T A B L E+T A L K What would be the Republican dream ticket for the 2000 election? What about the Democrats? Play pundit in Table Talk's Politics discussion area   R E C E N T L Y Why "Birthright Israel" can't work By Samuel G. Freedman Diaspora in America is better than physical danger and religious infighting in Zion (11/23/98) Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Starr By Gary Kamiya When the real Kenneth Starr finally stood up before the House, he turned out to have a split personality (11/20/98) Starr Wars By Joan Walsh The Democrats strike back (11/20/98) Nothing has changed Compiled by Lori Leibovich and Fiona Morgan The consensus of political experts is that no minds were changed by Starr's day in court (11/20/98) Starr on the stand An uncut transcript of Thursday's sometimes rancorous and often bitterly partisan congressional impeachment proceedings (11/20/98) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Browse the Newsreal Archives - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - S A L O N E M P O R I U M FREE! 12-ounce bag of Salon Blend with a purchase of $30 or more. While supplies last.
		Letter from San Francisco   Twenty years after Dan White murdered George Moscone and Harvey Milk, his old neighborhood is still spawning leaders who divide by race -- but these days they're Asian, not white. BY LISA MARGONELLI | San Francisco's Excelsior district has always been far from downtown both geographically and politically, but these days it seems farther than ever. As a boom in construction has swept the city, the Excelsior is all but forgotten. There's a raw spot where Geneva Towers, a monument to the nation's failed subsidized housing policy, was blown up last year. While other neighborhoods squabble with developers to keep chain stores out, the merchants on Leland Street beg City Hall to build a Web site to attract new stores to the area. "Dan White put this district on the map," Goldie Percivale reminisces from her Excelsior home, "and the whole city took a look at those nice conservative people living in tract homes." Now retired, Percivale was White's first campaign manager, and she helped the politically inexperienced White forge a constituency from his Irish and Italian neighbors -- the "thousands of frustrated, angry people ... waiting to rise up" who elected him. Unfortunately, Dan White isn't remembered as a populist, but as the supervisor who murdered Mayor George Moscone and gay Supervisor Harvey Milk 20 years ago this week and then got off with a light sentence, thanks to the infamous "Twinkie Defense." He committed suicide in 1985 after getting out of prison. Rather than bringing the issues of the Excelsior to the fore in the city, White's actions made Dianne Feinstein mayor -- she succeeded Moscone and went on to the U.S. Senate -- while inspiring gays to fulfill Milk's dream and become a political force throughout the city. Much has changed in the Excelsior over those 20 years. For one thing, it's now a majority Asian, not Irish and Italian. But it's still a backwater in a city that thinks it's too sophisticated for backwaters, and it's still offering up leaders who polarize at the same time as they try to uplift a politically forgotten people. Today, Percivale says, the district's rising political star is Marlene Tran, a powerful advocate for her Asian neighbors who, like White, has drawn fire for her racially charged rhetoric about crime, city services and San Francisco politics. A 51-year-old Vietnamese-born schoolteacher and community champion who speaks five languages, Tran recently shocked Democratic Party insiders when she came from nowhere to win a seat on the County Democratic Party Central Committee. She was tapped to run for the seat by the powerful Asian-led San Francisco Neighbors Association because of her standing in the Excelsior. Small, energetic and dressed carelessly in a hot pink blazer, Tran mockingly calls herself "the little candidate." She calls politicians "cloud people" and describes herself as "grass-roots," swearing that she has no real political ambitions. Recently, however, many "cloud people" -- mayoral hopeful Clint Reilly, Supervisors Leland Yee and Tom Ammiano and representatives from Mayor Willie Brown's office -- have been making pilgrimages to see "the little candidate." "People," Tran says happily, "are beginning to realize that Marlene has a lot of influence." When the city returns in 2000 to electing its board of supervisors by districts -- the arrangement that allowed White to rise to power -- instead of at-large voting, Tran could be a formidable candidate. Tran thinks of herself as a crusader. "All my life I've wanted to help the underdog," she says. But Tran takes this further than most: She has five dogs and 18 cats in her house. "I take the ugly ones with three feet and one eye," she says forcefully. "I take the ones nobody wants." The underdogs in the Excelsior, according to Tran, are Asian immigrants who speak little English, take public transportation, access few city services and fear crime on the streets. Part of the problem, according to Tran, is that Asians in the neighborhood have a hard time getting scarce city services in the area because of language problems -- and because most city services, including jobs programs and senior centers, are aimed at African-American residents. "All we do is work, work, work," she says. "Where are the programs for us?" N E X T+P A G E+| Crime as a racial issue