009 9:42 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

pedra, it's okay to respect the man's opinion, but what about his judgement?

he thought he would be mayor, and couldn't forcast that he would come in LAST PLACE!

very bad skills, to not have forcast that. tee hee hee! he is also un employed.

April 13, 2009 10:19 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Regardless of how much or how little I think of Villaraigosa (it's the latter, for the record), you obviously misunderstand the purpose of "the media" in a free society.

They're not there to "make" challengers to a sitting mayor something other than what they are -- lackluster and unpopular. They're not your personal press agents or private shils for the underfunded. They're also not out there to try and level the playing field when one candidate has a massive warchest.

They're "supposed" to be reporting the news, and the old saw about "hearing both sides" is bunk if the "other" side (including AV's challengers) make up such a small portion of the opposition, even collectively, that their reporting anything more about them than that they qualified for the ballot (when they do) would play a promotional factor in the equation.

If any of the challengers had been able to create any kind of upsurge in support or really had anything substantive to say that might affect the lives of Angelenos, then the media would probably have talked about them more.

If anything the 8 dwarfs helped keep any real challengers off the ballot and ensured us another 4 years of Tony V.

April 13, 2009 10:23 AM  

Blogger Phil Jennerjahn said:

Petra, thanks.

Just wait until you see the furious commenting when "The Last Word on Walter Moore" hits the web.

It's going to be exciting here at Mayor Sam this week.

April 13, 2009 10:47 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

I thought you said you were going to stay above the fray?

What happened to your campaign promise, Phil?

Let me tell you, torching candidates when the campaign is over is going to come back and bite you on the ass should you ever decide to run again.

You will regret your scorched earth policy, Phil.

As George Zimmer of the Men's Warehouse says, "I guarantee it."

Let's see how big your balls are NOW, Phil.

April 13, 2009 11:06 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

I'm confused. How can the guy who just won a new four year term have the last word written about him?

April 13, 2009 11:13 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

11:13

It's called term limits.

He's a "lame duck" now, and since the whole city know he stands no chance of being governor, even though he may try and make a donkey of himself, we now know we're ALMOST done with the Villaraigosa era.

He'll have to hope for an undersecretary appointment in the second Obama term, and he's too "macho" to ever agree to be "under" any secretary.

April 13, 2009 1:12 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

This is your "debut"?

A Zuma length posting stil full of bitterness because the man is a better speaker, better politician and a winner over everyone that challenged him?

When will you guys ever learn?

He's the Mayor and you;re NOT.

Move on. Don't start kissing Saltsburg's ass because it won't do you any good. He'll turn on anyone.

April 13, 2009 1:36 PM  

Blogger Unknown said:

>> About 3 weeks ago, Phil & I had a few exchanges... in one of those exchanges, I shared my (so-called) opinion of his Mayoral efforts.<<

"Phil...

Once again- I do congratulate you for your run at the Mayor's seat, regardless of the outcome. I applaud the kind of activism you demonstrated.

I attended a few of the candidate debates- so I did get to see you in action. While a couple of your competitors certainly had an advantage on you in terms of name recognition, I don't think that had as much to do with the performance of your campaign as perhaps you might believe.

If I may be blunt: In my opinion, your primary campaign strategy/approach was not altogether different than the tone of many of your blog postings- whether they be here, or elsewhere. By that I mean it seemed to focus on blaming and complaining- and little else. That kind of campaigning is boring, lazy, and does not inspire or demonstrate leadership. Period.

I say that with all due respect, and do not intent to offend you personally in any way.

One example from a recent posting of yours here on Mayor Sam:

"This (national economic mess) all stems from idiotic liberal nonsense policies that say the government has to be the solution to everything."

Remember this guy?:

“I’ve abandoned free market principles to save the free market system” (George W. Bush, 2008, on multi-billion dollar government bailouts for banking industry.)

When did President Bush say that? Lemme see, oh yeah, that was about 116 days ago.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but you finished dead last in a field of ten candidates, which included one who goes by the name Zuma Dog; Craig X. Ruben- the bong smoking pastor; and Carlos Alvarez-the 22-year old, self proclaimed socialist, who wants to basically eliminate the LAPD, and open the southern border to anyone with a pulse. You referred to Carlos as "Taco Truck Carlos" at the debate in Studio City- but he managed to get 25% more votes in our last election than you did- and that guy is a goof (all due respect, Carlos).

You see my point?

Your friends and family may give you an “Atta boy!,” at the campaign picnic, but I think the average voter out there is not impressed or inspired by rants and petty insults.

You say, "I ran for Mayor telling people I was going to go into City Hall and fire people. Nobody wanted to hear that."

Not true, Phil. Nobody wanted to hear ONLY that.

My guess is you will take another run at some kind of public office, and as I have before, I certainly applaud your activism. However, maybe you should consider a different strategy in the future. A leader doesn't curse the wind... a leader figures out how to capture and direct it.

Just a thought."

To his credit, Phil's many responses to me were always polite.

April 13, 2009 4:59 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

booo hooo nobody called me for my opinion so I joined a washed up blog so I could feel important.

Pathetitc. We didn't care then, don't care now.

April 14, 2009 2:47 PM  

Anonymous g said:

THE PEOPLE OUT THERE SHOULD CARE!! THERE COST OF LIVING AS WELL AS THERE JOB AND THERE KIDS FUTURE DEPEND ON CARING AND VOTING AND LEARNING AND SUPPORTING THE RIGHT PEOPLE TO GET THE JOB DONE!! APATHY EQUALS STUPIDITY!!!!

April 14, 2009 4:06 PM  

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