Brea Candidate Jumps Into Broccoli Brouhaha With Bagels

It’s becoming the year of veggie politics.

Last week, perturbed California broccoli growers sent 20,000 pounds of their favorite green to the White House after President Bush admitted to banning the food from Air Force One.

Now a local Democratic congressional candidate has jumped into the broccoli brouhaha.

“Vegetables are one of our most nutritious foods,” Anthony J. Roberts of Brea chided the President in a letter dated Friday. “And with the proliferation of ‘junk foods’ in today’s diets, I would think that you would be trying your best to promote the value of good nutrition.”

To underscore his point, Roberts, who owns a bagel shop, shipped the President a case of broccoli cheese bagels.

He suggested to the First Palate, “If you can’t eat broccoli straight, then you need to have Mrs. Bush do for you what my mother did for me: Mix the broccoli in with other foods that taste good.”

Roberts is running for the Democratic nomination to challenge Republican Rep. William E. Dannemeyer (R-Fullerton) in the 39th Congressional District.

In the face of the growing nationwide uproar, the President stood tough last week.

“I do not like broccoli,” he told a press conference. “I haven’t liked it since I was a little kid and my mother made me eat it and I’m President of the United States and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli.”