More grief for Dellums

According to the EBX's Will Harper, Tony West will not join Dellums' staff. I revealed that Mr. West was in line to be chief-of-staff in November. While apparently that's not the case, Harper says that insiders thought West was going to be a high-ranking staffer, so the reader knows that my sources aren't making things up. In the same blog, I also reported that several sources say Deborah Edgerly is remaining City Administrator; her attendance at Dellums' inaguration confirms this. Interestingly, a Berkeley public-schools activist (and occasional Berkeley Daily Planet contributor) named Dan Lindheim was also there.

Dellums' protege Barbara Lee assumes a post on the House Appropriations Committee today. She now has a chance to do something productive for Oakland, for the very first time in her eight years as our representative. Perhaps Dellums' presence in Oakland will make her more concerned about her district than impressing the Congressional Black Caucus.

A op-ed in today's Chronicle, written by Oakland education professor Kimberly Mayfield, reminds Oaklanders of the bogus story of Dellums' election. Conveniently characterizing our former representative's narrowest of victories as "formidable," she recalls the "grassroots" effort of the petition drive. As many Oaklanders may remember, the petition drive was organized by the city employees' union, who did not attempt to hide that fact (they were wearing their purple union shirts at every event where they trolled for signatures), which is pretty far from a grassroots group. They are being rewarded with half-price tickets to Dellums' most fancy inaugural events, of course. Since the anti-Oak-to-Ninth groups were able to raise about 25,000 signatures in one month, 8000 signatures over three months now looks pretty poor. Ms. Mayfield is joined by Kitty Kelly Epstein in Holy Names University's education department and as a Dellums activist; Ms. Epstein is local blogger Deckin's bete noire. Why does an education degree always seem to be in the hands of socialists? There are these two, and, of course, Ms. Aimee Allison.

Finally, national hip-hop culture blog PlayaHata criticizes Dellums for missing his first day of work, comparing him to Ice Cube's character in Friday.