"Shade & Fraud - Why Eric Garcetti Should Consider Other Career Options" by Daniel Guss
Garcetti-related schadenfreude is satisfying and long overdue.
President Joe Biden’s recent re-re-nomination of him just a few weeks ago hasn’t been withdrawn, but his White House — which keeps saying how important it is to have an ambassador in India — has yet to re-re-submit Garcetti’s paperwork even though the second half of Biden’s term is well underway.
As of this morning, the Executive Calendar for the United States Senate lists a bunch of nominations, just none with the name Garcetti on it. Previously, it included this:
The White House may have Garcetti in a slow-moving political bicycle lane because Biden already has a world of scandal surrounding him in 2023, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer may not want to import Garcetti’s chaos for a vote in an oddly weighted dem “majority” composed of 48 Democrats, 49 Republicans and 3 Independents, only two of whom caucus with the Dems, many of whom distrust Garcetti and resent his bullying to advance his nomination.
Their reasons may also include some recent local maneuvering tied to his credibility.
First is that the trial for the sexual harassment claim filed by Garcetti’s former LAPD security detail, Matt Garza, against the city for alleged misconduct by the former mayor’s right-hand man Rick Jacobs, has been delayed until at least March 13, 2023.
Second is a quiet November 29, 2022, LA City Attorney court filing seeking to “exclude evidence or testimony related to former (LAFD) Assistant Fire Chief John Vidovich,” (his actual title was Deputy Chief, Fire Marshal), which is the case where the city paid nearly $1 million to this local hero for retaliation Garcetti inflicted upon him for whistleblowing about corruption at the LAFD. LA Weekly’s Hillel Aron credited The Guss Report in 2016 for turning around that case by telling Vidovich’s side of the story after the LA Times failed to do so.
Third is the wildcard. With so many recent and ongoing federal prosecutions related to City Hall corruption, and desperate defendants taking plea deals requiring cooperation with federal prosecutors, Garcetti’s proximity to it all may make DC dems already on the fence about him even queasier.
And then there’s this.
Garcetti’s third nomination would require him to go thru another Capitol Hill grilling, but this time with more unsavory information surfacing, as opposed to Vogue’s drooling 2017 piece titled, “Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti is Ready For His Close Up.”
Unsavory, like the Garcetti administration, after nearly three years fighting me in court, eventually paying The Guss Report’s $10,528 legal tab in its pursuit of a small portion of LAPD dispatch records that allegedly show a supplemental police dispatch (i.e. in addition to his normal security detail) to Garcetti’s home in response to a rumored “domestic incident.” But if the LAPD claims that no such incident took place, why did then-City Attorney Mike Feuer block access to these otherwise innocuous dispatch records?
What do you suppose would happen if Congress were to subpoena the records that Feuer fought to keep The Guss Report from accessing? It could spell the end for Garcetti, potential disbarment for Feuer (who aspires to run for Rep Adam Schiff’s House seat) and further reputational harm to the LAPD.
Garcetti, who some of us consider The Worst Mayor In LA History, even misplayed his failing-upward opportunity by allowing Ma and Pa Garcetti (i.e. Sukey and Gil Garcetti, the bumbling former LA District Attorney) to hire a DC lobbyist to help junior, a millionaire who turns 52 on Saturday, browbeat senators into supporting his nomination.
In other words, Garcetti fooled and failed LA for 21 years, but DC ain’t biting because he has yet to gain the support to even warrant a vote on his nomination.
Heck, even the LA Times’ political apologist in residence, Dakota Smith, started calling out Garcetti’s dishonesty last year:
And when you lose the LA Times, it’s time to ease on down, ease on down the road.
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(Daniel Guss, MBA, was nominated for three 2022 LA Press Club awards and was a runner-up in 2021 and 2020. He is City Editor for Mayor Sam and has contributed to CityWatchLA, KFI AM-640, iHeartMedia, 790-KABC, Cumulus Media, KCRW 89.9 FM, KRLA 870 AM, Huffington Post, Los Angeles Daily News, Los Angeles Magazine, Movieline Magazine, Emmy Magazine, Los Angeles Business Journal, Pasadena Star-News, Los Angeles Downtown News and the Los Angeles Times in its sports, opinion, entertainment and Sunday Magazine sections among other publishers.)