Mueller probably wishes he had turned job down

Special Counsel Robert Mueller has to be asking himself, “Why did I ever take this job?”

He had a stellar career as a federal attorney and FBI director and a promising future in the private sector, only to be dragged into the biggest mess of an investigation we have seen in years.

His job was to determine whether Donald Trump or people in his campaign colluded with Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election. Now his hot case is whether Trump was trying to swing a real estate deal for a Trump Tower in Moscow as late as June 2016, after he had wrapped up the Republican presidential nomination.

That might be politically embarrassing for Trump. But it wouldn’t be a crime. And it wouldn’t

be much for Tom Steyer and his band of impeachment-crats to run with, either. And how about Paul Manafort’s attorneys calling the Trump team every night to update them on their client’s interviews with the special prosecutor, after he had supposedly agreed to flip?

Mueller thought he signed up for “All the President’s Men.” Instead, he’s the straight man in a remake of “Goodfellas,” starring the Three Stooges.

Balance of power: I’m not sure Oakland Rep. Barbara Lee ever had a real shot at becoming the House Democratic caucus chair, the job she narrowly lost last week to New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries.

A lot of Democrats around the country think California will be doing just fine when the House is sworn in next year.

San Francisco Rep. Nancy Pelosi is about to regain the speakership. Rep. Adam Schiff of Burbank will be running the Intelligence Committee, and Los Angeles Rep. Maxine Waters will chair the Financial Services Committee. San Mateo Rep. Jackie Speier will have a leading role on an Armed Services subcommittee dealing with military spending.

I’m told the New York delegation and others said enough is enough.

What’s in a name? San Francisco Supervisor Aaron Peskin has raised a very good question: What do you do when you’ve named something after somebody who’s still alive and sinned?

Peskin is making waves by calling for the removal of Mark Zuckerberg’s name from San Francisco General Hospital.

Peskin says Zuckerberg has ignored privacy concerns on Facebook, used opposition research to smear his critics and appears to be totally unrepentant.

Do you erase the name? Most would answer “yes.” But then, do you give Zuckerberg back the $75 million that he and his wife, Priscilla Chan, donated to the hospital?

I answer, no. Zuckerberg never asked for his name to go on the hospital as a condition for the donation, so why should he care if it comes off ?

In memory: The 40th anniversary of the assassination of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk was acknowledged at City Hall when Mayor London Breed pulled everybody together for a moment of silence.

Moscone’s son Jonathan and Milk’s nephew Stuart set the tone. Let’s not weep — let’s do what George and Harvey would want us to do. Celebrate their lives.

The elections of Moscone and Milk reflected sweeping changes taking place in the 1970s in San Francisco and led to many more. Attitudes about the rights of people of color and LGBT folks that have since gone national originated right here.

If those two guys were alive today, they would be overjoyed. But they would also know there is work to be done. Movie time: “Creed II.” Michael B. Jordan plays the son of Apollo Creed in this latest installment of the never-ending “Rocky” franchise.

The fight scenes will seem far-fetched to boxing fans, but the story does demonstrate the genius of Sylvester Stallone, who co-produced the movie and shares the writing credit. He fills the screen with side stories that help make the film humane, in spite of the brutality in the ring.

“Green Book.” Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali star in a movie that will walk away with a bag of Oscars, if there’s any justice in the world.

Want to know what it was like to be black before there were fair housing and fair employment laws? Then see this film. It should be shown in every high school, to help young people understand why race is America’s overriding unresolved issue. Homecoming: I went back to my hometown of Mineola, Texas, for Thanksgiving dinner with 40 or so of my relatives. It’s always a challenge remembering names when you have a sister with 12 kids and another sister with nine.

I left it almost 70 years ago, but it still looks the same. The movie theater where I used to sit in the “buzzards roost” for “coloreds” is still there. The black cemetery that holds the family plot is still fenced off from the white side, only now there’s a historical marker.

As I was getting off the train, I was greeted by Edward Dickey, a high school classmate of mine.

“There are only three of us left from the graduating class,” he told me.

“Everyone else has passed?”

“Yes. I’ve been to many, many funerals over the years,” he said.

“And don’t take this the wrong way,” he added, “but my goal is to bury you.”

Courtesy Willie Brown Willie Brown and his daughter Sydney stand next to a marker at the black cemetery in his hometown.