Karen Bass, sworn in as speaker of the California Assembly on Tuesday, made history by becoming the first African-American woman to lead a legislative body anywhere in the United States.

She may have also made history in a category that cannot be measured by skin color or chromosomes. Bass may have become the first politician to attain a position of such authority because of the power of her humility.

Bass was introduced by outgoing Speaker Fabian Nuñez and led to the podium by a retinue of former speakers — gentlemen of varying talents and personalities who each at one point had plotted and schemed to attain the position that Bass won without really trying.

In February, she had been such a reluctant campaigner that Nuñez said he had to call former Speaker Willie Brown "and tell him to get on the phone with her and tell her she needs to stay in the race."

It must have been a difficult call for Bass because she is just 18 months removed from a horrendous personal tragedy in which she lost a daughter and son-and-law in a car accident.

Tuesday, standing in front of the governor in an Assembly chamber packed with dignitaries, Bass smiled at the thought of what her daughter would have made of all this. Emilia had sat by her side when she was sworn in as a member of the Assembly in 2004, Bass recalled, "and she giggled at the formality of the ceremony."

Bass' entry into politics was motivated by her work as a physician's assistant at the Los Angeles-USC Medical Center. Having seen the carnage of drugs and gun violence, she formed a community organization that worked to clean up the neighborhood.

She is long on problem-solving, short on ego. In a briefing Monday with about a dozen reporters, Bass kicked off the session by noting the presence of "more cameras than I believe I've ever faced before." She noted how pleased she had been to learn that a contingent of about 45 members of community coalition she founded had chartered a bus to come up from Los Angeles to attend Tuesday's ceremony.

That was followed by a brief and uncertain silence. In the absence of any chest-thumping, it was unclear to reporters whether she had completed her opening remarks.

Bass made clear she has a brief but challenging agenda: helping to steer the state out of a potentially devastating budget shortfall. Today, less than 24 hours into Bass' speakership, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will release his revised May budget proposal that will report a deficit of $10 billion or more.

In her speech Tuesday, Bass spoke of the state's economic strength as a place of entrepreneurial innovation. "Thanks to California," she said, "you can find anything you want on Google. And when you get tired of it, you can turn around and sell it on e-Bay."

But because of a nationwide recession, a mortgage crisis and rising gas and food prices, she described California as "a giant in crisis."

Bass said leaders in Sacramento must respond to this crisis just as they might respond to a natural disaster. "It is up to us to take the fear out of California's future," she said. "Leaders must put their ideologies aside and ask, What do we do to alleviate the pain?' We have to toss aside the boxes we put ourselves in and come together I want the urgency of our cause to be matched by the unity of our commitment."

Colleagues on both sides of the aisle have praised Bass for her even temperament and civility. She is universally described as nice, but tough-minded.

Asked about her leadership style in a radio interview this week, Bass noted that "there are adults who think it's OK to have a temper tantrum. I'm not one."

She comes into office at an extraordinarily challenging time. There will be programs to cut, people to lay off, taxes to raise and a deadline to meet before the state potentially runs out of money in August.

There is nothing close to a consensus on how to deal with all this, and just a couple of months to fashion a two-thirds agreement in the Legislature to avert a financial calamity.

Bass will be one the key people to negotiate a solution. She may not have the answers, but watching her in action one can sense — or at the very least, hope — that when she is in the room, everyone else will be inspired to act like grown-ups.

— Timm Herdt is chief of The Star's state bureau. Read his political blog "95 percent accurate*" at http://www.TimmHerdt.com.