The Arrogance Of Ted Lieu

With a week to go before the general election, it looks like California Democratic state representative Ted Lieu will win the U.S. House seat of retiring Congressman Henry Waxman. Recent polls show he has a 17 point lead over Republican candidate Elan Carr. With a congressional district that draws heavily from the limousine liberals of the Westside and beach communities, the outcome of this campaign isn't really a surprise.

However Ted's arrogance during this election cycle is especially annoying. He has already dismissed Mr. Carr as a viable opponent. He has already met with Congressional insiders in Washington to discuss his role after the election. He is already talking about this seat as if it is a lifetime appointment. He tells the newspaper that he told his wife, "If we win in November, my first priority is to live as long as I can. Congress is like the military--it's just pure seniority." So Ted not only has brushed off the candidacy of Mr. Carr, he has already carved his name into his presumed office door on Capitol Hill.  He is so audacious that he doesn't for a second believe there could be another candidate who could successfully vie for the Congressional seat, maybe as early as 2016.

You would think that since Ted is having such an easy time cruising toward his victory party he would be more bold and daring with his ideas. But once again, he proves to us how vacuous his so called leadership will be when he ascends to the Hill. He has already parroted Mr. Waxman's position that his number one priority will be passing environmental laws, particularly cap and trade legislation to decrease emission of greenhouse gases.

Really Ted? You think that's what your constituents in Los Angeles are most worried about? What are you going to do about illegal immigrants flooding our borders and using up our limited resources in schools and hospitals? How do you plan to make healthcare affordable when Obamacare subsidies begin to dry up? What should the U.S. do about Ebola? ISIS? Russia? How do you plan to raise the standard of living of thousands of your constituents without using the job killing gimmick of raising the minimum wage? Are you going to keep pushing for a bullet train to nowhere even though most Californians now oppose its construction now that we have realized what a white elephant Gov. Jerry Brown's pet project has become? How are you going to fix the public pension crisis that is bankrupting cities all over California? There are so many issues that are of more immediate concern to the average voter yet he professes he will go to the Hill and legislate climate change. What an out of touch Democratic idiot.

It's too bad Mr. Carr declined to be interviewed by the local newspaper because it has decided to endorse Ted. If only voters knew more about him, I think his mature leadership as a former prosecutor would have given people a clear choice about who to vote for. It seems that the more we know about Ted, the more diminished he becomes.

Madison Bumgarner's Racist Move

Madison Bumgarner is
a. The San Francisco Giant's ace starting pitcher
b. A binge drinking alcoholic
c. A racist?

Anybody who was watching the first game of the National League Championship Series in St. Louis last weekend will surely remember the seventh inning. At a crucial juncture of the game, St. Louis Cardinal Kolten Wong hit a short ball into the infield. Bumgarner then received the ball from the first baseman and raced down Wong to first base to tag him out. But instead of the usual tap with his glove, Madbum practically body checked Wong and pushed him off his running path. It looked more like a football tackle than a baseball tag. The move was so flagrant that the Cardinals's coach asked for a review by the umpires, who inexplicably confirmed the out despite the interference with the base runner.

I can't help but wonder if Madbum pulled this stunt because he is a huge hulking white guy who thought he could get away with pushing around a smaller Asian American player. Bumgarner is 6 foot 5 inches tall and weighs 235 pounds according to his bio on MLB. By comparison Wong is a relatively diminutive 5' 9" and 185 lb. Would Bumgarner have contemplated pulling the same stunt against somebody like the Cardinals's first baseman Matt Adams, who is 6' 3" and 260 lb? I bet he wouldn't dare. Adams would probably have body checked him right back and sent him sprawling back to the pitcher's mound before allowing somebody as uncouth as Bumgarner, not to mention dishonest, to push him around like that.

But Wong didn't do himself any favors by meekly accepting the ump's bad call. In the usual Asian American fashion, he quietly accepted their verdict without so much as a protest, thereby confirming to everybody that he too thought he was out instead of being illegally shoved aside. Again I bet Matt Adams wouldn't have been so agreeable when somebody so obviously attacks you like that during play.

Of course Kolten was the hero the next day in Game 2 of the NLCS when he hit the game winning home run in the top of the 9th inning. Maybe it's just karma that helped him deliver that powerful swing to tie the series. Go Kolten!