Parade of candidates lining up to replace Lee
After sitting through the marathon installation of the new San Francisco Board of Supervisors the other day and soaking up the gossip at parties afterward, I can safely say City Hall has more candidates saddling up to replace Mayor Ed Lee than there are horses in the Kentucky Derby.
It’s clear that board President London Breed is running, as is Supervisor Mark Farrell. I’d also add Supervisor Jane Kim, who narrowly lost the state Senate race to Scott Wiener. And, of course, there’s Supervisor Aaron Peskin.
I’d say City Attorney Dennis Herrera and Assemblyman David Chiu look like they’re ready to run. And former state Sen. Mark Leno is a possible contender as well.
And don’t rule out city Assessor-Recorder Carmen Chu. She’s perhaps the quietest elected official at City Hall, but when she was a supervisor, she did an impressive job of representing the foggy side of the city. Her moderate politics and style may put her in the best position to inherit the Chinese American vote that gave Lee his winning edge.
No San Francisco swearingin is complete without a Chinatown banquet. The most interesting one this year was the gathering of 300 people for new District 11 Supervisor Ahsha Safai at the New Asia Restaurant.
What made it interesting was Supervisor Aaron Peskin, who decided that the dinner was the place to take on Mayor Ed Lee over his close ties to Airbnb and its effect on the supply of affordable housing.
It was Peskin at his best, not like his excruciatingly detailed, 25-minute speech at the City Hall swearing-in.
President-elect Donald Trump was a veritable shower of power at his first postelection news conference.
Trump works best when he is on the attack. Wednesday’s performance was a case in point.
First, he picks a target. In this case it was CNN, which was the first to report that intelligence officials had presented Trump and President Obama with a report summarizing “allegations that Russian operatives claim to have compromising personal and financial information” on our president-elect.
CNN didn’t go into details, but Buzzfeed promptly posted an unverified and unsubstantiated dossier of those allegations, including a juicy one about Trump hiring hookers to defile the hotel bed in which President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama slept while in Moscow.
It was just the kind of personal hit that Trump loves. He knew the Moscow file was the talker of the day, but he also knew it was easily debunked.
Rather than respond with a sad shake of the head, Trump did what Trump is famous for. He pointed fingers. He got bombastic. He turned it into a must-see performance.
Meanwhile, he was his usual evasive self about serious policy questions. It’s clear he has no idea about how to replace the Affordable Care Act, build a border wall or fulfill many of his other campaign promises.
But who cares when you can talk about hookers?
He got away squeaky clean.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s decision to get a pacemaker installed smack dab in the middle of the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings on Attorney General-designate Jeff Sessions was one of the oddest moves I’ve seen in some time.
Her staff said it was a nonemergency and voluntary procedure, but it sidelined her for the second day of the hearings, so the timing was a bit strange.
Feinstein hasn’t said whether she’ll run for re-election in 2018, and I’m on record as predicting she won’t. The pacemaker procedure got people wondering what would happen if health issues prompted the state’s 83-yearold senior senator to step down early.
It may be “idle speculation,” but I’m nothing if not idle, so let me just go further out on the Jerry Brown limb and say that if that day comes, don’t be shocked if the governor appoints himself to the seat.
“Given your spending habits, this is something I’ve long thought you needed,” retired U.S. Treasurer Rosa Rios said as she reached under the table at Le Central where we were having lunch the other day.
And with that, up came this beautifully wrapped Tiffany box.
She must have seen the look of surprise on my face when I unwrapped the box, opened it and found a miniature statue of a Texas oil well.
“All you have to do is figure out how to make it work.”