Like a lingering, nasty winter cold, Willie Brown is one politician the Golden State just can't seem to shake. To remove the notorious former California State Assembly speaker from power, it took a constitutional rewrite that imposed legislative term limits. And after Democrats lost control of the chamber to the GOP in 1995, voters were dumbfounded when Brown outfoxed them, manipulating two Republican surrogates Manchurian-style to retain power. When those limits finally prevented Willie from any additional time in Sacramento, he promptly ran for mayor of San Francisco, serving two terms from 1996 to 2004. Even as many Californians saw...