U.S. Rep. Karen Bass (D-Culver City), our favorite hometown example of an empty vessel, played her Gotcha game one more time Wednesday night at the monthly meeting of the Culver City Democratic Club.
We were promised she would assess the Obama presidency.
She didn’t even take a fake swing at it.
Instead, she gave a meaningless, frothy glossover. She should have worn a mask and used a phony name.
We were cheated.
Her shallow, hackneyed sentiments could have been directly lifted from the morning newspapers or a talk show on MSNBC.
What do you think, Ms. Bass?
Silence.
It would have been more productive if members of the audience had stared at each other for 20 minutes in a noiseless room.
Fifty-eight years old, she is as intimidated in and by Washington as she was in Sacramento.
Devoid of insight or mature perspective, she rattled on like a frightened schoolgirl incapable of sizing up an amoeba.
She possesses excellent public speaking skills. Her matching personality fairly sparkles. But when Ms. Bass opens her mouth, only recycled blather pours out.
Her punchline criticism of Republicans is du jour. No problem. But what about the guys in charge, your guys?
I was looking for sober evaluations of President Obama’s policies — those he has passed and those he is trying to pass. She did not bother, perhaps because she lacks both a grasp and a viewpoint.
The dumbest person in the room at the Senior Center did not learn anything from her.
Let us begin with the proposition that not only is Ms. Bass not a scholar — I am not, either — she is not a student, a far more egregious sin.
However, because willfully blind voters keep electing her, first to the state legislature and now to Congress, the old girl is guaranteed lifetime employment.
As long as the useless Ms. Bass is in office, Culver City should stuff its hands in its pockets, whistle a happy tune and stare at the sky.
Her presence is a guarantee nothing will happen. History tells us so. First elected in 2004, she could have spent the last eight years perched on a cracker barrel in a neighborhood market, noshing on Twinkies, and accomplished exactly what she has by going to work,