U.S. Rep. Karen Bass (D-Culver City), whose golden political career started in the stratosphere six years ago and steadily has soared, was sworn into Congress yesterday in a show strictly for the hometown crowd four weeks after being officially was inducted in Washington.
And what a crowd it was. In an auditorium listed for a capacity of 627, the well-dressed invited guests spilled far beyond the lush red stadium-style seats. They steeply lined both side walls and the rear, even streaming out the door, where closed-circuit viewing was provided in a chilled setting. The final audience count probably was 1,000.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco administered the oath to Ms. Bass after Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa set the stage for the main event by repeatedly calling her “my sister.” He only referred to her, jointly, by her first and last names.
“I have known Karen Bass for 37 years, and when I call her ‘my sister,’ I am not just being cool,” the Mayor. “There are so many people here today because Karen Bass never has forgotten where she came from.
“In those 37 years, I have learned she has the courage of her convictions.
“I have watcher her grow. She was an Assembly member, she was the Speaker of the Assembly, and now she is a Congressperson. But she will tell you the best part of her life has been empowering and organizing others to fight for themselves. Karen Bass will tell you she believes in the power of people coming together in an organization.
“She understands that her role is that of a pied piper, a leader, a drum major. Her job is to work with others. We are here because we believe in Karen Bass.”
After noting that Ms. Bass is a former community organizer whose adult life before and during her political career has been trained exclusively on social/justice causes, Mr. Villaraigosa made a prediction. “In Washington,” he said, “she will stand up to those who want to undermine and destroy the (social) safety net under the mantra of reducing a deficit caused by three wars.”
Borrowing a concept from President Obama’s State of the Union talk last week, the Mayor pledged that Ms. Bass “will make the case for investing in America, for investing in working people.”
Hoping not to be scrubbed from the family portrait, Ms. Bass’s predecessor, the retired Congresswoman Diane Watson looked in the Mayor’s direction, creased her expression and cracked, “I am your other sister,” which brought a huge laugh from the lively audience.
In the spirit of elders reluctant to vacate the stage, Ms. Watson, whose appearance was intended to be a cameo, spoke as long as Ms. Bass, the star of the day.
Location Was Symbolically Chosen
On a rainy and partisan afternoon, the magnificently rehabilitated grounds of the grand old Ambassador Hotel and Coconut Grove, Greater Koreatown was the hot place to be.
Twenty-two years ago, the once classy hotel disappeared into bankruptcy, and later LAUSD controversially purchased the property. Luckily or otherwise, the reconstructed land has grown into an architectural, and possibly educational, showcase.
Six hundred million heavily criticized dollars later, a project once regarded as a boondoggle has been converted into a glamourous complex known as the Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools, spread across 24 impressively sculpted acres in an otherwise drab neighborhood.
Originally saddled with a dreary, doomed label that reflected the backwater neighborhood — the Central Los Angeles Learning Center No. 1 — the name change symbolized a near miraculous transformation once some bright fellow thought up a Kennedy link. After all, this is the historic place where he was assassinated during the 1968 Presidential campaign.
On the Agenda
To celebrate the 57-year-old Ms. Bass’s attainment of her political pinnacle, so far, both the entertainment and speechmaking were lavish and fast-paced. A number of students recited memorable passages from Bobby Kennedy’s speeches.
But they jammed so many people and stage productions into the 75 minutes that Ms. Bass was only shoehorned into the last 13 minutes of a program previously scheduled in a far more modest setting at 3400 Wilshire Blvd.
Her fast-tracked history is one of the most fascinating in Congress. Turning to politics at age 50, she is yet to be tested. She has won all four of her elections — the first three to Sacramento — by embarrassingly lopsided margins.
The most poignant moment was a fleeting but deeply touching one.
In thanking a raft of people, family and friends, for her mercurial advancement, she lingered ever so briefly.
“In 2008 when I was sworn in as Speaker of the Assembly, I said I wished my parents could have been there and shared this moment,” Ms. Bass said. “I have that same wish today.
“Even more than that, I wish Mike and Emilia could be here today,” she said, and the sympathetic crowd broke into applause. “I think about them all the time. I wonder where they would be in their lives by now, what they would have accomplished. I can’t answer those questions. But they are always with me, and thoughts of them help me get through each day.”
Tragically, her daughter and son-in-law, young marrieds, were killed in a one-car accident early one October morning on the 405 Freeway, mere days before Ms. Bass’s first re-election to the state Assembly.
There were almost as many stars in the auditorium as in the night-time sky.
City Manager John Nachbar and Vice Mayor Mehaul O’Leary represented Culver City, which brought out almost as many members as the Los Angeles City Council — Janice Hahn, Eric Garcetti and Paul Koretz. County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas and state Sen. Curren D. Price Jr. (D-Culver City were there along with three fellow women members of Congress, Laura Richardson (D-Long Beach), Judy Chu (D-Monterey Park) and Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles).
