San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Does Harris tell Biden what she really thinks?
President Biden promised Vice President Kamala Harris that she would be “the last person in the room” when he made a big decision.
Be careful what you promise. If Vice President Harris is saying the same things Senator Harris said back when she was representing California, then that last person in the room must be disagreeing with Biden a lot lately. Or should be, if she’s holding true to her past positions.
Start with immigration. Biden just asked Harris to lead the administration’s response on border and migration issues — the toughest of
assignments. It’s even tougher when you disagree with your boss.
While Biden has overturned some of Donald Trump’s harsher policies on immigration, he continues to use a controversial tactic to turn adult migrants away from the border — a section of public health law known as Title 42. Trump used this 1944era public health order to block immigration in the name of stopping the spread of COVID19.
Harris hated the tactic — last year, when Trump was president. In April, she was among a group of Democratic senators who criticized using the policy in this way as “an unprecedented expansion of executive power.”
Then there’s Biden’s careerlong support of the filibuster, the Senate rule that allows a minority of members to block legislation. Biden recently softened his opposition a bit, saying he’d be open to requiring the “talking filibuster,” in which a senator actually has to talk for hours to prevent a vote on a bill. He softened a bit more last week, vaguely threatening that if Republicans used filibusters to achieve a “complete lockdown” of Democratic bills, “then we’ll have to go beyond what I’m talking about.”
But that’s not even close to what Harris has said about the filibuster. In 2019, when she was running for president, Harris said at a CNN town hall on climate change that “I am prepared to get rid of the filibuster to pass a Green New Deal.”
So how much time does Harris get when she’s the last person in the room? Because there’s plenty for the two to talk about in that sentence alone. Not only does Biden oppose killing the filibuster, he opposes the Green New Deal.
If Harris can snag a few more minutes with the president before she leaves him alone in the room, perhaps she’ll talk to him about weed.
The Daily Beast recently reported that “dozens of young White House staffers have been suspended, asked to resign, or placed in a remote work program due to past marijuana use.” The White House said that just five people no longer work there for causes related in part to their use of marijuana — which is legal for adult recreational use in 14 states, including California, plus the District of Columbia, and for medical purposes in 36 states. But cannabis remains illegal under federal law, and Biden opposes legalization.
The White House reefer madness dragnet did not snare the vice president, who said during her presidential campaign that she used marijuana recreationally “a long time ago.” While Harris opposed legalizing cannabis as California’s attorney general, she became a leading advocate for legalization soon after landing in Washington, even fundraising off her proganja position during her presidential campaign.
For now, we’re unlikely to hear of any of these past disagreements between Harris and Biden publicly. Harris supporters will have to hope she’s saving her opposition for those private moments with Biden and that they will influence him.
Working without a net: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi joined the chorus of California Democrats who said no Democrat should run as a replacement candidate in a recall election of Gov. Gavin Newsom, sniffing that it was “an unnecessary notion.”
But that’s not what Pelosi said back in 2003 when Democratic Gov. Gray Davis was nosediving in the polls and heading for a recall crash-and-burn. Then, Pelosi joined a statement by Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a San Jose Democrat who led the state’s House delegation, backing Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante as a replacement candidate.
The logic: Many Democrats felt that Bustamante was insurance against the party losing the governorship should voters turn thumbs down on Davis.
That turned out to be a dumb idea that siphoned energy away from opposing the recall. Voters bumped off Davis and Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger won the replacement race, while Bustamante received 31% of the vote and a oneway ticket to obscurity.
One big difference between then and now is that Schwarzenegger was a movie star with literally as much name recognition as the pope. No such Republican is in the field or on the horizon now.
But that wasn’t the only difference. Art Torres, who was chair of the California Democratic Party, explained that Democrats “saw Gray as weak. ... What happened in so many districts is that people started worrying about their own backsides instead of worrying about the governor’s race.”
Torres said that is unlikely to happen now. In 2003, the state was having budget problems. Last week, California learned it collected $14.3 billion more in tax revenue in January than it expected, which will further ease the threat of budget cuts that looked inevitable just a few months ago.
On top of that, businesses crippled during the pandemic will soon be able to get $2 billion in grant money from California’s Golden State Stimulus relief program, and lowincome Californians will receive $600 from the state after they file their taxes. Plus, there’s $42.6 billion in aid coming to the state and local governments in California from the $1.9 trillion federal stimulus package.
“Now you have a Legislature that can’t blame Gavin when he’s got their backs,” said Torres, a former state senator. “There’s no incentive to go after your leader when he’s providing for you.”
Even Lofgren has changed her tune. She told me in an email that “every member of the California Democratic congressional delegation stands against this attempt by some of Trump’s closest allies to overturn the 2018 election and the will of the people of California.”
A final recall flashback: One California Democrat who broke with her party’s strategy in 2003 and didn’t vote for Bustamante was Sen. Dianne Feinstein. She said at the time: “I’m urging people to vote ‘no’ on the recall. I am not going to vote on the second part of the ballot.”