No Kamala, Please

Former SF Mayor Willie Brown as made it clear that his former girlfriend and protege Kamala Harris would not be well-served as running mate to Joe Biden.  I agree with Brown, however self-serving it is.  He may actually think Harris would do better as Attorney General, but the big factor, which we should all know by now, is Brown does NOT want to be the albatross that sinks Joe Biden in the fall campaign.

After all, Biden cannot attack Trump for cronyism if he has somebody on the ticket who was a beneficiary of such cronyism as Harris was.  Willie Brown, as California Assembly Speaker, which he was for many years in the 1980s and 1990s before being SF mayor, was infamous for appointing friends and even girlfriends to commission "jobs" in the state even if they lacked qualifications and experience.  It is called patronage, and patronage is rife as it is in public employment, as I know only too well especially having worked in Nevada school districts, without it being a national issue.  Kamala Harris owes her political career to Willie Brown.  There is no argument here about it.  She likely never would have gone into politics in the first place had she never met him.  She would have spent her career as a prosecutor and then in private practice, as most prosecuting attorneys do.  Because of her relationship to Brown, which was never a secret since Brown openly dated women as he was and still is I believe separated from wife Blanche, she got a big boost for any political ambitions.  It is unseemly, but even if she had never had a romantic relationship with Brown, it would still be disqualifying for national office.

Maybe Brown is trying to let down Harris's fans easily by telling them in a roundabout way she has not been selected by Biden.  Maybe he told Biden in so many words that he didn't want to be a political football.  Whatever the reason, Harris should never be considered for running mate.

The Hill:  link

Willie Brown's column:  link