Only in the Bizarro world that is Orange County Latino politics can you have a brownie Republican be more Aztlanista than a brownie Dem, yet that's what happened last week. In a symbolic resolution, the SanTana City Council expressed their support for the DREAM Act, which seeks to legalize hundreds of thousands of illegal youngsters (not just Mexicans, by the way) in this country. The vote was 5-0, and I initially assumed that the two absent members were Mayor Don Papi Pulido and Busty Bustamante, the sole GOPendejo on the council. I was half-right: the Don Papi was on vacation, while the other non-vote was Vince Sarmiento, who has previously shown himself to be a mensch.
But Busty doing something right? The man who threw away a non-existent political career for a cheap joke? Who suffers from a chronic case of conflict-of-influenza? Whose brother is a slumlord so arrogant he drives a vintage white Bentley around SanTana (sorry, Alfonso: the only men allowed to drive Bentleys without coming off as an asshole are old British guys and Arab sheiks, and even they would never dream of traveling without a chauffeur). As much as I hate to do this, I must salute Busty for a job well-done.
Even more amazing, Busty showed more political fortitude than Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez. Busty will undoubtedly incur the wrath of Know Nothings; Sanchez, on the other hand, refuses to co-sponsor the DREAM Act despite being in office since 1996. No more excuses, Loretta: you say you support the DREAM Act yet don't bother to endorse. Put up, or shut up. Otherwise, we just might–shudder–join the Red County crowd and remind people again and again how out-of-touch you really are with constituents.
