You can file this under No Good Deed Goes Unpunished:

An outraged Mayor Willie Brown decided to cut short a trip to Asia on Thursday to contend with a coup by a city supervisor who made two key appointments in the 14 hours he acted as mayor. ... As Mayor-for-the-day Wednesday, Supervisor Chris Daly secretly appointed and swore in two environmentalists to the city’s Public Utilities Commission, then announced the appointments on official letterhead he had drawn up for the occasion.

Brown is outraged by this, of course, as he should be. The transferring of mayor powers has always been a symbolic act, a gesture to reward friends and soothe ruffled feathers of opponents.

Mayor Brown was said to be particularly livid because the mayor-for-the-day honors had been intended as an olive branch to Daly, with whom Brown has never gotten along. “Mr. Daly showed he is still the spoiled little brat of San Francisco politics that we all knew him to be,” Johnston said. ... “This is nothing but an immature, selfish act that was used for political exposure and expediency,” Supervisor Tony Hall said. He called Daly “the Madonna of the board.”

Hopefully, Democrats keep this in mind when the Governator travels outside of California; Lt. Governor Cruz Bustamante has threatened to do the exact same thing. In fact, this recalls [oops, sorry] another oddball episode from years ago when Malibu made Martin Sheen its Honorary Mayor. Sheen immediately proclaimed Malibu to be a sanctuary for the homeless. Malibu residents, who were highly concerned and vocal about the homeless until that point, demanded his removal, which came forthwith.

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