Thursday, October 27, 2011

ABEL = Anyone But Ed Lee

(L-to-R: Rose Pak, Gavin Newsom & Willie Brown. The puppet-masters pulling Ed Lee's strings. Image credit: Bay Citizen.)

The race for Room 200 at San Francisco's City Hall took a weird and sleazy turn the other day when the SF Chronicle ran a front-page, above-the-fold hit-piece about City Attorney and mayoral wannabe Dennis Herrera.

Before going any further, permit to state that I am voting for John Avalos as my first choice, and my second and third choices will be determined closer to election day.

Strangely enough, the Hearst-owned paper has endorsed Board of Supervisors president David Chui, but their Herrera story carried the water for Mayor Ed Lee via proxies for his predecessor Gavin Newsom.

Based on the word of all anonymous sources, the Chronicle reported that Herrera in 2004 allegedly was not 100 percent pro-gay marriage, in his professional capacity as attorney for the city. The unnamed sources claim that almost eight-years ago Herrera presented a number of legal arguments about why Newsom's gay marriage push might fail in the courts.
In other words, Herrera was doing his job. Imagine that.

Reading the Chronicle's article I wondered why the sources waited so many years to bring their concerns to the paper, and why the heck the paper decided to give the allegations from so long ago such prominent attention.

The answers, IMO, lead back to the two sleazy powerbrokers who first installed Ed Lee back in January as the supposed interim mayor: Willie Brown and Rose Pak. They were aided and abetted by Newsom and his former minions, all of whom are desperate to maintain the status quo at City Hall.

A vote, either as first or second or third choice, for Ed Lee is actually a vote for the Brown/Pak/Newsom machine, a secretive and greasy machine out to crush any populist developments or politicians that they think threaten their hold on the levers of municipal power. 

If it weren't already clear enough before the Chronicle debased its credibility with their anonymous Newsom sources that Ed Lee and his backers will do anything to retain their grip on Room 200 at City Hall, it should be easy to see what sleaze this crew is made of.

My advice for San Francisco voters is the ABEL philosophy: Anyone But Ed Lee.

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