Willie Brown:
After 40 years of “pay to play” innuendo, I’m no longer shocked to see my name mentioned.
I could feign surprise or even indignation at seeing my name dropped in FBI wiretap transcripts as having taught the folks at City Hall the art of “pay to play” politics. But in all honesty, after 40 years of innuendo and countless investigations, I’m used to it.
So when federal court filings quoted former Human Rights Commission compliance officer Zula Jones as telling an FBI undercover agent in the Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow case that I taught her everything there is to know about laundering campaign contributions, I could only chuckle.
I have never talked about campaign contributions with Jones in my life. And I would not know her cohort who shows up in the Chow case, former
Human Rights Commissioner Nazly Mohajer, if she bumped into me on the street.
I do know, however, that for years the FBI has targeted sting operations at black officials and other minority politicians all across the nation. That is why, in all my years in office, I treated every phone call as if it were being taped and everyone I spoke to as if they were wearing a wire.
Because, I later learned, they often were.
As for my name being thrown around in the Chow case?
Maybe I should be flattered. It still makes news.
Donald Trump lived up to everyone’s expectations in the first GOP presidential candidates debate, and then some. He may be full of himself, but he was the main reason the Cleveland show drew a record number of viewers for a primary debate.
It was like “Saturday Night Live” on Thursday.
Vice President Joe Biden would not be telling friends about his dying son having urged him to run for president unless he were really serious about it. And during his road trip around the country over the past two weeks, he’s repeated the story at every stop.
A major Democratic fundraiser who had dinner with Biden in D.C. recently tells me that the veep spent the whole evening discussing the pros and cons of entering the race.
From my perspective, the biggest reason for Biden to run is the fear that Hillary Rodham Clinton could be seriously damaged by the investigation into her use of a private e-mail system as secretary of state. The more classified mail they find in her box, the more Clinton will drop in the polls.
If she falls, the Democrats will be left with only Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley. Sanders may be a legitimate voice of the left, but he is not going to be a viable candidate in the long run. And O’Malley, who is going nowhere, is even encouraging Biden to get in.
Also, President Obama will ultimately be far more comfortable with Biden running. He has a natural and genuine friendship with Biden, something he has never had with Clinton.
Most important, Biden has zero trace of scandal. Clinton, on the other hand, is consistently
having to cover her backside.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein took over Quince restaurant the other night to celebrate husband Dick Blum’s 80th birthday.
Appropriately enough, 80 of his closest friends were invited, including Gov. Jerry Brown and wife Anne Gust Brown, former University of California President Mark Yudof, former Judge Katherine Feinstein (the senator’s daughter), ex-49ers President Carmen Policy and the Rev. Cecil Williams of Glide Memorial.
Blum was his usual spirited self. He told the crowd he didn’t understand how Williams could be so successful at feeding the homeless, recalling the time he offered to share a Cobb salad he’d picked up at a restaurant with a street denizen, only to be told, “I don’t eat that s—.”
Movie time: “Southpaw.” This is not a feelgood “Rocky” movie. This is a realistic and
sometimes grim look at the world of boxing, with all its grime and glory.
Jake Gyllenhaal does such a good job that you start to think he actually took all the punches meted out in the fight scenes. Forest Whitaker will probably land a best supporting actor nomination for his role as a trainer.
All in all, it’s a knockout.
They laid the cornerstone at the Willie L. Brown Middle School the other day, and in the process walked right into a long-lost part of my personal history and African American history as well.
I was met at the event by a contingent of Prince Hall Freemasons, in their ceremonial white gloves, white aprons and top hats. They’re the black version of the Freemasons, and while I have not been active for decades, I’m still a member.
Several white Freemasons were in attendance as well, and they all shared the history of the groups with the kids who were on hand.
It was quite an affair. Very impressive, but very long. The ceremony ran close to four hours — almost as long as it took me to get back downtown driving Third Street.
The line of the week came from a brother Friday afternoon on Bush Street.
“How are you doing?” I asked.
“Above ground and not in custody, and in my neighborhood, that’s about as good as it gets.”