POWER Is Still The Ultimate Aphrodisiac (Even In Los Angeles – The Nation’s Undisputed Capital For The Beautiful People)
[posted by Justin Levine]
So it turns out that the L.A. Mayor’s mistress has been with at least, not one, not two, but three [count ’em] three major power players in L.A. Latino power circles – The Mayor, California’s House Speaker Fabian Nunez, and State Senator Alex Padilla.
Busy girl, this one. Who knows – maybe these are only the politicians that have been reported on so far.
But hey, its none of our business. These are all the private matters of the individuals involved. The fact that it may have a direct bearing on how the Spanish speaking media scrutinizes our politicians shouldn’t concern the rest of us. After all, many of us don’t even speak Spanish, right? So this is an entirely separate matter that we in the outside world should just rightly ignore.
Side thought # 1: L.A. Weekly reports that “Telemundo executives would not comment on the relationship, saying the channel does not discuss the personal lives of its employees.”
Translation – “Telemundo chooses not to report on items that Latino politicians don’t want them to report on, since it has the channel snuggled in its bed sheets. But now that all of this hub-bub has been created, we’ll take an informal listener e-mail poll to help us decide what is newsworthy and what course of action we should take.”
Side thought # 2: Continuing on a theme that Patterico himself has been running with recently, I wonder if the old hard core leftist L.A. Weekly would have run with this story on the mayor. Somehow I doubt it. It probably would have concentrated more on Scooter Libby this week. That’s all well and good, but you can get commentary on Scooter through any number of outlets. Further proof of Patterico’s point that the current anti-establishment Jill Stewartish L.A. Weekly fills a much needed void that both the old Weekly and the L.A. Times fail to address.
No wonder the L.A. Times now feels that “there was a time not all that long ago when we felt like we had to read the Weekly as soon as it came out, because they were competing with us. I don’t think the people at the times feel that way any more.” When you consistently stress the importance of Washington politics over what is happening in your home city, I suppose you have good reason to think that you aren’t in actual “competition” any more with one of the few outlets that reports intelligently on local matters. I suspect that the Times also doesn’t feel that it is “competing” with L.A. Observed – which explains why that website happens to be so valuable as well. LAist’s interview with Luke Ford is very revealing on this point. [Though to be fair to the Times, much of its recent improvement can be found in their own blogs on local matters such as L.A. homicides, the Phil Spector trial, etc. They just haven’t yet found a way to effectively stress and market these gems in either their paper or their website. You have to search too hard to find them.]
Side thought # 3: When you read how Luke Ford managed to break the story of the Mayor’s affair, I’m struck by the eerie parallels to how Matt Drudge first broke the story concerning Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky. If you recall, Newsweek actually had all of the pieces of the story first, but decided to bury it because it bought into the silly notion that who politicians have relationships with are none of the public’s business. That left Drudge to pick up the pieces. Sound familiar here? As long as the mainstream media continues to have this infantile view of the supposed “non-newsworthiness” of our politician’s sex lives, this same dynamic is going to continue to play out within the blogosphere.
Side thought # 4: After representing him in multiple matters of alleged mischief, Luke Ford has apparently taken to calling me “my attorney”. So be it. Though frankly, I’d prefer that he say “my favorite radio producer who also happens to write and file my legal briefs whenever people sue me.” But whatever. If he gets sued again, headlines such as “Luke Ford 1, L.A. Times 0” will come in handy to help rebut claims from future libel plaintiffs that he is a “reckless gossip monger” who obviously acted with “malice”. I’ve noticed that libel plaintiffs often attempt to use a defendant’s past record of accuracy in trying to sway the judge that he or she was being “reckless” in the current instance. The defense has to then explain that the publisher either has a good track record, or that his past track record is irrelevant to the case at hand. It is an interesting song and dance that gets played out in many cases involving public figure plaintiffs. To help with those future dance steps, I can also now trot out the observation that it “looks like eccentric lone blogger Luke Ford was more trustworthy than L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. ” Thanks for the quote Mickey!
[posted by Justin Levine]
Speaking of randy politicians…did Fred Thompson announce today?
alphie (015011) — 7/5/2007 @ 2:04 amPower? What’s so powerful about being a toss up for latino politicians?
sam (781d46) — 7/5/2007 @ 5:03 amWomen sleeping with multiple men of power?? Who’d a thunk?
Mace (c5eeb4) — 7/5/2007 @ 6:54 amI suspect there’s a lot more of this going on than any of us can imagine.
Sleeping with politicians –
Someone finally assimilates into the American way of doing things.
Vermont Neighbor (95b069) — 7/5/2007 @ 7:21 amI remember a Tom Lehrer reccord(Of my parents) commenting on the obituary of one Alma Gluck,who confessed she’d alwas been attracted to “Genius”.And maried three.
corwin (67d75c) — 7/5/2007 @ 7:53 amThe stanza:
Alma,tell us
All modern women are jealous
Ducks always envy the Swans
Who have Wetner and Maxie and Hans.
And I remember my when I found my gf was porking her physics teacher.
There could be a very innocent ‘splanation for Ms. Salinas’ extracurricular activities…
…she was preparing deep-background profiles on prominent CA Latino politicians and dating them was part of her ‘research’. Memoirs of a groupie sort of thing.
–furious
furious (716933) — 7/5/2007 @ 7:54 amIn Latin culture, of which I am descended, the male can cork as many chicas as he can, but for a female, one is a no no….three? Isn’t that a business? And for the mayor to know he’s number three…oh my!!
Sue (03e0cc) — 7/5/2007 @ 8:11 am“Busy girl, this one.”
its like we’re back in high school.
whitd (57e439) — 7/5/2007 @ 8:33 am“courtesan” comes from “court”, and it’s an ancient, durable concept.
assistant devil's advocate (22ec3e) — 7/5/2007 @ 8:35 amThese guys aren’t that powerful. They are just local politicians and not one of them will go beyond local politics. Getting porked by a guy so you can get your tickets fixed seems rather pathetic.
sam (781d46) — 7/5/2007 @ 9:34 amCorwin–Alma was a real woman, and she really was attracted to genius: her first romantic relationship was with the painter Gustav Klimt; she then married Gustav Mahler, had an affair with a minor Viennese painter after his death, then married the architect Walter Gropius (with whom she had already had a brief fling before Mahler’s death), and finally married the novelist Franz Werfel, her affair with him being the reason for her divorce from Gropius. Werfel was the last husband; they escaped the Nazis together and came to the US, where she died in 1964. She outlived Werfel. There were a couple of other earlier gentleman callers, too, btwy, that I left out. That’s when Lehrer was inspired to write his song. Most of the details are listed in the Wikipedia article on her (Alma Mahler). And she was not a half bad musician herself. But the marriages of true minds does not breed good health: of four children, only one lived to adulthood (the other three died at the ages of ten months, five years, and eighteen years.)
kishnevi (ebd358) — 7/5/2007 @ 9:36 amLets stop all the idle chit chat and start executing the illegals and their supporters–including the estimable greaseball reconquista mayor–allready!
TheManTheMyth (6e8923) — 7/5/2007 @ 9:41 amspam cleanup on aisle 12!
carlitos (b38ae1) — 7/5/2007 @ 9:50 amIllegal invader sympathizer alert on aisle 13!
TheManTheMyth (6e8923) — 7/5/2007 @ 9:52 am#1 Fred might have been randy however he was single and available however this Dem mayor was married for 20 years and cavorted with someone who reported on his mayoral job and I am sure based on how he did the night before he would get good copy or bad:)
Jaded (8ca0a8) — 7/5/2007 @ 9:53 amBeing on the other side of the country from LA, local politics there is not on my radar screen.
Three prominent area politicians all in relationships with the same news anchor? I wonder who thought they were playing who.
The only good part of this story is the mayor’s wife already was on her way out, apparently, and not going through as much as she might be otherwise.
Even if one thought politician’s sex-lives were generally off-limits, when it may directly affect the public it is necessary to bring it to light.
MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 7/5/2007 @ 10:15 amCan you believe Telemundo still has her email address posted on her bio page? Think of the mail she must be getting:
http://www.telemundo52.com/comunidadt52/2836092/detail.html
TakeFive (2bf7bd) — 7/5/2007 @ 10:24 amApparently, you really are out of the loop. They have been married for 20 years and he has been running around on her for 21. Rumor had it that the girlfriend was knocked up and this was the final straw. It would have been his 3rd (4th?)illegitimate kid.
sam (781d46) — 7/5/2007 @ 10:32 amI saw a guy actually selling “I came in Mirthala” T-shirts outside of last year’s NLCR meeting at the convention center. I didn’t realize what it meant until just last week.
Hector (b3f6e4) — 7/5/2007 @ 1:11 pmTelemundo and its owner NBC are in bed with one of the darling’s of the Democrat party – a man that will likely run for governor of California.
Perfectsense (b6ec8c) — 7/5/2007 @ 2:11 pmWhat a proud time for journalistic ethics. A reporter goes to jail to protect a D.C. source. An L.A. reporter goes down to snuggle up to greasy power.
nosh (de5a83) — 7/5/2007 @ 3:00 pmsam, you’re right. I really was out of the loop, and I guess maybe I’ll try to stay out of this one.
MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 7/5/2007 @ 3:04 pmWhat does language have to do with adultery?
Eric (7cb475) — 7/5/2007 @ 3:31 pmMonica and Bill spoke what? French? I hate when biggots come out the closet on these lame issues.
“greasy power” nosh?
This isn’t LGF, ya know.
alphie (015011) — 7/5/2007 @ 3:55 pmYou can stick a fork in Mayor Tony. He’s done:
[grainy, black and white photo of Mayor Tony, “scary” music]
Voice: When Mayor Tony’s wife was undergoing chemotherapy for cancer, he had an affair. With his best friends wife. Who was his campaign manager. Mayor Tony was godfather to their children, but didn’t let that stop him.
[Picture of the couple in question, it tears apart]
Voice: If his wife and his own best friend couldn’t trust Mayor Tony, can you? Just imagine how he could screw you over.
[Paid for by Friends of Candidate X]
… Mayor Tony had an affair yes with his Campaign Manager’s wife, a long-time family friend. Yes he was godfather to their kids. Yes they divorced. Yes his wife was undergoing chemo. This attack ad writes itself. You can’t trust Tony because he’s proven he’s untrustworthy. If he will literally screw his best friend’s wife you can’t trust him.
And now that the subject is out in the open, this business (not the current affair) makes him toast. He won’t even get re-elected. LA is filled with ambitious young men who speak Spanish, don’t have an identifiable sleazy record, and owe Mayor Tony nothing. Who would like to be Mayor.
So they too can bang lots of hot chicks.
Of course, when we say the media are in bed with the Dems, we can point out just who we mean.
Jim Rockford (e09923) — 7/5/2007 @ 11:34 pmIn this world of the “liberated” American woman I am shocked, just shocked, that one of them might exchange sex for news stories. Oh I know that at least half the female realtors in Beverly Hills “trick” their way into home sales; or that most promotions within offices go to women who appear to be sleeping around; and that “getting the goods” on a married man is a sure ticket, but I didn’t even suspect that news women sleep their way to interviews and stories.
All of us working in places where women also work know that most sell sex, or the promise of same, in order to gain their goals. That’s the way it is and the men envy the tool.
Howard Veit (4ba8d4) — 7/6/2007 @ 5:01 amAlphie’s still sore from being banned by Charles.
Teche (c003f1) — 7/6/2007 @ 10:34 amDon’t go so hard on her. She’s Mexican and there is nothing Mexican women respect more and forgive more easily than the padrone. They are the fountainhead of Machismo culture. This wouldn’t even show up on the back page of a weekly shopper in Mexico. So she shtupps El Jefe and El Jefe’s friends? So what? Y’all are just a bunch of blue-nosed puritan Europeans with all this shock and outrage. Mexican women were made to be boinked and Mexican men are bound to do it.
His wife knows he was pranging women all over East LA for 21 years. She didn’t leave. She knows Mexican men are what they are.
His TV girlfriend knows he had little bastards all over when she invited him to do a little “deep background research” with her. She didn’t leave. She took on all his friends, too. She knows Mexican men for what they are.
So why do you uptight whities get so upset? It’s a perk of political power in the pueblo: all the peasant babes you want and all the little babies you can make. So what?
Y’all need to get a life. Or move to Wisconsin or Vermont or something. It is a multicultural world out there, and shamelessly shtupping all the senoritas you can get is a big piece of it.
After thirty years of frigid white feminists and a suicidal white birthrate, you’d think y’all would WELCOME Big Men who scatter their seed far and wide. At least they aren’t afraid to chase women and make babies .. and their women aren’t afraid of making them.
A inal note: this will increase his votes in the Mexican marketplace and he knows it. As long as he doesn’t grovel too much or act like it’s a shanda fur de Anglos, that is. He’ll come out of this just fine, don’t you worry.
big bil (63b638) — 7/6/2007 @ 10:54 amBig bil:
Thomas Jackson (bf83e0) — 7/6/2007 @ 3:37 pmWhites don’t get excited about Latin women who act like whores. We just don’t expect women to waer change makers on their belts. I love Latino’s, who else mows lawns and will work for less than minimum wage! And its well known why every Latin kid has to call strangers tio, it could be his father. Hell half of Latin America is the result of wild seed of gringoes. And if you ever feel the need for a feminist nut case just remember the bitch Bobbit married.