LEGAL WOES - The irony was lost on no one last week when we learned that the parents of the mayor of Los Angeles have hired a professional lobbyist to make the case to the U.S. Senate that their son should be confirmed as ambassador to India (Los Angeles Times, May 24, 2022).
Eric Garcetti is entangled in a sexual harassment mess at City Hall, which seems to have derailed his confirmation for the ambassador job.
The parents’ action is lawful, to be clear, but it’s akin to hiring an influencer to get your kid into USC when his application is weak or blemished … ahead of another who may be more deserving. And it’s all the more stunning because the mayor, himself gifted in the art of self-defense, has the ear of so many in Washington, D.C.
This has now gone too far.
It’s time for Mayor Garcetti to unpack his suitcase and get comfortable in his bed. Let someone else be ambassador, take another job and bide his time. Some more contrition for what’s happened at City Hall under his nose wouldn’t hurt either.
The mayor is entitled to a fair hearing and to pull all the levers that he can to make his case. The mayor is not entitled to be ambassador.
We don’t always get what we want.
(Cary Brazeman is a former neighborhood councilmember and former candidate for city controller of Los Angeles.)
