WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Protesters shut down Klobuchar’s rally in St. Louis Park, Minn., on Sunday. Now it looks like she won't even carry her home state in the primary. 

Mary Moriarty, a public defender in Minnesota’s Hennepin County

“In the case of Myon Burrell -- where you had a really high-profile shooting of an innocent girl and you put a lot of pressure on the system to get someone to be responsible for that -- I think a lot of corners were probably cut.” -- AP

Richard Wolffe on Buttigieg 

All that was missing was a reason for being: a purpose, a mission. Something with more meaning than a talented youngish man who was on the rise. Something more meaningful than a preternatural prescience that the former vice-president would implode. When Joe Biden failed to do so, there was no reason for Pete Buttigieg. -- Guardian

Stacey Abrams on voting in GA

“Across Gwinnett, across Georgia, there are folks who are afraid of their power, who are afraid of what they remember, and they’re afraid to try this time...In 2020, our responsibility is to erase their fear, to take their hands and walk with them. . . . Yes, they have been silenced . . . but this time they are not going alone.” -- Rolling Stone

Lisa Donovan at The Spin

On Friday, my colleague Lolly Bowean asked Mayor Lori Lightfoot if she plans to make an endorsement and whether she could share who it is. The mayor smiled and said only: “When or if I do, I’ll let you know.” -- Tribune

Public Schools Try Ditching A-to-F Letter Grades

“The focus is more on learning for learning’s sake because you want to learn the material and you’re actually interested in it,” said 17-year-old Taylor Daniels, who grew up going to Winnetka Public Schools District 36, which doesn’t give letter grades until mid-year 7th grade. “Teachers are able to teach more to engage the student than teaching to a test.” -- WBEZ

JUST IN: more than 100 Black Scholars, Writers, and Educators including @BarbaraRansby, @murchnik, @marclamonthill, Robin DG Kelley + have just announced their support of the movement to elect @BernieSanders.

Read the POWERFUL statement HERE: pic.twitter.com/WY8gh1lQvl

— phillip agnew (@iPhilSomething) February 29, 2020

Kamala Harris announces on King Day. And why not?

Kamala Harris announced her candidacy in the 2020 presidential race on King Day. And why not? An electable black woman (running against Trump at least), a California senator, who will run a little to the left of a Joe Biden or Hillary Clinton and potentially become the first African-American woman U.S. president? (Obviously, no dick problems here.) I'm not jumping on board yet. It's way too early, at least for me to pick a favorite. But I'm glad Harris is in the race, in what's obviously going to be a crowded field. 

Some lefties are already throwing up #NeverKamala signs. This according to Branco Marcetic whose attempted slam piece, "The Two Faces of Kamala Harris" in the latest issue of Jacobin, actually makes her look pretty good, at least when compared to the other Dem Party regulars.

I have big issues with Harris over her record as a state prosecutor. For one, she opposed an early release program for non-violent offenders claiming it would diminish the prison labor pool. For another, her apparent support for the death penalty.

Here's an interesting connection. Harris began her political career as the DA in San Francisco, a job that later led to her becoming the state's attorney general and then senator. You don't see many progressive big-city prosecutors and I'm not prepared to say Harris is one of them.. Chicago's Kim Foxx is one and Philly's Larry Krasner is another breaking from the mass-incarceration, racist law-and-order mode.

But look who's following in Harris' path and running for DA in San Francisco this time around?

It's none other than brilliant, young movement activist lawyer, and friend of mine, Chesa Boudin.

DeChesa Boudin files papers for district attorney, flanked by Supervisors Hillary Ronen and Aaron Peskin. (Image: Nuala Sawyer)

According to the San Francisco Chronicle:

When he was just over a year old, his parents — left-wing radicals in the Weather Underground — took part in a Brinks armored car robbery outside New York City that ended in the murder of two police officers and a security guard.
Before he could walk, he was making monthly trips through prison metal detectors and steel bars to visit his mom and dad. Like many other children of incarcerated parents, he was set up for a life of hardship and heartbreak. 
But nearly four decades later, Boudin, 38, is a deputy public defender in San Francisco. His impressive ascent to the office includes becoming a Rhodes scholar, earning a law degree from Yale and clerking for two federal judges. He recently helped upend California’s cash bail system, which was widely seen as inequitable to people of color and the poor.

I obviously can't vote for Chesa, but my check's in the mail. Yours too, I hope.