Blunt Memos to Yaroslavsky

The headline should have read “Errant Memo Exposes Political Frauds.” Although “politics ain’t high tea,” political consultants Michael Berman and Carl D’Agostino (operators of BAD Campaigns) offer advice so cynical and valueless as to be political poison. Liberal politicians such as Yaroslavsky, Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Los Angeles), Howard Berman (D-Panorama City) and Mel Levine (D-Santa Monica) would be better advised to spend their consulting dollars elsewhere, or further risk undermining their credibility as public servants.

BAD advises Yaroslavsky: Don’t bother performing your official duties so you can spend more time putting the bite on fellow Jews; Mayor Tom Bradley has a low IQ and Anglos vote for him because he’s a non-threatening black; co-opt “tree huggers” and other citizen participation-type groups. Sounds like pretty corrosive stuff to me.

Berman and D’Agostino are little more than grown-up graffiti artists. They are not alone but they are among the worst. They seem to take perverse pleasure in desecrating the system which grants them the freedom to be asses.

ROB BRINER

Santa Monica