Re “Is Armenta Dividing by Race”
While it remains unclear a fortnight before the special election on Dec. 3 whether Los Angeles City Councilman Bernard C. Parks could pick out state Assembly candidate Chris Armenta in a crowd of two, the intriguing question of why – when the answer is obvious – was unintentionally comically answered this morning by Mr. Parks’s son.
[img]2274|right|Bernard Parks||no_popup[/img]Filling the role of stalking horse for his entirely capable father, who operates in a lower, far more restrained key, Bernard Parks Jr., longtime deputy to his father, initially roared with the raggedy, ill-founded temper that sometimes dogs members of his age-group. When speaking publicly, they confuse the appropriate order of thinking and acting.
Sounding as if he were trying to escape a Republican terrorist attack by rhetorically scaling a quivering four-story wall with only his less dexterous arm, Mr. Parks Jr. opened his monologue indelicately. He screeched along unimpeded for awhile before either running out of gas or realizing the folly of his merit-lacking gaffe.
For the Record
There is not a political junkie breathing in Culver City or Los Angeles who doubts that Mr. Parks is making robocalls for his would-be pal Mr. Armenta for one reason:
Mark Ridley-Thomas, the father of Mr. Armenta’s opponent, Sebastian Ridley-Thomas, handily defeated Mr. Parks five autumns ago in a prickly race for County Supervisor. Sour feelings between the two have not evaporated. “It appears as though Mr. Armenta adheres to the ancient proverb, ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend,’” a source told the newspaper.
Here is a rich slice of irony: In the County Supervisor’s race, Mr, Armenta endorsed Mark Ridley-Thomas over the father of Mr. Parks Jr.
In the present uncomfortable situation, Mr. Parks. Jr. seems to have been charged with the unwelcome task of pretending to be a meteorologist. This morning he tried to throw up a blanket of repellent fog around his father and his father’s most rudimentary motive making the4 robocalls while hoping, with a straight face, to discourage truth-seeking inquisitors.
Utilizing his left and right hands simultaneously, Mr. Parks Jr. raised his voice to such a pitch that he nearly obviated the need for further employing Mr. Bell’s clever invention.
His tortured rhetoric made him sound like the slightly challenged East Coast gentleman of dubious morality who invented Obamacare.
Oh, how he bellowed, forgetting for several moments that he no longer was standing in front of a mirror, that there was a person on the far end of the telephone wire.
He managed to say, amidst the thunder bursts, that Mr. Armenta approached his father for his endorsement, a logical enough move. But the blowup by Mr. Parks Jr. cemented the notion that the Councilman assented for a single reason – not because he admires the car Mr. Armenta drives.
Emulating the latest jet creation, the screaming, piercing, untethered howling of Mr. Parks Jr. flew through the morning clouds. The foamy substances, not to be confused with the crisscrossing logic, were threatening to crash beneath the crush of his contorting invectives.
So angry was Mr. Parks Jr. that even not-nice words, rarely uttered by nice people, creeped into his billowing bellowing.
“And you can print that,” he said.
We are not for two reasons:
• Profanity is not permitted in these pages.
• Mr. Parks Jr. should be spared the embarrassment of displaying his temper on a journalistic laundry line.
By the end of our temperamental roller-coaster ride, Mr. Parks Jr. had returned to earth, even uttering a string of good-natured chuckles.
Meanwhile, his father’s robocalls against the strongly favored son of his Board of Supes rival from 2008 continue unabated.
