Harris Makes Major Announcement!!

Anthony Pignataro:

This just in: Dateline, Los Angeles: Flash! Attorney General-elect Kamala Harris has just announced that she has a bi-partisan transistion team that includes William Bratton, Warren Christopher, George Shultz and Constance Rice!

Sigh.

I can’t believe I just lost a half hour of my life listening in on Harris’ press conference at the Millennium Biltmore in L.A. Harris was to give a “major announcement,” but I’ll be damned if I can find even a minor piece of news in my notes from the 30-minute event.

“I’m humbled to be chosen the next Attorney General,” Harris said (she referred to herself as “the next Attorney General” a number of times during the event). That got big applause, but her promise to “make sure the laws of the state are on the side of the people of the state” got only a smattering of clapping.

“One does not have to run from their convictions when they run for office,” she said, though what those convictions are is anyone’s guess. She also rejected “false choices” and promised to be “tough, but smart” on crime. She wants to take on predatory lenders “with vigor” and “do what Jerry Brown has started.” She said she’s following a path first laid down by former Alameda County District Attorney Earl Warren (of Japanese internment during World War II fame).

Harris opposes early releases of inmates, but offered no specifics on how to deal with overcrowded prisons except that we need to “fix the broken system.” She called the global warming legislation AB 32 “a very, very important piece of legislation” and very astutely noted that “we have 58 counties, and most are not San Francisco and Los Angeles.” Harris also promised to “do the work that can be done.”

Do the work that can be done? Sounds more like a disclaimer than an announcement.

NOV. 30, 2010