The Implosion of Rocky Delgadillo

Rocky goes down (0.00 / 0)

in a slow, painful publicly humiliating way.

You would think an attorney would be smarter than that. And, if you're wife is on the lam from the law, you don't go spouting off about Paris in the clinker.

He needs to resign. Now. His wife needs to be in jail. Now.

I'm so tired of this bullshit from people who should know better...of people we elect to DO better.

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by: cookiejill @ Sat Jun 23, 2007 at 16:34:58 PM UTC

That's likely why he spouted off about Paris (0.00 / 0)

To deflect attention from his own looming crisis.

You can check out any time you like but you can never leave

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by: Robert Cruickshank @ Sat Jun 23, 2007 at 16:36:43 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

It was dumb, but!! (0.00 / 0)

Rocky has been talked about as a possible candidate for higher office in next year election and the LA Times is for his opponent.  Believe me, if having a staffmember run personal errands for an elected official was that big a deal, they would have trouble getting a caucus together in Sacramento or on the LA City Council.  The difference is that staff usually likes the elected enough that they don't say anything and every once in a while, someone is pissed off at their boss and the local paper is gunning for them and a story comes out which costs the politician a few votes in their next campaign.  But overall, the large majority of voters don't care.

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by: doughnut70 @ Sat Jun 23, 2007 at 19:06:41 PM UTC

It IS a big deal (0.00 / 0)

apparently he feels that his family is above the law.

He should have known better. He and his idiot wife should have done something about it before now.

And, the fact that people assume that "the large majority of voters don't care" is a sad statement on the state of our politics.

We need to be better. We need to DEMAND better.

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by: cookiejill @ Sat Jun 23, 2007 at 20:24:46 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

agreed (0.00 / 0)

It's a misuse of government resources, and people do care about that. If you need help juggling your personal life, hire a personal assistant.

Plus, it looks really bad. It doesn't just give a perception of impropriety; it's inappropriate. Period.

If my boss wanted me to use MY vacation to run errands for him, I'd be inclined to tell him where he could put those errands...unless, of course, I wanted to keep my job.

That's just flat out wrong to ask that of your employees.

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by: tface1000 @ Sat Jun 23, 2007 at 23:54:32 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

We should be thankful that Jerry beat Rocky (0.00 / 0)

  It would be a whole lot worse if Rocky were now AG and had to resign; then we would have a Kevin Shelley situation where Ahhnold would get to appoint a GOP Attorney General. I don't know if Rocky will have to resign over all this, but it is clear that his career in elective office is over. He will never be elected LA District Attorney or anything else. Maybe if we had elected dogcatchers in California...

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by: Zack from the SFV @ Sat Jun 23, 2007 at 19:50:12 PM UTC

I don't know where I stand... (0.00 / 0)

I voted for Rocky in the primaries. I voted for Pooch in the general, because while Jerry might be better than Pooch on the issues, he's not better on integrity and respect for the law (particularly the crime element, which should be the first responsibility of the AG). The AG isn't about who I personally agree with more, it's about who will enforce our laws best

I'm not sure if I'm glad now that Jerry is Attorney General over Rocky. I had hoped that Jerry was going to get thrown out for being legally ineligible.

Well, I had hoped Rocky would challenge him in 2010, but I guess I'll have to hope for another Democrat.

The Silent Consensus

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by: thelibertariandemocrat (VF2005) @ Sun Jun 24, 2007 at 01:44:43 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Delgadillo's wife (0.00 / 0)

Is a very bright lady who used to be a staffer for Joel Wachs.  As for his chances against Steve Cooley, this clearly doesn't help him and maybe even when combined with everything else eliminates him, but it is still early and I am sure there will be a lot of back and forth in the next few months.

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by: doughnut70 @ Sat Jun 23, 2007 at 21:12:07 PM UTC

I saw this coming (0.00 / 0)

the day of the Paris Hilton flap...as soon as I saw Rocky acting all outraged and vowing to set things "right" I knew his career was over.

He has never understood how to play the political game....

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by: jaysunb @ Sun Jun 24, 2007 at 01:15:28 AM UTC

A Celebutaunte-Backed Political Hit? (0.00 / 0)

One thing that bothered me in this is that the part about Rocky's wife driving without a license happened something like ten years ago.  I think it was before they were even married (or something to that effect).

While I can see how it applies to tapestry of the Paris Hilton mess, what is the statute of limitations on political spouses' behavior?

Should a minimal threshold be that the charges happened when they were actually married?

The combined charges don't sound good - that's for sure.

Stepping back, you list five things:  No insurance, no license, a fender bender in a city car, the babysitting thing, and the taxes issue...

The first couple are Rocky's wife's problems, not Rocky's.  Even more because it happened before they were even married.

Rocky has admitted a mistake on letting his wife drive his city car, and forked out the money for the damages himself.  Should it have been done faster?  Probably.  Should she have been driving the car?  Of course not.

With the things you see from our fine elected officials - from freezers full of cash to wars based on lies to the American people - I am not sure the "car issue" alone is worth ending Rocky's career.

It was a dumb mistake, and one that Rocky and his team best make certain to never let happen again.

Whoever commented about a caucus of elected officials whose staffers run errands is right.  Just as political appointees are entitled to (and frequently do) take personal time (at will) to conduct political business, they are also allowed to babysit, get the dry cleaning, or otherwise serve the needs of their boss.

They should not be forced to.  But I challenge anyone here who has worked for politicians to deny that staffers do it all the time.  Maybe it's an upwardly motivated move.  Maybe it's simply because they get caught up in the personality cult of their respective bosses.  Sometimes they are just helpful people.

Whatever it is, people do it all the time.  As long as they do it by the book, and are not getting paid with taxpayer dollars while they run these personal errands...it's their personal time.

I can't say anything about the taxes story, because I don't know the first thing about it.  I had a bunch of five year olds to keep out of my in-laws' pool (my son's birthday).  Thanks for the link, Brian.  I look forward to learning what's there.

Like Brian, I think it's too bad that this happening.

I have done a little, little amount of work for Rocky - and can't say I know him at all.  My contact was strictly with campaign staffers.  I've only met him at the usual Dem events, and he made a positive impression.  He seemed to me like a dedicated public servant with a good story of pulling himself up from less than optimal circumstances to make something out of his life.  An admirable story for a lot of kids in L.A. to look up to.

Everyone makes dumb mistakes.  Absent malice or pervasive repetition of the mistake, I think we need to be careful what we take down duly-elected officials over.  Especially if they cop to it, and try and make it right.

I can't remember where it was, but I ran into him shortly after Paris was picked up for breaking her parole.  I told him to throw the book at her.  He laughed, shook his head and said he was going to go by the book.  I'm sure he didn't think his involvement in that circus would lead to where he is today.

Which brings me to the tinfoil hat segment:

Does anyone besides me have a lurking suspicion that this could be an oppo dump from the Hilton's army of PR people?  I've got no proof of course, but the conspiracy theorist in me certainly sees means and motive for them to put out a hit on Rocky's career.

Or is it someone else?  People out there saw Rocky as a potential Mayoral candidate.  Perhaps someone is getting an early start on the race to succeed Antonio.

I hope all the stories emerge and turn out to be innocent mistakes.

FULL DISCLOSURE:  As I said above, I have done limited work for City Attorney Delgadillo in the past.  Just thought I should be clear about that and mention it again.  It was a few weeks worth of work in the 2006 election.  I'm not some lifer or anything.  He's not even my elected official - as I live in Glendale.  Does that lead me to favor him in all this?  Maybe a little.  Mostly I'm just trying to give the guy the benefit of the doubt anyone deserves for doing something dumb but not malicious.

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by: JeremyDThompson @ Sun Jun 24, 2007 at 04:56:00 AM UTC

Hey, I respect where you're coming from (0.00 / 0)

I understand that stuff, but a few corrections. First, Rocky himself drove without insurance for a period of about 18 months. It's a crime, not exactly murder or stashing $90K in your freezer, but you know, still not cool.

I've really got nothing against the guy. I agree that when it rains it pours, but who knows, y'kow. What qualifies as a smoking gun? I have no clue

I think?

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by: Brian Leubitz @ Sun Jun 24, 2007 at 08:06:01 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Rocky (0.00 / 0)

Some posters seem to be apologizing for this character.  Let's face the fact that the Hilton idiot is serving extra time so Rocky might get more votes in the next election.  She shouldn't serve extra time to serve this clown's career.  He deserves to get caught in his own petard.  JG

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by: glynnj @ Mon Jun 25, 2007 at 21:24:31 PM UTC