BY BRADY RHOADES: State Sen. Janet Nguyen, who represents Garden Grove and Westminster, has transformed into a national figure.
Her name and face appear in newspapers and on websites and TV as community-based as this one and as countrywide as CNN.
There have been chants among state GOP leaders: “Janet Nguyen for governor!”
BY BRADY RHOADES: State Sen. Janet Nguyen, who represents Garden Grove and Westminster, has transformed into a national figure.
Her name and face appear in newspapers and on websites and TV as community-based as this one and as countrywide as CNN.
There have been chants among state GOP leaders: “Janet Nguyen for governor!”
The Republican and former Garden Grove city councilwoman was silenced on the Senate floor – actually, she was physically removed – while criticizing late California lawmaker Tom Hayden for his opposition to the Vietnam War.
“Tom Hayden chose to work directly with the Communist North Vietnamese Government to oppose the efforts of United States forces in South Vietnam,” Nguyen said in her speech.
State Sen. Ricardo Lara, a Democrat, had her removed because, he said, she was violating procedural rules and impugning the character of Hayden, who the legislature had posthumously memorialized two days prior.
Democrats say Nguyen was grandstanding, pandering to her base, thousands of whom are Vietnamese-Americans who were rousted – or had family members rousted – from their homeland by an encroaching, Communist government.
Nguyen, who immigrated from Vietnam after the war, said she was merely offering up “historical perspective” with regard to the Vietnam War and Hayden, a Democrat and activist.
Many of her constituents support her.
Hundreds protested in Westminster on a recent Saturday; hundreds more protested in Sacramento on the following Monday.
And the Vietnamese American Federation of Southern California is demanding an apology from Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon. Nguyen’s supporters also want her to be given the chance to finish her speech in the state capitol.
“Her free speech was violated,” said Garden Grove City Councilman Phat Bui.
Meanwhile, de Leon, a Democrat, has appointed a three-person panel – Senate staffers – to investigate the incident.
He also stated of the flap: “It will never happen again.”
Pressed on it, he took a dig at Nguyen: “I think she’s enjoyed her 15 minutes of fame.”
This story is not going away.
Neither is Nguyen.
Grandstander or future governor? Or something in between?
We shall see.
Brady Rhoades is the editor of the Orange County News and Westminster Journal. He can be reached at brhoades@localnewspapers.org
