Who would have thought that Antonio Villaraigosa’s libido would be at the center of a $3 billion real estate development and it is illustrating exactly how clouded his judgment is.

After getting caught in his affair with Mirthala Salinas, most serious politicians would have called it off. Not Antonio and he refers to the woman who he has been cheating with as the “relationship.” His wife might have (just) filed for divorce but he is still married in the eyes of many voters.

And he doesn’t cheat with just any woman, but he picks one who reports on him and is part of a major, major media conglomerate. Even Clinton was smart enough to sleep with interns and trailer trash and certainly never got involved with them.

If that wasn’t bad enough, he appears to be throwing his weight around on what NBC/Telemundo does with his girlfriend being quoted that he expects that she will be vindicated. (Is that a threat?) Shouldn’t he either be silent or say that he hopes she is, or better yet state that an internal employment issue is none of his business?

Finally, his girlfriend’s employer is working on a $3 billion development that will involve Villaraigosa’s city hall in all sorts of ways. Isn’t there an ethical breach when personal interests intersect with government business? Of course there is, but Villaraigosa playing it more like a lawyer than like a savvy politician in touch with his constituents. In fact it’s amazing that Villaraigosa would put himself in a position where NBC has to consider the impact on its real estate interests on how it handles an internal ethical breach by one of its employees. Similarly, the good people who live around Universal City have to wonder what is more important to Villaraigosa, the quality of their lives or the interests of his adulterous girlfriend? Given Antonio’s track record as of late, I wouldn’t be feeling too good if I lived within gridlock distance of Universal City.

From the Times:

Although Telemundo executives hold the key to the career of Salinas, now the subject of an internal investigation into whether she compromised the company’s journalistic mission, Villaraigosa holds his own considerable power over NBC Universal. The entertainment conglomerate will very likely need Villaraigosa’s help to navigate the city’s approval process as it spends the next year pushing its Universal City Vision Plan, a concept the mayor embraced seven months ago.

It turns out the rule deals with spouses but not women with whom you are cheating on your spouse. The intent of the rule is clear but so far it appears that Villaraigosa is going to use one ethical breach (adultery) to get around another ethical breach (conflict of interest).

Again, the Times:

Politicians in California are required to recuse themselves from acting on issues where they or their spouses have a significant financial interest. The situation involving Villaraigosa raises a far less typical question: Should a politician recuse himself from an issue involving a woman who is not his wife?

I have a hard time believing that the authors of those rules intentionally omitted adulterous affairs from the conflict of interest as much as couldn’t comprehend that it would actually happen. Saying it’s not a conflict because the woman who is sharing his bed is not his spouse is beyond Clintonesqe. But in a world where everyday we learn another hero is actually a cheater (or a dog killer) perhaps this is now the state of things.

Sad day for Los Angeles.

Steve Lopez we need you right now.

villaraigosa mirthala salinas

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 26th, 2007 at 10:17 pm by Insider and is filed under California Schemin'. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.