Politics and It's Disconnects
            

            I was watching Miami TV coverage of the INS decision on "the boy"--they
called it "Decision Day"--and, man, those local channels don't want to get
nasty letters from any Cuban-Americans. I don't know if you can access any tape
of this stuff, but the street reporters were moaning over the kid's lost
opportunities. I'm not the first, nor will I be the last, to note that family
values take a backseat to the chance at some stock options in the hearts of a
lot of conservatives.

            While on the subject of (as the current lingo has it) disconnects, today's
Boston Globe has an interesting story about McCain pressing the FCC to
take a speedy vote on an application by a contributor to his campaign to buy a
Pittsburgh TV station. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a fan of reform, living in
California where half a century of reform has turned our politics into an
insider's game. (The one reform that might work is free TV time, were not the
broadcast lobby one of the strongest in Washington--for proof, see the
Telecommunications Act of 1996.) But I note with glee that conservative
defenders of the status quo argue a version of the old Jesse Unruh line about
being able to take a man's money (to fully quote Jesse, "and eat his food, and
drink his booze, and screw his women") and still vote against him--but, when
the Heritage Foundation trots out its tabulation of how countries vote in the
U.N. General Assembly, it cross-refs those votes with how much money the U.S.
gives each country in foreign aid. So we should only expect votes to be well
and truly bought when they're the votes of sovereign nations.

            I ascribe DiFi's lack of opposition to two things: assiduous courting of
Silicon Valley, where major Republican contributors have lined up behind her,
and, more important, the sad state of California's GOP. Grey Davis, the
Democratic Governor, is triangulating like a Clinton, and it's giving the Reps
fits.

            Mayor Riordan is a Republican, although one of those splendid reforms keeps
that fact a secret from voters, and he's an amiable enough guy who has used his
rhetorical and organizational muscle to force some changes--or at least rumors
of changes--at the school board. But, like the Texas Governor, the Los Angeles
Mayor is an executive office without a lot of power. He couldn't be a Giuliani
if he wanted to. Plus, we have so few trains, and they don't go very far, so
it's easy to make them run on time. Actually, the school system is in bad
enough shape that there's major support behind breaking up the district, and
the police force has a metastasizing scandal in one of its central-city
stations (thousands of cases may have to be reopened, due to revelations that,
yes, Alan Dershowitz is right, the cops do lie), so, aside from the weather and
the economy, it's not all that golden. Riordan's term is up shortly, though,
and, if he can lick statewide animosity toward L.A., he might be the
Republicans' best hope for beating Davis, or Boxer, or Leno.