I have not been shy about criticizing the Governor when I thought he was wrong. I told him, when I met with him during the recall campaign, that I would tell him what I thought of his actions as Governor, either privately, if he let me, or publicly, if he chose to exclude me from his counsel. Since he surrounded himself relatively early on with people who thought my advice to the Governor would not be helpful to him, I was excluded from private counsel soon after he was elected. I then was forced to make my comments on the Governor’s actions public, since that was the only way I could communicate with him. That led to his staff taking a dim view of me, both while I was in office, and now that I am out. Since my involvement in politics comes from my commitment to the principles in which I believe, and not from a desire to get a paying job or even a desire to get something from my friends in politics, I have always had no problem criticizing the Governor when I thought he did wrong.
But I also believe that I should be equally quick to praise the Governor when he does something right. And so, my hat is off to the Governor for his record breaking performance for the use of the veto pen. If I were in his position, I would have vetoed more bills, but any one with the guts to veto 35% of the bills presented to him deserve praise for that accomplishment alone.
In the Legislature, I used to have one of the higher no vote percentages, and for several years, held the record. I never could reach a percentage as high as Tom McClintock, whose commitment to small government was unrivaled by anyone in the Legislature. Even in my best years, however, my percentage hit 32% to 35% of the bills presented to the house in which I voted. McClintock has consistently hit 35% to 40%. It is therefore a major accomplishment to veto 35% of the bills, regardless of the reason. If the Governor keeps this up, he could recover the commitment to small government that the Governor promised me he had when I endorsed him. More important, if he keeps this up, he will get the current runaway government spending back under control, and restore the fiscal soundness of the state. If he had been this prudent in the past, he wouldn’t have the problems he has now.
Yes, I agree, there are bills he shouldn’t have signed, some that can have such long lasting negative effects on this state that the Governor himself in the future will come to regret that fact that he had a hand making those bills law. That being said, however, we should all say "Kudos to the Governor" for the actions that he took this year to protect Californians from their out of control government. We may not see the fruits of his prudence for several years, but we, as conservatives, should be as quick to compliment our leaders when they do right as we are to criticize them when they do wrong. My compliments to the Governor for a job well done on legislation this year. Keep up the good work.