Rumors Antonio Villaraigosa could add Cabinet to résumé

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Politico:

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is closely following the most important rule for a potential Cabinet member: Don’t pine after the job.

But the man with the top job in the nation’s second-largest city admits that he, too, hears the secretary rumblings and rumors.

“I’ve heard commerce … transportation,” he said. “The other day, someone congratulated me that I got appointed. I said, ‘There’s not a job opening, man!’”

(PHOTOS: President Obama's second-term Cabinet)

A Cabinet job or a post with the Democratic National Committee would just be the next step in the mayor’s meteoric rise. In fewer than 20 years, he has gone from the California Assembly to a national player. Though he’s flattered to see his name among the contenders to replace Ray LaHood at the Department of Transportation or Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz with the DNC, he said he learned long ago to keep his head down and do his work.

“It’s always nice to be talked about, but my only focus right now is finishing my job. And I want to finish it strong,” Villaraigosa, 59, told POLITICO on Monday during an interview on the top floor of the Center for American Progress headquarters in downtown Washington. “They asked me to be chair of the [Democratic] convention; I was president of the Conference of Mayors; I was co-chair for President [barack] Obama for one reason: I’m mayor of L.A. My focus has to be my job. The best way to ensure a bright future is to make sure you’re doing your job that you have now.”

It wasn’t long after Villaraigosa joined the state assembly that he became part of the party’s leadership, which started his narrative as a rising star. Several years later when the California papers started throwing around his name as a speaker possibility with others, “all of them except me said, ‘Yeah, I’m thinking about running for speaker,’” he recalled.

“And I said: ‘Let me find the bathrooms first. And after I find the bathrooms, I’ll think about what we’re doing going into the future.’ So that’s what we’re doing now,” the mayor said of the recent Cabinet stirrings.

For those keeping score, he won the speaker’s gavel.

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Hizzonor goes to Washington?