The recent dust-up between Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner and former Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi certainly made for great political theater.

The nasty exchange of letters featured in FlashReport was priceless and certainly marks an early skirmish in a potential 2010 Governor’s race square-off between the two statewide officeholders (with due deference to the Attorney General and to the CEO of E-Bay).

The lesson learned for Poizner is that sometimes important decisions are going to bring loud criticism.  But if you stand on principle and stand your ground – as he did — then you will come out the winner.  In fact, I have had numerous opportunities to praise Poizner for standing tall, most recently for his leadership in the defeat of Proposition 93 to weaken legislative term limits.

Poizner should not have been surprised by the criticism that came his way.  It came quick and furious from the typical front groups for trial lawyers that always have a gripe to air, as well as Garamendi who has always been willing to add his rantings in support of those groups’ self-serving and misguided agenda.

**There is more – click the link**

View Full Commentary

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 29th, 2008 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.