Taking the wrong message from the November election results
The top story of the day is not usually a column – it’s usually a hard news story. But I think that this column IS news because in reading it, it really hammers home a point. And that is that the Governor’s policy decisions this year have significant political ramifications. He is on a complete 180 degree course from last year, and instead of attacking spending as the problem, is now embracing spending as a solution.
My colleague and fellow FlashReport contributor Dan Schnur says today in the San Diego Union Tribune, "Arnold is not moving substantively very far at all, but he is dramatically changing his emphasis. Almost every policy proposal that’s come out of the Governor’s Office over the last week or two is not significantly different from things he’s talked about in the past. But he’s making a much greater effort to emphasize a more moderate and conciliatory approach."
It may be the case that the Governor, personally, has a much more centrist philosophy. But the fervor and forceful articulation that he made against out-of-control spending during the recall election were so convincing — the ‘blowing up of the boxes’ speech he gave a year ago, the statewide drive against the influence of the public employee unions all through the fall. If, as Dan seems to say, the Governor was never really fiscally as conservative as I thought — then he should be eligible for an Academy Award for ‘Best Acting in a Public Policy Role’.
Dan Weintraub today (in one of the two featured "Golden Pen" pieces on the main page) really takes the Governor to task for being inconsistent.
I think that there is a fiscally conservative core there, but that the Governor has taken the wrong lesson from last year’s special election. And with the list of Democrats on his senior staff growing (Kennedy, Zingale, Tamminen), not to mention Maria’s understandable influence — I don’t wonder that he is probably getting a lot of encouragement to embrace the center.
As I have said before, I really like this Governor, and have a profound respect for him as a person. I supported him in the recall, and this publication, for years, was teased by many as being a ‘propaganda tool for the Governor’ by his critics. It has only been since December (with the announcement of Susan Kennedy’s appointment as Chief of Staff) that I’ve really been more vocal about my issues with the direction that the Governor wants to take California.
The goal here is simple — one hopes that if there is enough ‘market-force’ from the Republicans who made the recall a reality, that perhaps the Governor will reconsider the lessons of last November’s loss. The electorate did not repudiate your agenda, Governor. The very same special interests that you were fighting just outspent you and confused the beguiled the voters. Taking the battle to the legislature is a great idea — but that isn’t what happened. We will all stand with you as you fight big spending, but we will also take you to task when you embrace big spending.
Come back to your fiscally conservative approach, Governor. Your party needs you.
Governor Paying Senior Gov’t Staffers Campaign $$
There is not an inherent problem with doing this, although there are some problems unique to Susan Kennedy. If the salaries are not high enough to attract the folks you want, I don’t have a problem augmenting those salaries with campaign dollars – at least for staffers in a position where they are appointees to the politician. It might be trickier if you were trying to augment the salaries of civil servants. This story is by-and-large being blown out of proportion. Now, it does get a little more complicated if the money being paid to these government workers isn’t just to boost their pay, but comes with expectations of what they will be doing on the campaign. Then you have to apply some very fine lines of common sense. The most important – keep these folks AWAY from any environment where money is being raised. If they are going to be advisors, let them advise. But there is merit to the idea of avoiding the appearance of impropriety. I would add that it seems like Pat Clarey and Rob Stutzman get an unfair ding, as they actually left the state payroll to heroically work on the special election. No one expects them to volunteer their time.
Pelosi jeered by her own people!
There was an article a few months ago talking about how infrequently Republican Presidents come to San Francisco because they are consistently met with controversial protests. Well, we may be entering an era where no Democrats want to visit San Francisco either. San Francisco has long been a national "bizarre peopel" magnet, drawing the wackiest and most left-wing activists to it like a moth to a flame. Well, they have now set new standards, jeering their own Congresswoman, Nancy Pelosi, for not being left-wing stridently enough, apparently. The stories are on the main page. Amazing. It must make her know that she will apparently be jeered anywhere she goes. I can’t wait until she comes to Orange County — I will jeer her for being one of the biggest spenders in Congress!
Don’t count out Shadegg just yet!
Yesterday, Missouri Representative Roy Blunt put out a release stating that the race for Majority Leader is over, and that he has the support of enough of his colleagues to replace the embattled Tom DeLay. But John Shadegg of Arizona, who just got into this race a couple of days ago, and represents a much harder-line approach to fiscal conservatism that has been produced by the current leadership (of which Blunt is a part) will inject much-needed debate into the contest. Perhaps the most central question of the debate — has the House majority in fact become as bad as the Democrats they replaced. The goal is to reduce the size of spending. Spending has gone up. That pretty much says it all. They all talk the talk, but they aren’t walking the walk. Shadegg is a leader of the Republican Study Committee, which is the conservative caucus in the GOP — who are fed up with seeing our majority squandered.
Have a great Sunday!
