THIS MAYOR'S TOO BIG FOR L.A.

Byline: MARIEL GARZA

LOS Angeles may be 44 miles from one end to the other. And there might be nearly 4 million people living within 468 square miles. But L.A.'s still not big enough to contain the ambitions of the Mayor Who Would Be King.

When one is dreaming about shaping world policies, it must be a bore to have to wake up to run a municipality -- albeit one with the most celebrities per mile and a surprising number of opportunities to cozy up to busty actresses.

Sure, he cares about violence in Pacoima. But, heck, he's also concerned about violence in Israel. Reducing poverty in South L.A. is no more important than solving it in the USA South.

Economic investment in Sylmar and economic divestment in Sudan are both important parts of the Villaraigosa agenda. And global warming, phhht -- he's already told Al Gore, Bill Clinton and Tony Blair exactly where he stands on that.

Wait a minute ... who is this guy?

A visitor from Mzothro, the planet of the many-tentacled mice men in the distant Yonga system, who dropped into L.A. one day would no doubt be seriously confused as to Villaraigosa's political status in the world. He seems like a mayor when he's planting trees in South L.A. or anointing school board candidates. He seems like a mayor when he's mugging for the camera while serving gruel to homeless people. There's no doubt he's mayor when he's backslapping the L.A. movers and shakers in his third-floor chambers in City Hall.

But then there are all those other, more confusing images of Antonio: chatting with Hillary, shooting the breeze with Mexican President Vicente Fox. One day he's marching in a local parade; the next, he's marching through China.

There he is snoozing -- I mean, ``resting his eyes'' -- through President George W. Bush's State of the Union speech, as if he's as comfortable in the House chambers as he is in Getty House. He was no doubt resting up for his own big speech to the National Press Club to unveil a nationwide plan to reduce poverty and expand the middle class. Later that week he called for a ``new direction'' in Iraq.

The obvious conclusion is that Villaraigosa is not just mayor of Los Angeles, but a Democratic National Candidate for Something. That he will end up running for higher office is a given; which one is open to speculation. Governor? Senator? Vice president? Commander-in- chief himself? Who knows?

As such, he must tend to his future constituency as well as his current one. He has more things on his mind than merely Brentwood and Boyle Heights. Oh, he's no Barack Obama. But he's not far from that kind of status. Meanwhile, Los Angeles isn't just a mere steppingstone for Villaraigosa's political ambitions; it's the testing grounds for them.

In sheer volume, no local politician trumps the governor in press releases prepared and distributed every day. (It is not unusual to get more than a dozen from Gov. Schwarzenegger's press office each day, including at least one with digital photos of Arnold posing with farmers in Fresno or the like, and another with an audio clip of some noteworthy thing he might have said that day about his health care plan or how crutches hurt your armpits.)

But in terms of scope, Villaraigosa has the governor trumped.

For recent example: When a suicide bomber's work killed three people on Monday in Eilat, a southern port city in Israel, the mayor put out a press release condemning the action: ``We join the international community in condemning this attack and hope this tragedy will not deter all parties from working together to bring peace and put an end to bloodshed in the area.''

Last week, the media were notified of a mayoral press conference for an international doubleheader. Villaraigosa was going to announce the divestiture of $27 million in city pension funds from companies that support the Sudanese government as a way to protest the genocide there. But that wasn't all. He was going to announce his support of a congressional resolution by U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff to officially recognize the Armenian Genocide.

Sadly, the exciting-sounding topics were dumped when the more newsworthy (to some) ``living-wage'' deal was worked out the night before. Not to worry, though. We can be assured that neither the genocide in Sudan nor the historic genocide in Armenia will be forgotten. Not in Los Angeles. Not during Villaraigosa's reign.

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Photo:

(color) Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and British Prime Minister Tony Blair attend a private reception at the renovated Getty Villa in Malibu.

Mario Anzuoni/Getty Images