Photo: Erin Schaff, NYT

California Sen. Kamala Harris got to be a prosecutor again during her grilling of Attorney General William Barr, winning the day in Congress and acquiring a “nasty” label that no amount of presidential campaign money could buy.

There’s no debate that Barr misrepresented the contents of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 election, whether Donald Trump’s campaign conspired to help and whether the president himself obstructed the investigation. The question for Democrats was how to get that message across to the public.

When Barr testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, none of the Democrats could lay a glove on him — until it was Harris’ turn.

Harris opened by asking how Barr had concluded there was not enough evidence to establish that the president had obstructed justice. Rather than debate the merits of his decision, Harris zeroed in on whether the attorney general or his staff had actually read the underlying evidence in the report before making his decision.

Barr said no, and that “we accepted (Mueller’s report) as accurate.”

Harris then ended the line of questioning by saying, “I think you’ve made it clear, sir, that you’ve not looked at the evidence and we can move on.”

While Barr has every reason to accept Mueller’s report without reading every interview transcript and underlying email, Harris’ direct up-or-down question was a great theatrical “gotcha” moment.

And it was a moment that Harris’ presidential campaign needed. Since her highly orchestrated rollout in January, she’s made missteps on everything from universal health care to voting rights for people in prison.

She needed to re-establish her serious credentials as a prosecutor “for the people,” and Barr gave her the opportunity to do just that. Her campaign wasted no time using the confrontation as a fundraising ad.

But the real reward came when Trump said in an interview with Fox News that Harris had been “probably very nasty” to Barr — and thus gave us “Nasty Kamala.”

That could well be a huge boost for Harris among the Democratic base. Of course, you need more than the base to get elected — just ask Hillary “Such a Nasty Woman” Clinton.

When Irish eyes: Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke came to town and packed the United Irish Cultural Center out in the Sunset. They came from all over California to see the progressive phenom from Texas.

But if you can find a single member of the Irish cultural community who attended the rally, have them give me a call.

Flintstone fun: Coming back from George and Judy Marcus’ annual Greek Easter party in Los Altos Hills, I decided to hop off Interstate 280 at Hillsborough and swing by the Flintstone house.

The hilltop house is owned by my longtime friend Florence Fang, who is about as prim and proper a person as you will find. But her creation is a riot of color and nonsense, complete with dinosaur statues.

I loved it.

Yes, it’s right out of a comic book, but it’s not offensive at all.

There were no crowds or long lines of cars, a la Lombard Street. In fact, nothing that I saw rose to the level of the public nuisance Hillsborough officials claimed the place to be. It’s just a bit of fun for people to look at.

And these days, we need all the fun we can get.

Movie time: “Avengers: Endgame.” It took in $1.8 gazillion in its first five minutes of release, including my $12.

Actually, I waited till the 7:30 a.m. Sunday show, at a theater in the Westfield mall. The place was packed. I did not know people could munch on a bucket of popcorn for breakfast.

This movie was so intense that in the three hours of running time, I saw only two people head out to the bathroom.

They say this is the end of the “Avengers” franchise. If you believe that, you probably believe William Barr is telling the truth.

Muni madness: A letter to the editor published in The Chronicle touted me as a candidate to run Muni.

For all of you who have gone on social media to lament such a possibility — forget it.

Mayor London Breed is looking for competence, and I have already proved, with my ill-fated vow as a mayoral candidate to fix Muni in 100 days, that I am grossly unqualified to run anything that involves wheels.

Wedding bells: Overheard at the Vault restaurant in the Financial District:

Man: “Will you marry me?”

Woman: “Yes. You name the date, and I’ll name the year.”

That’s one way to say “no” and still enjoy the meal.

Want to sound off? Email: wbrown@sfchronicle.com