Go back to Words & Wit pageSAN FRANCISCO -- Assembly Speaker Willie Brown has canceled his hitherto secret trip to South Africa. No, but seriously. He was scheduled to leave Saturday for Johannesburg to check in with Nelson Mandela, "but I don't want people to think I'm job hunting,'' he jokes. Seriously: "I'm sticking around till this speakership thing is settled." As part of Tuesday's fallout, the Assembly is now dead even -- 40 Democrats, 40 Republicans -- and if the latter can come up with one more lousy vote, Willie Brown's wild 14-year ride as speaker is over. There go the perks, including the 24-hour car and driver.
If this awful possibility comes to pass, the next speaker probably will be Republican Jim Brulte of Rancho Cucamonga in Southern Cal, otherwise known as "Big Kook From Kookamonga." Brulte stands 6-foot-5 and weighs about 300 pounds. "We'll have another Big Daddy," says Willie, a reference to the legendary Speaker Jess Unruh, who goes into the history books for saying about lobbyists that "if you can't drink their booze, eat their food, screw their wives and still vote against 'em, you don't belong in Sacramento."
By the way, Willie's trip to Johannesburg would have been his first visit to the African continent. Up to now, his longest trip has been to Wilkes Bashford for alterations.
"HERB,'' SAID the lame-duck president of the Board of Supervisors, "I'm with you people on the picket line. I'll be down there any minute to march." Thus purred Angela Alioto on Monday in her throaty and undeniably sexy Sicilian-American voice, before she finally showed up on Wednesday. In her defense, however, she has a lot on her mind. Angela has been subpoenaed to appear at the trial of her one-time boyfriend, the dashingly dubious Peter Rowland, on various charges involving the bilking of gullible souls. The trial was supposed to start Nov. 7 but has been postponed to Nov. 21, appropriately closer to Turkey Day. At first, Angela tried to have the subpoena quashed -- "They want to use me for a circus" -- but now she's burning to testify. "I just pray he doesn't get off the hook in a plea bargain," she says. "Peter Rowland is a menace to society and should be put away for a long time."
WILL HER relationship with Rowland be a detriment when Angela runs for mayor? That's the silly word being spread by her detractors, but did Gennifer Flowers stop Bill Clinton? Rowland's best friend these days, incidentally, appears to be the notorious prankster, political consultant Jack Davis. The very definition of a--hole buddies.
ABOUT TUESDAY'S elections: Once again, the rest of the country was out of step with San Francisco, and once again I am proud of the old town. S.F. voted right by staying left, whereas the U.S.-minus-S.F. voted wrong by voting right. Pundits and pollsters describe Tuesday's Democratic debit as a debacle, but it wasn't all bad. Huffington, the doppelganger of the gorgeous Greek, blew $25 million, and Dianne Feinstein lost about 500 pounds of hubris. A humble Dianne is something to see, and now we've seen it. The really creepy thing nationally is that creepy Sen. Alfonse D'Amato of N.Y. moves from the ethics committee to chairman of the banking committee. As Calvin Trillin once versified: "Here's what could drive a man to drink,/ To drink till he's wholly blotto:/ The thought that he is being judged/ On ethics by Alfonse D'Amato."
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