This Democrat shows how out of practice his party is at defending immigrants
SAN DIEGO -- Politicians speak for a living. So they should be especially careful with their words.
When elected officials make inflammatory statements that exploit fears and drive people apart, they need to be called out and told to pipe down.
Over the years, I have often pummeled Rep. Steve King. The Iowa Republican recently said that whites needn't worry about becoming the statistical minority in America because their saving grace will be a race war between Latinos and African-Americans.
But, as one of the few Latino columnists with a national soapbox, I have a special duty to speak up when the loudmouth elected official is one of ours.
And so, Kevin de Leon, this pummeling is for you.
The president pro tempore of the California Senate is vying to be the state's chief antagonist to President Trump.
This is nice work if you can get it. Hillary Clinton beat Trump in California by 4.3 million votes.
Besides, since Trump often uses Latino immigrants as his foil, who better to shepherd the resistance on the Left Coast than the first Latino to lead the California state Senate in more than 130 years? It's poetry.
De Leon's bid to be the anti-Trump began the morning after the election when he released -- with Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon -- a joint statement calling the election results "clearly inconsistent with the values of the people of California."
Even for a Never Trumper like me, the level of defiance was stunning.
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