This mayor’s too big for L.A.

Mariel Garza, Columnist
LA Daily News Article
Last Updated: 02/03/2007 05:52:17 PM PST

LOS Angeles may be 44 miles from one end to the other. And there might
be nearly 4 million people living within 468 square miles. But L.A.’s
still not big enough to contain the ambitions of the Mayor Who Would
Be King.

When one is dreaming about shaping world policies, it must be a bore
to have to wake up to run a municipality – albeit one with the most
celebrities per mile and a surprising number of opportunities to cozy
up to busty actresses.

Sure, he cares about violence in Pacoima. But, heck, he’s also
concerned about violence in Israel. Reducing poverty in South L.A. is
no more important than solving it in the USA South.

Economic investment in Sylmar and economic divestment in Sudan are
both important parts of the Villaraigosa agenda. And global warming,
phhht – he’s already told Al Gore, Bill Clinton and Tony Blair exactly
where he stands on that.

Wait a minute … who is this guy? A visitor from Mzothro, the planet
of the many-tentacled mice men in the distant Yonga system, who
dropped into L.A. one day would no doubt be seriously confused as to
Villaraigosa’s political status in the world. He seems like a mayor
when he’s planting trees in South L.A. or anointing school board
candidates. He seems like a mayor when he’s mugging for the camera
while serving gruel to homeless people. There’s no doubt he’s mayor
when he’s backslapping the L.A. movers and shakers in his third-floor
chambers in City Hall.

But then there are all those other, more confusing images of Antonio:
chatting with Hillary, shooting the breeze with Mexican President
Vicente Fox. One day he’s marching in a local parade; the next, he’s
marching through China.

There he is snoozing – I mean, "resting his eyes" – through President
George W. Bush’s State of the Union speech, as if he’s as comfortable
in the House chambers as he is in Getty House. He was no doubt resting
up for his own big speech to the National Press Club to unveil a
nationwide plan to reduce poverty and expand the middle class. Later
that week he called for a "new direction" in Iraq.

The obvious conclusion is that Villaraigosa is not just mayor of Los
Angeles, but a Democratic National Candidate for Something. That he
will end up running for higher office is a given; which one is open to
speculation. Governor? Senator? Vice president? Commander-in-chief
himself? Who knows? As such, he must tend to his future constituency
as well as his current one.

He has more things on his mind than merely Brentwood and Boyle
Heights. Oh, he’s no Barack Obama. But he’s not far from that kind of
status. Meanwhile, Los Angeles isn’t just a mere steppingstone for
Villaraigosa’s political ambitions; it’s the testing grounds for them.

In sheer volume, no local politician trumps the governor in press
releases prepared and distributed every day. (It is not unusual to get
more than a dozen from Gov. Schwarzenegger’s press office each day,
including at least one with digital photos of Arnold posing with
farmers in Fresno or the like, and another with an audio clip of some
noteworthy thing he might have said that day about his health care
plan or how crutches hurt your armpits.) But in terms of scope,
Villaraigosa has the governor trumped.

For recent example: When a suicide bomber’s work killed three people
on Monday in Eilat, a southern port city in Israel, the mayor put out
a press release condemning the action: "We join the international
community in condemning this attack and hope this tragedy will not
deter all parties from working together to bring peace and put an end
to bloodshed in the area."

Last week, the media were notified of a mayoral press conference for
an international doubleheader. Villaraigosa was going to announce the
divestiture of $27 million in city pension funds from companies that
support the Sudanese government as a way to protest the genocide
there. But that wasn’t all. He was going to announce his support of a
congressional resolution by U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff to officially
recognize the Armenian Genocide.

Sadly, the exciting-sounding topics were dumped when the more
newsworthy (to some) "living-wage" deal was worked out the night
before. Not to worry, though. We can be assured that neither the
genocide in Sudan nor the historic genocide in Armenia will be
forgotten. Not in Los Angeles. Not during Villaraigosa’s reign.

Mariel Garza is a columnist and editorial writer for the Los Angeles
Daily News. Write to her by e-mail at mariel.garza@dailynews.com.