I was going to write this anyway, but since the Bee ran a story with my comments about Tom McClintock today, I figured I better get a correction out as quickly as possible. You would think that after 15 years of dealing with the press, I would know better how to talk to the press. But I guess I don’t. So I am going to issue the correction that the Bee never will to the comments I made to the reporter.
It is no secret that Tom and I have had our set of disagreements over time, mostly over strategy. I endorsed Schwarzenegger in the recall, mainly because I believed (and still believe) that since conservatives started the recall, we had to finish it with a victory. At the time I endorsed Schwarzenegger, he was tied with Bustamante, and since I believed that Tom couldn’t raise the money to win, I did what I believed was in the best long term interest of the conservative movement. I have been less than underwhelmed with the gratitude that the Governor has shown for the huge risk that I took in my own political career on his behalf, but I didn’t do it for him anyway, so I don’t take his ingratitude personally. The only bad part about the whole thing is that it injured my relationship with Tom, and that has been a source of uneasiness for me.
The reason is simple. As I told the Sacramento Bee reporter, Tom has always been my ideal of a principled legislator, that which I aspired to be in my time there. He wasn’t there my first four years in the Legislature, but when he was there, he was a man to follow. Yes, he has his weakness (the one thing about our interview that actually got mentioned in the Bee article), but we all have those (except for me, of course, I am perfect in every way). You could always rely on Tom to know the right way to go, and to be able to articulate that path in a principled and intelligent manner. I told the Bee reporter that while I may not always agree with his strategy, I always agreed with his position.
Which brings me to the point of this article. Sometimes we conservatives give our opponents their cannon fodder by fighting over stupid issues. Quite frankly, I don’t care how long Tom has been in the Legislature, he needs to be there. There are two types of legislators, those who have decided to become a part of the corrupt ruling class and those who fight against it. Yet, as conservatives, we attack someone in the system for the simple reason that they have been there "too long." Our opponents, people who have been corrupted by the system (more often than not in their first term), then attack conservatives like Tom for "being there too long," using our foolish argument against us. The argument is not that someone has been in office too long, it is that they have been corrupted by the system. That is the argument we should pursue.
The same argument applies to pay. Of course Tom took per diem. He should. If he doesn’t take per diem, or the pay raises, under Proposition 140 that money goes back to the Democrats and is used to pay their staff, who then go out and campaign against Jeff Denham. Yet we attack legislators for getting paid. Trust me, as one who knows, you don’t get rich on per diem or your legislative salary. I never complained about my pay. I chose the job, and the pay that I was to receive, but I was attacked for taking the pay raises by Republicans who themselves never turned down an increase in salary. In my opinion, Tom doesn’t paid enough. Each of you should take 10% of what you saved on your car tax, and send it to Tom’s campaign today. He fought for that cut. You owe him for that. You should not begrudge him one dime of any money he has used to pay for food for his family, as he has fought for each of us in the Legislature.
We do need to be more discriminating in the arguments we use. We are fighting for smaller government, not lesser pay for the governors. We are fighting against people who have been co-opted by the system, not against people who are in the system fighting for the principles in which we believe. Tom is not perfect, but the people of the state of California owe him a lot, and the people of the Fourth Congressional District should repay that debt by sending Tom to Congress. You think Obama would bring change to Washington? Obama is a piker compared to Tom McClintock.