Anyone who can boss Los Angeles for 16 straight years without falling on his face needs a bit of luck, a bit of skill or a thick coating of Teflon -- and maybe all three. Through four terms, Mayor Tom Bradley, 71, managed to keep his troubled nation-within-a-state from disintegrating completely without himself succumbing to hubris or, worse, scandal. A diffident, dedicated man, Bradley seemed the personification of rectitude. He never got too big for his britches. Bad judgment was something else.
In January, after the mayor began his campaign for a fifth term, the Los Angeles Herald Examiner warned that...
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