Still the Best Political Show Around

Willie Brown played all the roles of political patron, stand-up comic, consigliere and preacher last weekend. San Francisco’s new mayor--the self-described former “ayatollah of the Assembly”--was honored by California Democrats at their annual convention. And the party activists, in turn, got their Willie fix--guffawing, clapping and being inspired.

Now “busy,” he quipped, “filling potholes and sweeping up dog-do,” Brown has been away from the state political scene since last fall. But he clearly has been watching and listening and is concerned about the divided course of his former flock in Sacramento.

The situation is this:

On paper, Democrats should regain control of the Assembly in November. Brown has been replaced as minority leader by a longtime confidant, Assemblyman Richard Katz of Sylmar. But Katz is a lame duck because of term limits. So there’s fierce jockeying for speaker, especially by caucus chairman Cruz Bustamante of Fresno. Bustamante, who would be the first Latino speaker, is earning political chits by raising money for Democratic candidates. Within the Katz camp, this is seen as interference in the regular fund-raising operation. Some leery special interests aren’t giving to either faction.

“It’s all so childish,” complained one Democratic strategist.

Enter Brown the patron.

“Let me tell you something,” he exhorted, “those of you who are in the fray, don’t worry about who’s going to be the speaker. The natural order of things will take place, but only after you have won [the Assembly]. And not before.”

The ex-speaker was loudly applauded for this godfatherly advice. It was one of the few times his comments did not generate roars of laughter from the banquet crowd of 500.

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Brown also subtly chided his longtime ally, the California Teachers Assn., for cozying up to Assembly Republicans.

He cited a victim--Democratic candidate Ed Foglia of San Jose, a former CTA president shunned by his old union in order not to offend his Republican opponent, moderate Assemblyman Jim Cunneen of Cupertino. This could be a competitive race and Brown urged: “Whatever deal was made to screw Ed before, undo that deal.”

Then the punch line: “Never make deals with Republicans that screw Democrats. Make deals with Republicans that screw Republicans. . . . Any time they’ve ever dealt with me, when they have left the table, they have left most of what they came with on the table. And I have left with everything I came with and what they left. That’s the way you deal with Republicans.”

Anybody who has followed Brown’s career knows this is no idle boast.

Brown also rapped GOP Assembly Speaker Curt Pringle of Garden Grove, who has been brushed by scandal involving a Democratic decoy in the Doris Allen recall election. Pringle denies devising the decoy plan. So far, Assemblyman Scott Baugh (R-Huntington Beach) and two GOP operatives have been indicted and three aides have pleaded guilty.

“Can you imagine fixing an election? Somebody said, well, you know, it’s done all over the country. That’s bull----,” Brown asserted. “It isn’t done all over the country.

“Nobody in the world can tell me those 22- and 23-year-old rookie [campaign] kids thought that up. That didn’t come from the young and those who are virgins. That came from the minds of people who put guards in polling places.”

In 1988, the Orange County GOP hired uniformed guards at voting precincts in Pringle’s district. The guards harassed Latino voters about their citizenship and the party later paid a $400,000 settlement.

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Brown noted that he himself caught “unholy hell” during the mayoral election from San Francisco’s newspapers for what they characterized as an unsavory record. “ ‘Willie Brown, why don’t you answer?’ ” he recalled supporters asking. “Well, you know, you can’t. Half of that ---- was true. So I couldn’t be answering that.”

It’s often difficult to know how much of Brown’s verbiage is candor and how much is blarney. It’s usually some combination.

Like his story about being President Clinton’s overnight guest at the White House:

“I chose the Lincoln Room as the place where I would hang my hat. I didn’t tell him which room, by the way, before I got to Washington. I wanted to be able to prove to you that I was there. I didn’t want no inventory made of anything. Because, I want you to know, I took everything out of the Lincoln Room that had ‘White House’ on it that wasn’t tied down. I mean, I took everything.”

In an era of cautious, predictable, tedious rhetoric--inspired mostly by polls--it’s refreshing to hear a self-confident politician who’s not afraid to speak his mind and have some fun.