Out of all the outrages perpertrated by the Mirkarimi/Lopez camp over the last nine months, THIS is what the Guardian considers inappropriate?!

Troll II, why don't you just go away already? You obviously hate the Guardian and all it stands for, so why not give yourself a warm bath of FOX news and spare us all your filthy rhetoric? You are so biased you can't even tell when something is hideously inappropriate. For a Mayoral aide, a top advisor, to text threaten one of the supervisors -- the one the mayor appointed!-- and tell her she is "ungrateful" is very damning to the Mayor. You don't see it because you agree with the Mortimer Snerd of a Mayor we have.

I agree with Daniele E. Right on!

Daniele I could not agree with you more! I await the Mayor's response. Winnicker could do the honorable thing and resign, but if he is not so honorable than the Mayor should fire him! This Mayor has much higher standards than this and his immediate action to remove Winnicker could prove that. I expect to hear an announcement shortly that Winnicker is moving on to much greener pastures!

I didn't see it at first, but your post here planted the seed in my mind and the more I've thought about it the more i'm certain you're right. This is Pak/Brown/Lee long game. No question.

It's not possible that Kim and Olague actually go rogue on the mayor, as it appears in this vote. This should have been obvious all along. I'm kicking myself for not seeing it sooner. Enrique Pearce (founder of the Run Ed Run campaign, and the political consultant / architect behind Kim and Olague) and his cohort David Ho (burgeoning Chinatown power broker) especially, are connected at the hip to Rose Pak and by extension Mayor Lee. Kim's and Olague's votes were absolutely cleared by the higher ups (i.e. Pak, Lee).

It wasn't likely their plan all along for the Mayor to lose the Mirkarimi removal vote at the Board, but perhaps it was when it became clear they were in danger of losing Olague's seat in District 5, that they realized they could make the whole situation work to their long term advantage in a big way.

With the Mirkarimi matter not being be put to rest at the Board on Tuesday, and with the recall campaign set to begin any moment now, the Mayor and his downtown backers will have the gift of a very potent wedge issue that keeps on giving. The Chronicle, in particular, will be able to talk about the "wife beater" and his progressive supporters for the next several months, through the November 2013 election, at least. Now this issue will be an albatross around the neck of progressives for much longer than it would have had the mayor won his vote.

Sure the loss appears embarrassing to the mayor. But how bad will it actually hurt him? Very little, if at all, I suspect. He still got the majority 7 votes. It's early in his term. He gets to claim "he's above politics" while the "crazy progressives" on the Board are supporting "wife beaters". The cops, the realtors, and the developers will pour tons of money into a recall campaign. There will be an on going barrage of mailers and TV ads painting avalos and campos as monsters and the mayor as a principled humanitarian.

Meanwhile, in the short term, Olague actually gets a chance to look truly independent of the mayor, for the first time and in a very big way, and have a fighting chance to win in D5. Her vote totally helps her in D5. She would have been toast otherwise. All these texts from Winniker, etc. are media plants designed to convince us that Olague has really broken off from the mayor. It simply isn't true. It's a ruse and the media is falling for it.

Olague's staff sent Winniker's text to the Guardian hoping they would publish this sort of piece so she could get back some respect from Guardian's progressive readership. It's working like a charm. You're right Gust, it's long game. No question.

Oh, and what's more, Kim is ALREADY CALLING FOR A RECALL CAMPAIGN. Which of course is the whole goal here, to make this drag on indefinitely and hurt the Mayor's opponents for months to come.

And Kim's call for a recall campaign is how she successfully distances herself from the progressive "wife-beater supporters," Avalos and Campos. And Kim *had* to vote with Olague (with her VERY carefully-worded legal rationale) to give Olague cover so that she wouldn't be the only woman who voted against the Domestic Violence advocates, etc.

Upon reflection and thoughtful examination, all this should be obvious to anyone who knows the players in this plot. Still it's brilliant political maneuvering, and so far it's working perfectly.

Did it ever occur to anyone that her vote wasn't primarily about political alliances?

I think you're right. If it is a text (as Tim says) then the only two people who knew about it were Winnicker and Olague. So which one wanted it to be reported in the press?

It sure does make it look as if Olague has turned on the Mayor's Office. It is kind of obvious. Tim fell for it hook line and sinker but most voters are more sophisticated.

Are you suggesting that a public official not be held accountable for reprehensible communications simply because that communication took place on the official's own time, even when the business of that public official is communications?