Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa may have tipped his hand in New York Wednesday night on which Democratic presidential candidate he's leaning toward endorsing.
Villaraigosa, in the Big Apple for a Greening America pow-wow, was wined and dined by no less than former President Bill Clinton -- even running into conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh at one point.
It is also an opportune visit for Villaraigosa, the cover story of this week's New Yorker -- a piece that the politically ambitious mayor reportedly wasn't thrilled about but which spreads the political Horatio Alger-like Corrida of Antonio even wider.
But read what Limbaugh had to say about running into the former President, who came back to Rush's table with a friend.
"He's got another guy standing with him, and the guy looks familiar, but I can't place him. I can't hear the introduction. So I'm shaking hands and so forth, and this man is going on and on and on about how excited he is to meet me. He wanted to meet me, and the former president brought him over. When the former president told him I was there, he said, ' have to meet Mr. Limbaugh.'
"It turns out it was the mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa, and so we chatted for a while, and while I'm chatting -- now, this is hilarious. While I'm chatting with Villaraigosa, I kind of slid to the right in my half-moon booth, and as I did that, that created some distance between me and my guest. I'm talking with Villaraigosa, and when I'm talking to somebody in a very loud place like this, I have to devote full attention. I had to turn my head to my left, away from the action behind me, to hear what the mayor was saying. At some point during the conversation with the mayor, I looked to my left, and the former president was intently chatting up the woman that I was sitting with. He had leaned down, and his elbows and arms were on the railing of the booth, and they were in intense conversation."
Geez, Antonio and Clinton alone in Manhattan. Can Geraldo be far behind?