Eric Garcetti’s sorry saga continues.
According to recent reporting by Politico, “Democratic powerbrokers close to Eric Garcetti privately pressured Sen. Mark Kelly to support the Los Angeles mayor’s ambassadorial nomination, according to five people familiar with the outreach. As part of the push, they left the strong impression that the Arizona Democrat could find himself cut off from donor networks should he refuse to back the beleaguered nominee to be U.S. ambassador to India.”
The result?
The outreach has backfired as Kelly understandably became infuriated and reportedly told people close to him he felt like he was being “strong-armed.”
Kelly is among the many Democratic senators concerned that Garcetti knew about and ignored his close aide Rick Jacobs’ alleged sexual misconduct. Which makes sense, especially in light of a U.S. Senate investigative report finding that Garcetti “more likely than not” knew about what was going on.
Naturally, Garcetti is pretending he has nothing whatsoever to do with the behind-the-scenes pressure campaign.
“One of the Democrats briefed on the overtures to Kelly said the LA mayor anticipated he would be asked about his level of involvement, and proactively told people he wasn’t personally directing donors to advocate for his nomination to senators,” reports Christopher Cadelago.
The attempted strong-arming of Kelly is only the latest development of how low Garcetti has sunk. A few weeks ago, it was reported that Garcetti’s parents hired lobbyists to help get Garcetti’s nomination through.
It’s time for everyone involved to admit it : Garcetti is a dud. Sure, he once had delusions of grandeur and wanted to be president (and decided not around the time the feds started kicking down City Hall doors). But so what? He’s been a mediocre mayor of a city in decline. An investigation found he “likely” knew about sexual misconduct.
Playing the political game and supporting a run-of-the-mill nomination is one thing. But approving Garcetti’s nomination would be political malpractice.
Sal Rodriguez can be reached at salrodriguez@scng.com
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