If anyone rats willie out, his thug pals from the chinese triad of SF will have them "swimming with the fishes" in the SF Bay.
I suppose Willie still does have enough clout to ‘ask for a favor’ every so often. I live across the bridge from San Francisco. I recall some of his years in Sacramento. I didn’t like him because he was openly racist, speaking about ‘White Boys’ opposing his budget proposals and the like. I did have some respect for how he got his way.
Willie is wily. He was the picture of confrontation and self confidence back then, with his Issac Hayes bald head and thousand dollar three piece suits, and his ability to use legalese for his own advantage. It was like watching him play Chess. I was glad when he faded into the political past, because he was quite liberal.
Nowadays though, Willie, like his contemporary, Dianne Feinstein, would be considered far to Centerist.