John Burton, influential California Democrat, dies at 92.
The quip “Never pass by a urinal, never trust a fart, and never ignore an erection” is attributed to him.
His office wall held a framed jock strap embroidered with the words “I am a Burton supporter.”
In 1998, after he was elected Senate president pro tempore, Todd S. Purdum of The Times reported, “Old Capitol hands greeted word of his elevation with roughly the wonder that would attend the appointment of Hunter S. Thompson as dean of the Columbia journalism school.”
Burton’s New York Times obituary
John Burton once yelled at me so hard my hair moved. That was in 2000, when John was leader of the California state Senate. I stopped working for him four years later, when he left office. At any time since, until this Sunday morning when it became no longer possible, I would have gone back to work for him in a heartbeat. And I’m pretty sure that feeling was true for everyone who worked for John.
And one from the Press Democrat
At his last state Democratic Party convention before retiring as chair in 2017, he led a crowd in flipping off President Donald Trump, along with a four-letter invective.