Bass takes Assembly reins as California's first female African American speaker

Karen Bass laughed Tuesday when asked minutes after becoming Assembly speaker how long she expects the honeymoon to last.

She glanced at her watch.

"I think it's probably about over," Bass said.

She hardly will have time to catch her breath before Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger releases a revised state budget proposal today, formally launching what is expected to be a bitter fight.

But Tuesday was a time for the Los Angeles Democrat to revel in the spotlight, becoming the first African American woman in the nation's history to lead a legislative house.

"Someone said the other day, 'Isn't she lucky?' " Schwarzenegger told the gathering in the Assembly chambers. "I said this has absolutely nothing to do with luck at all. She earned it – the old-fashioned way."

Bass was given the oath of office by outgoing Speaker Fabian Núñez in a 90-minute ceremony attended by scores of politicians and spectators, including a busload of Los Angeles supporters who left home at 2 a.m. to attend the noon festivities.

Five former Assembly speakers were on hand: Willie Brown, Antonio Villaraigosa, Cruz Bustamante, Herb Wesson Jr. and Robert T. Monagan.

Bass, in her acceptance speech, urged lawmakers to toss aside partisanship and "harness the power of our common humanity" to ease financial hardship.

"The combination of economic recession, the mortgage meltdown and skyrocketing prices for food and fuel are having the same destructive force as an earthquake or fire," said Bass, 54.

She described California as a massive but ailing economic giant that revolutionized personal computers so that "you can find anything you could possibly want on Google – and when you get tired of it, you can turn around and sell it on eBay."

"Members, we have to respond to the current economic crisis the same way we would a natural disaster," Bass said. "We have to toss aside the boxes we put ourselves in, and the labels we place on others, and come together to get the job done."

Bass said she plans to create a bipartisan commission to evaluate whether the state's tax system, created in the 1930s, needs restructuring to "find ways to prevent California from cycling through crisis after crisis after crisis."

Democrats applauded her tax comments – Republicans did not.

Schwarzenegger said he realized how extraordinary Bass is by comments she had made in a recent interview that she would sacrifice anything to buy just one more day with Emilia, her 23-year-old daughter who died two years ago in a car accident.

The ceremony had lighter moments, too.

Assembly Republican leader Mike Villines joked about the message sent by Bass' attire.

"I knew it's a new day when I saw that red power suit come out," he said.

Noting that Bass distributed leaflets for Bobby Kennedy decades ago, Schwarzenegger joked that he shares a common bond with her.

"Both of us were told by Kennedys what to do," he quipped.

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