San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Dems must open doors to impeaching Trump
Democrats, beware. You could be impeaching your own credibility with these secret impeachment hearings into President Trump’s dealings with Ukraine.
Americans inherently distrust any kind of government action that takes place out of public view, whether it’s a city council closed session or a closeddoor congressional hearing.
For years, Democrats have led the charge for transparency in government, be it foreign policy or investigations into police shootings. Now these same Democrats are going behind closed doors to get the goods on Trump.
They can point to Republicans’ private interviews during their endless Benghazi investigations as justi
fication for their strategy. But it wasn’t a good look then, and it’s not a good look now. Be better, right?
If the Democrats have hard evidence on Trump, they need to display it to the public in real time, rather than having bits and pieces and opening statements leak out without the context of the questioning that followed, from members of both parties.
Because the danger is there’s no bombshell, and Democrats replay their overhyping of Robert Mueller’s probe into the 2016 election, with no time to recover before November 2020.
Hillary. No, really: As Hillary Clinton rolls on with her successful book tour, so does the talk of a ClintonDonald Trump rematch in 2020.
The smart set dismisses it. The Democratic establishment would rather she went away. “She’s done a great service to our country and public service, and I supported her wholeheartedly, but I believe it’s time for another nominee,” Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois told Politico.
The fact is, Clinton doesn’t need the Dick Durbins of the world. In fact, she would be better off without them. The appetite is there among the rank and file for a plausible moderate alternative to Joe Biden. Here’s how Clinton could do it:
She should come in late. Skip the media slugfests in Iowa and New Hampshire and instead head straight for the Nevada caucuses, then hit it hard in South Carolina to show she can get the black vote, then onto the California primary in March.
If she does well in those three races, she’ll have momentum and a good shot at being the compromise candidate at a possibly split Democratic convention.
Still here: I received 14 calls this past week asking, “Are you dead?”
The calls were in reference to the other Willie Brown, my longtime friend and Hall of Fame cornerback for the Oakland Raiders, who passed away at age 78.
We had a ball over the years sharing the name.
He was always telling me how he got the best tables in restaurants because they thought he was me.
My favorite Willie Brown twin moment came when I went back to Canton, Ohio, for the induction of Eddie DeBartolo in the NFL Hall of Fame.
My friend Billy Rutland and I were walking through the hall when Billy suddenly stopped and said, “Here it is! Here it is — Willie Brown in the Hall of Fame!” as he pointed to the other Willie Brown’s display.
A couple from Colorado were walking by. They stopped, looked at the display, then turned and asked, “You’re Willie Brown?”
The next thing you know, Billy was taking
Michael Moritz and Doug Leone in the mid1990s. He continued to attend partner meetings for the next decade.
“Don’s life is woven into the fabric of Silicon Valley,” Leone, global managing partner of Sequoia, said in a statement. “He shaped Sequoia and left his imprint not just on those of us who had the privilege to work with him or the many philanthropic institutions that invested with Sequoia, but also on the founders and leaders of some of the most significant technology companies of the later part of the twentieth century.”
In a tribute to Valentine posted to Sequoia’s website, the firm noted his quirks. He “favored green ink, never drank coffee, listened carefully” and “understood the virtues of silence,” the firm said. Valentine also evaluated startups by pictures of us all next to the display.
Somewhere in Colorado, a nice couple have spent years telling friends about meeting the great player in the Hall of Fame.
Movie time: “Where’s My Roy Cohn?” This documentary into the ultimate political fixer is a mustsee if you want to understand how America evolved into Trumpland.
It’s stacked with footage that shows Cohn from his young days as a redbaiter to his later their ability to answer the question “Who cares?”
On Twitter, Roelof Botha, a partner at Sequoia who has been positioned to lead the firm’s next generation, said of Valentine, “You were a legend and an inspiration.”
In 2011, Valentine appeared alongside other early figures of the venture capital industry in “Something Ventured,” a documentary about the early days of Silicon Valley. In it, he poked fun at himself with comments such as, “No one has ever accused me of underestimating … myself.”
The directors of the documentary, Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine, said Valentine had an “uproarious and droll sense of humor” and “disarming honesty.” Donald Thomas Valentine was born June 26, 1932, in Manhattan. His days representing Mafia families and teaching Donald Trump how to be Donald Trump.
“Judy.” This Judy Garland biopic is a stark look at a performer who was exploited by every man she ever knew. It’s even better when former Tosca Cafe owner Jeannette Etheredge is your date. You get to hear about the next scene before it comes up on the screen.
Truth in advertising: New York Rep. Alexandria OcasioCortez must have skipped her high school civics class on the First Amendment. How else do you explain her grilling of Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg over the lack of factchecking of political ads on the site?
Lying in ads has been part of American politics since George Washington chopped down the cherry tree.
Why would anyone running for office tell the truth when a good lie about their opponent is twice as effective?
It reminds me of a famous story about Lyndon Johnson telling an aide to spread the story that his opponent had carnal knowledge of pigs.
But it’s not true, the aide said.
I know it’s not true, LBJ replied. I just want to hear him deny it.
Want to sound off ? Email: wbrown@sfchronicle.com father, Milton, was a milkman, and his mother, May Hansen, was a homemaker. He attended Fordham University and studied chemistry before beginning his career in California.
Valentine is survived by his wife, Rachel; three children, Christian, Mark and Hilary; and seven grandchildren, according to Sequoia’s post.
He named his venture firm Sequoia for “longevity and strength of the tallest of redwoods,” according to the post.
In the 2013 conference interview, Valentine explained one element of his success. “The key to making great investments is to assume that the past is wrong, and to do something that’s not part of the past, to do something entirely differently,” he said.
Erin Griffith is a New York Times writer.