Let's talk about what electing gays to state office in California means. Three corrupt politicians who happen to be gay, and haven't done a thing to hold town halls across the state for gay upset with the passage of Prop 8, are sticking around state government until they can find another office to run for.
Termed out gay political animals Sheila Kuehl and John Laird were appointed to the sewage board by cronies in the state senate and assembly recently. And nasty Carole Migden pulled strings with the Gov to get her parking spot until a better office opens up somewhere.
The waste board, you'll pardon the redundancy, is a waste. Good government advocates in Sacramento for years have wanted to do away with this board, but lazy career politicians refuse to kill it, because they may one day need a seat on the panel.
Ain't it grand the state can afford to pay the three wasteful gay leaders plum six-figure salaries and provide a few perks? Not because they're especially knowledgeable about sewage and recycling issues, but they're between elected offices right now, and need time to rest and plot their next electoral moves.
Sure doesn't pass the smell test. Heh.
There's also a Prop 8 angle here. None of the new appointees exactly knocked themselves out rallying the troops on the Prop 8 campaign trail, lame as it was. Okay, to be fair, the No on 8 leadership wasn't asking any real gays to be visible so it's I can't fault Migden, Laird and Kuehl for following campaign orders.
But now that it's been six weeks since we lost, the three gay experts in waste have done nothing to organize town halls about the Prop 8 failure, the terrible leadership of the campaign or how to learn lessons when leaders refuse to hold town halls in the Castro.
On Sunday, as if everyone didn't already know the deal that went down for Migden in acquiring her seat, the SF Chronicle laid it out for its readers. Pay close attention to lack of reporting on her,um, qualifications:
A lot of politicos up Sacramento are asking what was behind Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's decision to name recently defeated San Francisco state Sen. Carole Migden - a Democrat, of all things - to a plum, $132,000-a-year seat on the state's Integrated Waste Management Board.
The story is this: Initially, Migden was going to be appointed to the job by outgoing state Senate Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland.
In the end, it all came down to not Migden's expertise in poop, pee and paper, but her relationship with the Gov's lesbian chief of staff. Do I sense a hint of some sleeping around among all the lesbians in the last graph? ;-)The problem was that Migden's friend state Sen. Sheila Kuehl of Santa Monica, also a Democrat, was leaving office as well and looking for an appointment to the board.
And Perata had only one seat to hand out.
The other vacant seat on the garbage board was controlled by Schwarzenegger - and there was precious little chance he would give it to Kuehl, who helped torch the governor's big health care reform a couple of years back.
So Migden told Perata to appoint Kuehl and decided to take her chances with the governor.
To be honest, however, Migden didn't have much to worry about. She is very tight with Arnold's chief of staff, Susan Kennedy (also a Democrat) - as well as with Kennedy's partner, Vicki Marti, who runs a nonprofit women's center back in Migden's old Senate district.
Electing gays to state jobs has produced career politicians who just happen to be gay. That's no advance for gay equality.
Not when Migden, Kuehl, Laird, do nothing to organize Prop 8 gay community forums across the state on top of nothing from Bevan Dufty, Goof Kors, David Campos, Mark Leno, Jose Cisneros, and Tom Ammiano for town halls.
I'm over gay politicians.
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