Lest we forget, National Review’s Jeffrey Blehar recounts the ordeal of Alex Padilla in Blehar’s weekly Carnival of Fools column. He has filed this week’s column under the heading “Wail of the Israel haters.” In the second part of his column he turns to “Alex Padilla, Forgotten Man” (links omitted):
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In tales of the overtaken-by-events, last Thursday California Senator Alex Padilla (D. — like you had to ask) was for once the subject of national news when he got the bum’s rush out of a press conference held by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in downtown Los Angeles. And if your first thought was “Alex who?” then don’t worry, he clearly felt the need to identify himself as well: “Hands off! Hands off! I’m a senator! Alex Padilla! I have! Questions! For the secretary!” the shabbily dressed man huffed as he rushed forward without warning toward Noem. Noem’s security detail, with admirable professionalism, wordlessly pushed him back out of the room and into the hall, where they got him on the floor and cuffed him.
It was the big PR moment Padilla was hoping for. He was a martyr for the cause of the undocumented. The New York Times and other outlets wrote glowing profiles. Cable news talking heads were running with the “scandal” — violating the august dignity of a senator, and a Latino at that! — in lead segments at the top of the hour. For once, everything was comin’ up Alex.
And then Israel began pounding Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, a psychopath went on a politically motivated assassination spree in Minnesota, and everybody instantly moved on, sweeping Padilla back into the well-deserved obscurity whence he came. ’Tis to laugh, especially at a moment when laughs are hard to come by. Such a well-engineered publicity stunt, with such hard work put in — Padilla made sure to have his staffers accompany him to film the pre-planned “arrest” he was seeking — and all for naught.
Unless you live in California — and quite possibly even if you do — this guy simply didn’t exist for you. “Generic (D.)” has to have a human embodiment, I guess, especially since Gary Peters retired — again, who? — in part because his name and affect are so unprepossessing; “Alex Padilla” is to California Latinos as “Gary Peters” is to white union-loving Michiganders. Alex Padilla currently sits at third on my own mental depth-chart of Padillas, behind surprisingly durable journeyman pitcher Vicente and failed dirty-bomber Jose….
Whole thing here.
