Was it just us or was it a bit ironic that Assembly Speaker Karen Bass rescinded pay raises for more than 120 Assembly aides on Wednesday in front a sign that said "Greening the Capitol"?
(Her Earth Day press conference was originally scheduled to tout AB 1327, which would create a State Capitol Sustainability Task Force to improve sustainability practices under the dome. But the topic-du-jour overtook the planned event.)
Watch the video of the event and read Bass' full remarks -- and pity the rank-and-file lawmakers fidgeting in the background of the TV shot.
Bass is hardly the only legislative leader under fire these days. Kevin Yamamura reports that Shawn Steel, a former California Republican Party chairman and one of two representatives to the Republican National Committee, is calling on Assembly GOP leader Mike Villines to resign.
"It's embarrassing having a Republican supporting one of the biggest tax increases in American history on a state level," said Steel.
JERRY BROWN GOES CHIC: Two days after San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom launched his gubernatorial campaign by announcing to the net roots on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, would-be gubernatorial candidate and former Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown will be out celebrating a chic urban revitalization project in his city.
Back when Brown was the new generation governor that Newsom hopes to be, he drove a dumpy, state-issued Plymouth and lived in an apartment across from the Capitol.
Now as he ponders a gubernatorial encore as a 71-year-old political sage, Brown will be appearing early Thursday evening at a posh new Oakland development billed as "A Connoisseur's Address."
Along with former Senate President Pro-Tem and other Oakland political and civic luminaries, Brown will salute the opening of The Ellington, a Bay view condominium building at Jack London Square that stands as a crown jewel in his push to bring new housing to Oakland.
SCHWARZENEGGER: The governor this morning will attend the Bay Area Council's 2009 Outlook Conference and talk about the measures on the May 19 ballot.
In the evening, he will be at his Brentwood home for the first of two events with donors who give his ballot measure account at least $100,000.
CARD CHECK: SB 789 -- California's version of the controversial card-check proposal, is scheduled for a vote on the Senate floor this morning.
Shane Goldmacher contributed to this report.
Photo: Assembly Speaker Karen Bass leaves a press conference after she said she would rescind pay raises she granted to more than 120 Assembly aides in midst of the state's fiscal crisis on Wednesday, April 22, 2009. Credit: Hector Amezcua
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