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Connoisseur of Dirt: Ace Smith
Ace Smith hung up on me twice this week. And I was trying to help him. I wanted to put to rest the theory that this master of opposition research and trusted Antonio adviser might have somehow inspired the rash of anti-Rocky stories that broke last month. We all know Rocky has plenty of enemies and a phone-book size list of others who wouldn’t mind embarrassing him. So I certainly don’t blame Ace when he dismisses as “speculative shit” my June 25 post on this topic, “The Antonio-Rocky Show: Winners, losers, but who’s the producer?”
All that aside, it would be nice if Ace could answer 10 simple questions so we could move on to refocusing the mayor’s attention on solving the city’s more pressing problems of failing schools, killer air pollution, lost and forlorn youth and our ever deepening problems with traffic and a skeletal public transportation system that moves too few people. We need a mayor who commands respect and admiration and gets action in Washington, D.C. and Sacramento, not only in a Studio City bedroom. (Note to editorial writers at the L.A. Times: Send reinforcements, please. You’ve been silent now for 27 days since the mayor first announced the end of his marriage. Use your firepower and influence to restart the civic discourse on important themes, though you should implore the mayor to come clean on when his relationship started with First Lady wannabe Mirthala Salinas to see whether it helped the mayor win gushing coverage of his school takeover bill. Can you imagine the chorus of editorials if this were New York?)
And Ace, it’s not like I’m the only guy in town wondering whether trusted Antonio loyalists might be planting anti-Rocky stories to deflect attention from the mayor’s soap opera. Take a look at what Steve Lopez posted online the same day the Daily News’ Beth Barrett exposed secrets of the mayor’s love life.
Plus, there’s a deeper reason to wonder about the sources of the wave of Rocky stories. The heap of negative press about our city attorney prompted the L.A. Times to call for his resignation. It’s one thing if investigative reporters doing their jobs uncovered all of the questionable goings-on in Rocky’s shop and home as part of a full-blown, independent examination of that powerful office. Such inquiries are the heart and soul of a free press in America. But if Rocky’s rivals orchestrated the coverage behind-the-scenes, and Rocky is driven from office by a plot masterminded by nameless, faceless confidential sources with an axe to grind, that stinks.
It’s important for the public to know who wields power in this city, and who is trying to oust the city attorney. If for no other reason than to keep the newspaper and its reporters from being beholden to sources who gave them such a great batch of stories that did in an elected official. Down the line, will it lead to punches being pulled or otherwise dilute needed scrutiny if similiar tactics are employed during, say, a gubernatorial run by Antonio in 2010 or a mayoral re-election bid in two years? The public is best served when all the players and their roles are known and examined in the theater called City Hall. In other words, if the mayor, even indirectly, flings dirt, we want to know; if the mayor or anyone near him, helps bring down a political foe, the public must know. (Note to Rocky: Don’t consider this post a defense of your tenure.)
Before I get to the list of 10 questions, let me explain my history with Ace. He emailed me on June 25, the same day that the original post went up, and accused me of fabricating the line that I had tried to reach him for comment. I told him I’d called the mayor’s communication staff and left a message on a Sunday explaining the gist of my post and that I would like their help getting a response from Ace. I never heard back from the office or Ace. Ace called my response “one of the most embarrassingly weak explanations I have heard in the decades I have been doing this.” Hey, I can take criticism. I let Ace know I still wanted to interview him. But my emails and four phone calls over the next two days went unreturned. Finally, last Friday I emailed questions and gave him a deadline of 5 p.m. Monday to respond. I told him if he chose not to answer them, I would probably list the questions in my next post. Again, no response. On Tuesday afternoon, I called his cell phone to verify that he had received the questions and to see if he planned to answer them. “I don’t think I was dealt with honestly by you, so I have no intention.” He hung up. I waited five minutes before calling back. He lashed out at what he called my “bogus attempt” to get a comment from him for the original post. Come on, Ace, let’s move on. I pressed him to respond to the questions, but he wouldn’t. “I don’t think it’s right to publish speculative shit that you have no basis for.” He hung up.
Ace, the offer still stands. Anytime you’re willing to tell your side of things and address these 10 questions, call or email. I’ll even buy lunch—so long as the conversation’s on the record.
The 10 questions:
1. What role, if any, did you play in the dissemination of information that may have led to any of the recent news stories about Rocky and Michelle Delgadillo’s problems?
2. Did you participate in any discussions with the mayor and/or his staff about ways to handle the announcement of the breakup of the mayor’s marriage?
3. Did you discuss with the mayor or any of his staff members alerting the media to Rocky and his wife’s driving/business/babysitting problems?
4. How many times did you meet at City Hall with the mayor and/or his staff in June?
5. What was discussed at those meetings?
6. The San Francisco Chronicle’s Carla Marinucci wrote a story about your role in Hillary Clinton’s campaign, which ran May 12 under the headline, “Clinton’s man in California a pro at digging up dirt.” In the article, Garry South, a top Democrat strategist and a former adviser to Gov. Gray Davis, called you “the best op research guy in America on either side of the aisle. He digs under every rock.” Do you take issue with that characterization or anything else in the Chronicle story?
7. Share your reaction to this observation Marinucci makes about you in the article: “As with any successful political opposition researcher, most of Smith’s best work needs to arise anonymously with few — other than his clients — recognizing who found it.”
8. You ran Jerry Brown’s campaign last year when he faced Rocky Delgadillo in the Democratic primary. Did you know at that time about any of the disclosures that emerged in June about Rocky and his wife?
9. Would you like to share any other thoughts on this matter?
10. By the way, do you know of any other Los Angeles politicians, current or former, whose city-owned vehicles were driven by family members? Who?
Ace Smith hung up on me twice this week.
At least the story starts out on a good note.
Hmmm. Alan, don’t think you’re going to get an answer to these. Although, the answers would sure be interesting, the questions alone are nearly equally so.
Pokey has come to the conclusion that: Mirthala Salinas is hot – http://www.svrep.org/picture_gallery/LADinner05/IMG_0039.JPG
There is also a rumor that she might be with child.
Alan Mittelstaedt: I’m assuming that that’s Ace Smith holding the glass of red wine in the picture. Who’s the bespeckled gentlemen with hands in pockets looking toward the bar? Is that Clinton Reilly?
It’s clearly Alan Mittelstaedt who’s trying to make a name for himself by coming up with all these hypotheses, trying to make it sound like he’s somehow cooler and smarter and more Sincere than anyone else. I’d hang up on him, too, and leaving Smith an indirect message via an office that’s closed on Sunday, is a pretty shady way to try to get a “Smith refused comment.”
But as for Rocky, isn’t it pretty telling that NO ONE is coming forward in his defense? Surely, the whole city can’t be in on this “conspiracy” with the mayor. Conversely, it seems everyone has their own valid reasons to dislike Rocky, starting with Baca — who Rocky publicly insulted and opened up to questions about HIS integrity, while being too just plain STUPID to remember that his own wife was doing a Paris AND cracking up cars at city expense, and oh, yeah, that he himself, our chief law enforcer, forget to see if his dingbat wife (whom he blames for this mess, not very gallantly) “remembered” to get him insurance, too. (No.) And he didn’t check to see if she had a business license…
The guy just seems stupid, as he also has in his press conferences about this, and his “gee, I’m sorry, but I’ll try to be a good boy from now on” pleas to be allowed to stay and play in the sandbox some more.
And pushed a senior deputy to be lenient toward an “influential grocer” who has been recently indicted for serious felonies, including putting out a contract hit.
In the past, he got away with things like taking very large contributions from billboard companies, then allowing dozens of huger, bigger, illiminated glitier ones, to be put up in direct defiance of the heated demands of constituents and their elected representative. The Times reminded us of this recently, as well it should.
How much outside help does this guy need, bringing him down?
I’m not a supporter of any “camp,” by the way, but I think Alan’s self-serving harassment of Smith to try to “prove” he was correct in the first place, is just his own egomania.
But Alan: who is holding the red wine, and does that guy with his hands in his pockets symbolize something he is also hiding, you know, a “deep pockets” metaphor you can pursue?
Alan, let Celeste teach you how to write on your pictures. Actually, in another post, I had to decide who was the subject in the picture, because nothing was labeled and I wasn’t familiar with the faces. In this post, I assume that Ace Smith is the drunk holding the wine.
My last comment was deleted for no reason, except that it was critical of Alan Mittelstaedt’s showboating…I don’t have the time to rewrite it as elegantly, but am pretty fed up with the censorship. Not too cool for someone who claims that he’s being ignored for asking clarification on his speculative non- story, designed to make himself look cool and connected. And Alan, if you really want someone to call you back in time to comment for a hatchett job you’re writing, maybe you shouldn’t leave a message at the Mayor’s office on a Sunday, asking them to reroute the message… I’d hang up on you, too.
Not one person has come forward to defend Rocky, which is pretty telling, but he’s angered everyone from Baca (who he tried to discredit over Paris, being too stupid to “remember” that his own wife and he himself drove without insurance, in her case also with suspended licence, crscking up city cars all the while…), to DA Cooley, whose job he wants, by demoted felonies to misdemeanors to grab attention and apparently every other city official and his deputies.
Meanwhile, he remembered to “pressure” a senior deputy to give favorable treatment to an “influential grocer” who has recently been indicted for majuor felonies, including putting out a contract hit on someone. The guy may have been bugging him, but fee, how many of us actually go around killing our opponents? There was the billboard scam a while ago, kicking things off — after billboard companies made a large donation, he actually fostered MORE billboards across town, against the vehement opposition of residents and their elected officials, and the good of the city. (To date, the billboard companies have gotten even more privileges regarding secrecy from the D A’s office, directly going against the City Council.)
Does anyone really think this guy needs help doing himself in? He just plain looks and acts dumb and dorky; his “Gee, I’m sorry, I’ll be a better boy,” is too little, too late, and too wimpy.
I’m not for or against any camp, but I resent Alan’s so- called journalistic ethics and grandstanding here, stirring up things that don’t exist.
Linda: Feel free to be as critical of me as you’d like. I would never delete a comment for that reason.-Alan
Glad to hear it — so it must have been a tech error after I hit the “submit” button. And I’m glad to see you obviously do read the comments. (I wish Rocky did and resign — Ace or no Ace.)
linda, it happens to everyone on this site from time-to-time where comments of any type just disappear into a black hole without any action or intent by those in charge. Neither Alan nor Celeste are the types to run from a fight. Celeste has only modified or deleted a few comments because they violated any decency standards.
Linda, I just got home and checked. My spam catcher snatched your earlier post, for reasons that are entirely mysterious.
Usually it’s multiple links that set it off. I haven’t a clue what did it this time (as I saw no reference in your post to either Viagra or Rolex watches.) If it ever happens again, bring it to our attention as you did, or email me.
Lopez in the Times is giving Antonio the same treatment he gave Rocky, if not worse. The conclusion in his telenovela article is — ouch. IF Ace is really spinning Rocky to take the attention off the Mayor, it sure isn’t working. It’s just that the press are like pirannas: once something gets going, they all have to jump in, in case someone gets there first. It’s only a question of who they’re going to bite on next and when they get tired of this story. (Maybe Salinas should take an assignment in Mexico: I would, if I were her. Much as she seemed to relish the limelight when the thing was unofficial, she sure is in hiding now anyway.)
But for the record, there’s no reason to pillory the guy for splitting from a woman he clearly hasn’t been in love with for 15 years. It’s just that it’s too easy for Lopez et al to have a field day with a woman who goes up the ladder from Nunez to Padilla to the Mayor. What guy wants to marry a woman who’s been passed around among his closest friends?
Don’t jump into marrying this woman, Antonio. Let her leave town, the whole thing die down, show some results with your schools initiative, bring in business from Asia…Then after a year of this, it will have blown over. When you do remarry have her history checked out. Like it or not, she will be a leader in the community. A woman can be hot and have integrity. You need a woman to give you stability, and be a stepmom your kids can take to school, not reinforce your image as a playboy.
This advice is free, and I’m not Ace Smith.
I really think the media has its noses in the right direction with the property that was sold to Ms. “bed hopping” Salinas. Compliments of the Mayor’s political connections and elbow rubbing. If you dig in deeper, you will find that the Mayor’s sister received special treatment from a certain uneducated elected latina representative. How does a 30-year interest free County loan sound to you guys? How about providing free rent on County Property to all of us?
I feel completely disgraced by the actions of these latino leaders. Its not a good time to be Mexican/American in Los Angeles. Thanks MR.Viagra
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