Outfucked

Left: Gerardo Sandoval, Primate

It goes without saying that Gerardo Sandoval is probably the most stupid of our elected supervisors. And indeed, that may be saying a lot. But Sandoval’s record of self-serving lawsuits, public racist remarks (2) and out-of-town sports team pimping has been topped yet again by Sandoval himself. What did he do? He appeared on Hannity and Colmes, the Fox News program. Today’s Chronicle has a blow-by-blow account of the affair, so I won’t go into detail here, but Turdoval basically turns a commentary about the (you would think this would be stale as a news issue by now, Hannity must have a lot of time on his hands) USS Iowa affair into a self-indulgent, saliva-bubble-blowing diatribe which manages to combine neighborhood height limits with utopian pacifism.

The Chronicle relayed the sordid transcript along with an admonition against the supervisors’ recent pie-in-the-sky pronouncements on venues outside of their jurisdiction – urging impeachment of President Bush, Falun Gong, and so on. But while most observers have gotten the fact that Sandoval and most of the supervisors seem inordinately obsessed with posturing on issues outside of their control or mandate, there is a bigger problem here.

Right: Gerardo Sandoval came to the attention of Fox News producers when he won the Bicycle Stair Climbing competiton at last year's Special Olympics

Too many times, the Board of Supervisors has been used as a venue for issues which really should be the purview of Democratic Central Committee. And too many times, the Democratic Central Committee has refused to flex its muscles on key doctrinal issues, which should be its meat and potatoes. The Board of Supervisors is supposed to be a body focused on policy, but is focused instead on politics. The Democratic Central Committee should be focused on steering the politics, but instead merely reacts to political overtures put on the table by other factors, often at the Board of Supervisors.

The County Committee’s job, per its own bylaws, “is to educate voters on issues of importance to our society, to maximize Democratic voter registration and turnout in all communities, and to support and ensure the electoral victory of Democratic candidates who uphold the values of the Democratic Party.” It is most certainly a political and doctrinal body whose job is to keep Democratic activists and official public positions in line with what the party stands for, which is in turn staked out by consensus by Committees at local, state and national levels. It’s a political whip organization – not a constituent satisfaction organization. It’s not part of government, and does not need to be ecumenical or fair.

County Committees are often seen as farm teams for candidates for higher office. That’s a bit of a fallacy, which has been taken a bit too seriously in San Francisco. The Committee’s job is to marshal party activists to grow its numbers and to determine the proper litmus tests for candidates to earn its endorsement and funding. The Committees should - and in many places are – at the bleeding edge of crafting and enforcing political doctrine for Democratic politicians, who are supposed to incorporate that doctrine into the real world policy issues that they legislate.

Unfortunately in San Francisco, what we have is an ineffective, fatuous mess. This is exemplified most recently by the rechartering of the Harvey Milk Club, despite their refusal to refrain from endorsing Green candidates and the presence of Green party members on their executive board. It is also exemplified by the Committee’s silence on an unfortunate and continuing problem – the phenomenon of so-called self-respecting San Francisco Democrats making fools of themselves on Fox News shows.

Any Democrat worth their salt knows that Fox News – the bastard baby of Reagan era GOP operative Roger Ailes – is out to discredit the Democratic Party, and that any Democrat who deigns to appear on a Fox News program will end up having about the same level of credibility as if they had walked onto the set of the Jerry Springer Show. It is not an impartial organization and its only use for Democratic guests on its programs is to rip them to shreds and discredit them. Yet for some reason, some self-described San Francisco Democrats – ranging from fatuous pseudo-populist publicity whores like Angela Alioto and Jeff Sheehy to apparently hapless dupes such as Assemblymember Mark Leno and even Mayor Gavin Newsom – continue to appear on insipid hatefest programs like The O’Reilly Factor and Hannity & Colmes, and embarrass both San Francisco and Democrats nationally.

The result is unfortunately predictable – “San Francisco Democrats” have become a millstone, which weighs on the fortunes of the Democratic Party nationally. And San Francisco’s Democratic County Committee has routinely failed to grow the number of registered Democrats on its own home ground as the numbers of Decline to State voters keep on climbing.

One step in the right direction would be for the County Committee to promulgate a resolution against Democratic leaders appearing on national Fox News shows. An embargo of hate-oriented shows such as O’Reilly and Hannity would stop the continual use of San Francisco as a national whipping boy, and raise public awareness of Fox News’ propaganda agenda.

Such a move could also provide an impetus for strengthening the DCCC and restoring its natural political function, which while lost in San Francisco, is alive and well in Los Angeles and other major Democratic cities. If Angela Alioto wants to continue slandering her supposed political brethren on Fox, then the DCCC can make sure that no money or endorsements go to her idiot crank-calling Police Commissioner son, Joe Veronese, once he decides to seek public office again. And appropriate measures could be taken to ensure that embarrassments such as the walking colostomy bag Sandoval no longer infect the leadership of this City. And maybe, just maybe, the ideals that San Francisco stands for - Peace, Equality, Tolerance, and Justice – would no longer be so easily lampooned at the hands of opportunistic class traitors who claim to represent us and then stab us in the back for a fleeting fifteen seconds of personal fame.

Discussions on The Wall Forum (1) (2)

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