[Commentary]

Eat your heart out, Kwame.

You won’t see this in Detroit: A mob of people swarming the mayor, acting like he’s some rock star.

Like Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa had an affair and survived, though his marriage didn’t. What’s the difference?

Continued –  Well, nobody’s charged him with perjury, for one.
For another, the guy ACTS like a rock star. I got so close to Villaraigosa on Saturday afternoon, July 19, that I could have reached out and touched him. I could have spoken to him, too, except that even in the City of Angels not everyone is happy with hizzoner. A group of student dissidents pissed him off with some questions, and suddenly he turned and very quickly left.

What was I doing near the mayor of L.A.?

My son Adam is a Michigander transplanted to L.A. Loves the place. Went to college in Whittier. His girlfriend, Alysha del Valle, is — I’m not making this up — a fellow journalist, graduate of the University of Southern California with a talk radio program on 96.3 FM and a cable TV show here in L.A. Her dad went to high school with the mayor, who was not, of course, the mayor then. Villaraigosa was a torrential talker with a big dose of charisma even back in the day. He went on to be speaker of the California House of Representatives and now is mayor of the town that gives meaning to the word “sprawl.”

Saturday was the mayor’s volunteer day. The Mayor’s Day of Service. Villaraigosa and 5,000 other Angelenos went out to work city projects like street cleaning, projects where hands were needed to move things along. Alysha was a volunteer, too. She was emcee to the speakers — including the mayor — who addressed the crowd of volunteers when they came downtown for a lunch at the Los Angeles City College.

Man, this guy does have charisma. What a talker. Such gusto. He has an aura. Compact, handsome in a rugged way, he seemed totally in control. Even when the students pissed him off, it was not evident to an outsider like me. I got the skinny on it later from Alysha, who’s known Villaraigosa all her life.

The dissidents were one or two people. They soured him, but failed to throw him off stride.

It was evident in every way this guy is a great politician. Very popular.

I watched and all the time kept thinking about Detroit, Kwamegate, a mayor charged with perjury, with lying about an affair under oath in an alleged attempt to obstruct a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against the city and himself.

That’s the difference. Villaraigosa’s affair was outed, but he moved on. Sad to say, his marriage fell apart. But he didn’t have a newspaper slamming him every day, a prosecutor rightfully investigating and charging him, a trial pending to determine if he’s guilty and a City Council bent on ousting him even before the jury decides.

The sun shone bright on the mayor of Los Angeles Saturday afternoon. His brush with a handful of protesters was like gnats annoying a lion compared to the self-inflicted troubles Kwame faces.

As I watched the tight knot of people all wanting to get close to hizzoner, I thought of Kwame, who’s been booed at public appearances.

Perception drives reality. How you’re treated depends on how you’re seen. And how you behave. Are you credible? Do you blame your troubles on racism? Claim someone else, some unknown author specializing in fictional text messages, wrote the love letters that appear to be correspondence with your chief of staff?

One gets the rock star treatment.

The other gets treated like a skunk.

Contact me at joelthurtell(at)gmail.com