CommentsEASTSIDER-While everyone seems surprised by Biden’s pick of Xavier Becerra to head the seriously messed up Department of Health and Human Services (thank you, Donald Trump), I think he’s a great choice.
Orthodoxy
The mainstream media take on the Administration’s pick is a sort of a “who’d have thunk it?” query. After all, why not give him Senator Harris’ Senate seat or make him Attorney General? This consternation is echoed in a very recent New York Times article you can find here.
“And as we’ve reported, Mr. Becerra was a top contender to replace Ms. Harris, again, in the Senate. But, observers said, Mr. Becerra was a less likely pick for the Senate seat because he’d be a potential choice to lead the Biden Justice Department.
So Mr. Biden’s naming of Mr. Becerra for a job helping to lead the nation’s response to a pandemic came as a surprise, particularly for medical experts who had urged the president-elect to pick someone with public health expertise.”
However, California folks were not so sanguine about Becerra going to head the Justice Department. For example, here’s take by a Sacramento Bee’s OpEd piece a few days ago, headed, “Yes, Xavier Becerra sued Trump. But here are some ugly truths about his record as AG”:
“As California attorney general, Xavier Becerra resisted transparency, threatened legal action against journalists, ducked police reforms and declined to investigate the police killing of an unarmed Latino man.
I was writing a column about why he would have been a bad pick for United States attorney general when the news hit: President-elect Joe Biden had instead nominated Becerra for secretary of Health and Human Services.
Becerra and I were scheduled to talk for 20 minutes last Thursday, but we jousted for an hour. I made it clear that, given his record in California, a Biden decision to appoint him AG would essentially be a middle finger to the national movement for police reform.”
And on a personal note, I’ve found a lot of my progressive Democratic leaders have an axe to grind regarding Becerra’s tenure in Congress, working for Nancy Pelosi, the ultimate limousine liberal.
The Challenge
Face it. After four years of President Donald Trump appointing political cronies who did their best to simultaneously loot and dismantle the Department of Health and Human Resources, even as he denied the realities of COVID-19.
It’s a train wreck. And it doesn’t need medical/technical leadership. Rather it needs political leadership in getting all the parts moving in tandem again, while fighting off all the toxic politics such as House and Senate food fights over darn near everything.
To me, that’s where Becerra’s experiences are over a long tenure (he represented our area in LA from 1992-2017), surviving the toxic political infighting and even the hard core no-mutual kisses allowed by longtime Minority Leader and sometimes Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi.
And he works hard. During Becerra’s first run for a Los Angeles Congressional seat, he actually walked the Precinct! Hills and all.
So, I believe that anyone who could survive the snake pit of DNC politics for as long as Xavier did, has all the skills needed by us to right Ship HHS. And for me, that’s priority number one after January 20 -- stop the Pandemic, get people vaccinated, and actually get America back to work.
A believe it or not Fox News article gives a good taste of the establishment Democratic Party insides he had to contend with, here.
The Takeaway
As someone who’s been around a while (read ‘old’), I remember the good old days when Becerra was in Congress, the Northeast Democratic Club was a large membership needing-to-be-reckoned-with Los Angeles Club, and Xavier Becerra gave good care and feeding to the troops.
There used to be an intermittent informal gathering of those who cared at the home of Carol Jacques and Bill Rumble up in Mt. Washington. It was a freewheeling, open back and forth between the Congress member and the Community, keeping each side in touch with each other. Throwing out ideas, political realities, and challenges.
In retrospect, it was a grand experiment. Now the establishment foisted on us Democrats in LA spends more time kissing the DNC and State Party for money than they do interacting with any constituents. I applaud Becerra for taking some hard votes against Pelosi in Congress and for keeping in touch with his constituents.
So, I don’t think we need to have Becerra be just another politician who is a lawyer, fighting a tough fight to get through the confirmation process. As the Sacramento Bee piece indicates, it would not be pretty on even the Democrat side.
Heck, seems to me that half the Congress is a bunch of lawyers and look at the wonderful result. Becerra has the scars, knows the players, and with enough political chops to maybe, just maybe, bridge the gap between our two-and-a-half political parties. He might just get things done.
I don’t know about you, but as an over 70 couple, if my wife and I have to spend much more time basically on home lockdown, I’m going to lose it. Petting the dogs helps a lot, but they can’t talk.
(Tony Butka is an Eastside community activist, who has served on a neighborhood council, has a background in government and is a contributor to CityWatch.) Edited for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.