Alex Padilla Appointed to the Senate Seat About to be Vacated by Kamala Harris
[guest post by JVW]
My record for completely wrong predictions continues unabated, and my 12 to 1 long shot wins it going away:
California Secretary of State Alex Padilla will fill Vice President-elect Kamala Harris’s Senate seat, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced Tuesday.
“Through his tenacity, integrity, smarts and grit, California is gaining a tested fighter in their corner who will be a fierce ally in D.C., lifting up our state’s values and making sure we secure the critical resources to emerge stronger from this pandemic,” Newsom said. “He will be a Senator for all Californians.”
“I am honored and humbled by the trust placed in me by Governor Newsom, and I intend to work each and every day to honor that trust and deliver for all Californians,” Padilla said in a statement.
What exactly are those California values, Governor? Do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do-sim? Over-promising and under-delivering? Exacerbating the gap between rich and poor?
In any case, I think where I went horribly wrong is that I thought Governor Hair-Gel would care about the perception that Secretary of State Padilla had badly botched several key issues under the purview of his office. But seeing as how this is an appointment and not a nomination requiring confirmation, I suppose he had no reason to care. It will be interesting to see how strenuously the black community — especially the female black community — objects to the first black woman Senator from the Golden State being replaced by a Latino male.
Anyway, congratulations to my old buddy Alex. Here’s hoping that he brings his engineer-trained analytical mind to the endless problems we face and doesn’t just vote the way Chuck Schumer and the party apparatus tells him to vote.
– JVW
Maybe Alex has aspirations for the White House, and will move away from California leftism to be viewed as a more palatable centrist figure. Yeah, I know: fat chance.
JVW (30a532) — 12/22/2020 @ 1:57 pmIsn’t amazing how color and gender trumps all else?
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 12/22/2020 @ 2:24 pmI still liked the LA Times column about giving the seat to Danny Trejo. If only to see witnesses being grilled by “Machete.”
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 12/22/2020 @ 2:29 pmI’ve never understood why “the gap between rich and poor’ is such a big deal. It doesn’t affect me or my life, why should I care? Except as the source of revolution.
Rip Murdock (80e6b4) — 12/22/2020 @ 2:30 pm@4 It’s not about what I have. It’s about what YOU have. 🙂
norcal (b4d7b1) — 12/22/2020 @ 3:49 pm@4 It’s not about what I have. It’s about what YOU have.
Hit the nail right on the head with that, norcal.
JVW (30a532) — 12/22/2020 @ 4:08 pmNot a very bright bulb, this Newsom fella. After he is recalled by angry business owners, the governa’ is gonna realize he shudda hit the silk and named himself to the Senate gig.
OT:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/22/us/politics/trump-pardons.html
Why America sucks #1257:
Helsinki now has a bookend: Duncan Hunter.
Like father like son: this imbecile; this brain-dead conservative Republican nut bag toilet floater deserved to be flushed down as San Diego sewage to wash up on a Tijuana beach.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 12/22/2020 @ 4:28 pmSome prominent California Democrats are unhappy with the selection of Padilla, believing that Newsom should have selected a black woman to fill Harris’ vacant seat. Perhaps hoping to smooth ruffled feathers may have contributed to his selection of Shirley Weber to fill Padilla’s vacancy.
Dana (cc9481) — 12/22/2020 @ 5:26 pmIt’s never, ever just about the selecting the most qualified person for the job.
Dana (cc9481) — 12/22/2020 @ 5:27 pmNot a fan of Duncan Hunter, but the pardon doesn’t stain anything like the pardon of the Blackwater thugs.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 12/22/2020 @ 6:13 pmNew rule for political reporting: “If Trump had done this, what would you write?”
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 12/22/2020 @ 6:14 pm@9
Yup.
Just look at most of Biden’s cabinet picks as well.
whembly (c30c83) — 12/22/2020 @ 6:16 pm@10
Or that of Bradley Manning or Oscar Lopez Rivera.
whembly (c30c83) — 12/22/2020 @ 6:19 pmBlackwater is Betsy DeVos’s baby brother, who currently has his fingers in the same pies as the Trump-Kushners in the oil sheikdoms too.
nk (1d9030) — 12/22/2020 @ 6:19 pmThe reason he appointed Padilla is that California is about 40% Hispanic now, narrowing outnumbering non-Hispanic whites. Blacks are about 5%.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 12/22/2020 @ 6:20 pm@12. Yup. Just look at most of Biden’s cabinet picks as well.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 12/22/2020 @ 6:31 pmWhen you elect a swamp creature you gotta expect some mud monsters to surface.
@13 I think we should also make distinction between pardons and commuting. Manning and Rivera’s sentences were commuted, not pardoned. Pardoning implies that the actions that resulted in the sentencing was unjust or in the least the crimes are worth forgiving. Commuting is more an act clemency and grace.
tla (34ebeb) — 12/22/2020 @ 8:18 pmActually, French makes a good case in favor of the four Blackwater contractors, so I take that one back.
Paul Montagu (77c694) — 12/22/2020 @ 8:37 pmI expect Trump to pardon Julian Assange.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 12/22/2020 @ 10:57 pmDana (cc9481) — 12/22/2020 @ 5:27 pm
I would rather use the word “best” rather than “qualified.”
Qualified implies that there is some standard, maybe related to education or experience, that people should agree would make someone the best choice. This is very untrue, and would often lead to a very bad choice.
“Best” is an idea that incorporates many other qualities, and also, here, means, or should be understood as meaning, “best according to the appointing person’s judgement.” And whether a person would run for re-election, or would win, is also a consideration.
Sammy Finkelman (3915d0) — 12/23/2020 @ 3:29 amWhen the largest ethnic group in the state is Hispanics, it’s not a difficult choice to pick an Hispanic. According to 2019 estimates
Hispanics – 39%
Non-Hispanic whites 37%
Asian/Pacific Islander – 15%
Blacks – 6%
Other/Mixed – 3%
The idea that one of the 2 Senate seats be reserved for a black woman is ludicrous.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 12/23/2020 @ 4:24 amhttps://www.ppic.org/publication/californias-population/
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 12/23/2020 @ 4:24 amActually, French makes a good case in favor of the four Blackwater contractors, so I take that one back.
Only in the sense that Obama, Hillary, and Robert Gates should be the first three names on the indictment for hiring the mercenary scum and letting them loose in Iraq.
I’ve got your “former veterans” right here, Mr. French, and it’s not the “fog of war”.
nk (1d9030) — 12/23/2020 @ 4:42 am2006-2007 was probably our worst time in Iraq, starting with the Golden Mosque bombing that ignited sectarian killing sprees and ending later in 2007 when our surge strategy kicked in and we were able to work deals with Sunni sheiks. The killings involving those Blackwater personnel were during one of those most volatile moments, and there’s a good argument that they were acting within the rules of engagement. The outcome for those Iraqis was nevertheless tragic, but not criminally so in the center of a war zone.
Paul Montagu (c237ac) — 12/23/2020 @ 8:48 amThe episode doesn’t excuse other war crimes by Blackwater personnel, it doesn’t excuse all the bad decisions our government and military made in Iraq, starting with the decision to invade in the first place and disbanding the Iraqi military etc., and it doesn’t excuse Trump’s pardoning Eddie Gallagher & Co. last year, who did commit actual war crimes and were justifiably convicted and imprisoned.
I should at least get my dates straight, Paul. The incident was in 2007, under Gates as Secretary of Defense, but Bush 43 was President and Rice was Secretary of State. I don’t why I thought it happened in 2009.
nk (1d9030) — 12/23/2020 @ 9:06 am“I am American as apple pie and as American as rice and beans,” says Miguel Cardona, the Plagiarist-elect nominee to lead the Department of Education.
No.
Rice and beans is not as ‘American as apple pie.’
And 1+1=2; not 11.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 12/23/2020 @ 3:26 pm