Pursuing a Prexy Photo Op--and Op, Op and Away

The White House was assiduously not playing favorites in the past weekend’s presidential town hall event in Ontario--heck, even Gov. Gray Davis was invited. But California’s three Republican gubernatorial candidates nonetheless were eager for some First Face-time, or just getting in the same film-frame with George W. Bush, hoping that a little bit of Pennsylvania Avenue pixie dust might rub off on them.

All three attended the Bush event, but Bill Simon’s press release beforehand was ambitiously headlined, “Simon to Join President George W. Bush for Town Hall Meeting,” which is technically correct but rather on the same order of hopefulness as a headline reading, “Dodger Dog Vendor to Join Hideo Nomo at Dodger Stadium.”

Man Oh Man of the Year

Oh sure, that weekly publication gave its annual honors to the now-ex-mayor of New York, Rudolph William Giuliani.

But another weekly publication had a different politician in mind for its plaudits:

Gary A. Condit.

(The A stands for Adrian, and the adjective “embattled” has now evidently been permanently prefixed to his full name.)

The Cleveland Free Times, the alternative weekly newspaper for Athens-on-the-Cuyahoga, has bestowed upon the Modesto congressman its own honors as “Times Man of the Year” because, as it detailed:

“Gary Condit is the quintessence of a gluttonous society operating without fear or consequence, content to distract itself with inanities. We’ve become a society as rich in hypocrisy as we are in resources (i.e., the media covers only Gary Condit because that’s what people want to watch; people watch endless Gary Condit because that’s what the media covers). The terror attacks instantly exposed the story for what it was: a meaningless tale of sound and fury writ large by power, sex and (presumably) death . . . how embarrassing that this will forever be the ‘before’ picture to the exploding twin towers’ ‘after’ picture. . . . Supposedly [the attacks] spelled the death of irony, but the real irony is that it did nothing of the kind: Gary Condit is running for reelection.”

Yes, yes--but does that mean they won’t be endorsing him for reelection?

Your Excellency, Take a Bow, Por Favor

Everything but the glass slipper.

Left far behind newly appointed Ambassador to Spain George Argyros was the embarrassing little contretemps, long since settled, that doubters said might have kept him from this moment in Madrid--that flap over whether his company, the largest apartment owner in Orange County, illicitly pocketed tenants’ security deposits.

A dozen days before Christmas, the Orange County businessman, who is studying the language of the country where he was named U.S. ambassador, formally presented his credentials at the court of the King of Spain in Madrid.

In white tie and tails, Argyros was conveyed by horse-drawn carriage, escorted by Spanish police and U.S. Embassy personnel, to Madrid’s Plaza Mayor, and thence to the Palacio de Oriente. He ascended the steps of the palace to be announced not by name but by job title. (Being ambassador to Spain also makes Argyros ambassador to Andorra, the principality in the Pyrenees know for its shopping: The country about 2.5 times the size of Washington, D.C., brags of having 4,800 shops.)

Argyros’ new job pays $145,000 a year, and he is expected to dip into his own billion or so to keep up appearances.

Argyros’ career took him from his Detroit birthplace, where he worked in a grocery store, to owning a strip mall in Tustin, manufacturing igloo-shaped doghouses, and owning the Seattle Mariners and Air Cal airline, to one of Forbes’ “400 richest” list, to raising money for George W. Bush’s presidential campaign, and now to the court of King Juan Carlos. Argyros praised the monarch as having done “a wonderful job as king. . . . I certainly have a better understanding” of that regal role and the nation, he said.

Argyros spent some time thereafter in discussion with the king and the Spanish foreign minister; Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft was there the same day to thank Spain for helping the U.S. in its battle against terrorism, and to offer Spain a hand in taking on its own home-grown problems with violent Basque separatists.

There is no word on whether Argyros bowed to the man who occupies the venerable throne of Ferdinand and Isabella. In the 1980s, Leonore Annenberg, wife of the TV Guide billionaire who was Ronald Reagan’s great good friend and his ambassador to the Court of St. James, got in Dutch when she contravened United States’ everyman protocol and twice curtsied to Queen Elizabeth II’s son and heir, Charles, the Prince of Wales--once when she was herself this country’s chief of protocol.

Quick Hits

* Word wars from the GOP gubernatorial candidates: Bill Jones used the enticing phrase “free tickets” in denouncing lottery problems and putting forth solutions. . . . Bill Simon’s consultants spoke of former L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan’s campaign as a “potential train wreck” . . . and Riordan’s campaign came up with a press release headlined with the memorable image, “Davis Sits on His Hands While Physical Education Falters.”

* Former Charles Schwab executive Kevin Feldman says he’ll challenge Los Angeles Rep. Henry Waxman in the Democratic primary for the congressional seat that Waxman has held for 28 years, ever since Feldman was 5 years old.

* James Fisfis--heretofore known as Jamie in the years he’s served as political director of the Assembly Republican Caucus and as press secretary to various of Sacramento’s Republican elect--has been named communications director to GOP gubernatorial candidate William Simon Jr., hereafter known as Bill Simon.

* A $200 daily lottery bounty, funded by parking fees, is being awarded every business day for six months to lucky Santa Barbarans who sign on to leave their cars at home and find other means to get to work--including telecommuting.

* A Golden State vintner swears that the favored vintage of the Volga boatmen and just about everyone else at the Russian Embassy in Washington, D.C., is a California label called . . . Russian Hill.

Word Perfect

“There are a good many conservatives in Orange County who are endorsing Riordan. It shouldn’t be a litmus test for or against anyone else.”

--State Sen. Dick Ackerman, an Irvine Republican who says he got booed when he said nice things about Riordan, his choice for governor. It also cost him, he is convinced, the endorsement of the very right-thinking California Republican Assembly. Ackerman’s also been lambasted for endorsing a county supervisor who endorses the idea of an airport at the old El Toro Marine base, even though Ackerman himself is agin’ it. Those litmus tests are killers, even when they’re only pass-fail.

*

Columnist Patt Morrison’s e-mail is patt.morrison@latimes.com. This week’s contributors include Jean O. Pasco.