Los Angeles de facto Mayor Eric Garcetti was supposed to be celebrating Christmas in India as its new United States ambassador. Garcetti’s nomination was teased in May, and officially announced back in July. Garcetti competes with New York Mayor Bill de Blasio Bolshevik and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot Lightbrained for worse big city mayor in the U.S., so Los Angeles will probably throw a parade whenever he does leave.

RedState also covered the sexual harassment allegations that Garcetti’s security detail Officer Matthew Garza is suing Garcetti’s former Advisor Rick Jacobs and the City of Los Angeles over. According to deposition testimony by former Garcetti communications director Naomi Seligman, Garcetti knew of Jacobs behavior, and repeatedly ignored and covered for it. According to the Los Angeles Daily News, in July, Seligman’s attorney submitted a letter to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and the letter was posited as something that could blow up the Garcetti nomination. In October, The New York Times reported that Senator Ted Cruz was also part of the nomination hold up, obstructing Dementia Joe Biden’s State Department nominees in order to get sanctions in place on the Russian NordStream 2 pipeline.

While Mr. Cruz cannot entirely block Mr. Biden’s State Department nominees, he has greatly slowed the process by objecting to the Senate’s traditional practice of confirming uncontroversial nominees by “unanimous consent.” His tactic means that each nominee requires hours of Senate floor time while other major priorities, including President Biden’s domestic spending agenda, compete for attention.

[…]

Mr. Cruz and his allies insist he is taking a principled stand on Nord Stream 2, a gas pipeline project from Russia to Germany that has long been an issue of high interest for him.

We are two days away from Christmas, and Garcetti appears to have only coal in his stocking. It was just last week that his Senate confirmation hearings began; a full six months after the announcement was made.

From the California Globe:

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti appeared before a Congressional panel Tuesday looking into his India ambassadorship nomination in Washington.

Garcetti had been waiting for the hearings to begin since late May, when he was first rumored to have been President Joe Biden’s choice for ambassador. While his nomination was then made official in July, Garcetti’s nomination, as well as many other Ambassador nominations, have been delayed due to sudden emergencies in the Biden administration, as well as Senate Republicans, led by Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), protesting the Biden administrations national security and foreign policy stances.

In the meantime, Mayor Garcetti, who has been Mayor of LA since 2013, has faced multiple issues of his own that put his Ambassadorship nomination in danger.

Los Angeles’ rampant homelessness and crime problems, as well as Garcetti’s knowledge of Jacobs sexual peccadillos are just a fraction of these issues. As writer Doug McIntyre wrote in the Long Beach Press Telegram:

Those of us who live in L.A. have additional concerns: Did the mayor also not witness the corruption that’s rampant in the city he runs? For nearly 20 years Garcetti has been in the thick of things, including 12 years on the City Council, six of them as council president.

Two weeks ago, the head of the Department of Water and Power pleaded guilty to felonies stemming from a complex scheme involving bribery, kickbacks and extortion. DWP General Manager David Wright (appointed by Garcetti) admitted he was David wrong.

Then chief information officer David Alexander informed the courts he was also guilty of corruption. Meanwhile the taxpayers are on the hook for millions, not counting the huge cost of fixing the DWP’s billing debacle that gouged its customers.

For the committee hearing, Garcetti brought his infamous father, former Los Angeles District Attorney Gil Garcetti, and his mother in tow for moral support, or something. While Eric Garcetti tap danced, his buddy, Affirmative Action Senator Alex Padilla (D-Stooge), gave him a full-throated lying endorsement. But between Cruz’s political block and Garcetti’s tortured record, there are no guarantees that his nomination will be confirmed before the end of the year.

It couldn’t have happened to a nicer politician.

It’s unclear just when the nomination would advance to the full Senate during these complex days in Washington. Committee members expressed frustration that the process was not further along and Garcetti and Senators alike trumpeted the importance of the role of envoy to India, a significant U.S. ally during sometimes fragile times.

“Few nations are more vital to the future of American security and prosperity than India,” Garcetti told the committee.

Unlike former Chicago Mayor and Obama White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel, Garcetti was not among the 30 other nominees who got confirmed in last weekend’s marathon final Senate session of the year. If a nominee is not confirmed before January 1, 2022, the entire nomination process has to start over again from square one. Looks like the Foreign Relations Committee considers Japan more important to the national interest than India.

Garcetti’s nomination is essentially toast.

Despite this, Garcetti hangs on, because he is desperate to find a way to get the heck outta dodge. As his former cronies Mitch Englander and Jose Huizar from Garcetti’s Los Angeles City Council days are now on the hook for their crimes, Garcetti is doing his utmost to avoid being snared by his. Living 8,000 miles away, in a position where the only person who can call you back is the President of the United States, would be the perfect solution.

Let’s hope his multitudinous crimes catch up with him before that can happen.

And in line with that possibility, a YouTube podcast called “America’s Untold Stories” explores this concept of crime avoidance through presidential appointment. They contrast Eric Garcetti’s political career with a story from the late 1940s involving New York Mayor William O’Dwyer and President Harry S. Truman. Strangely reminiscent, and even more strangely prescient.

This fascinating podcast hosted by Mark Groubert and Eric Hunley is a little less than an hour. You may even discover some local New York and Los Angeles history to share with your guests over the Christmas weekend.