Hugh Hewitt: California recall: One issue, and one issue only

WorldNetDaily.com ^ | Wednesday, September 24, 2003 | Hugh Hewitt

[JohnHuang2]

The big debate gets underway at 6:00 p.m. tonight, PST, and the media is working itself into a frenzy. My take is that unless Arnold comes up with the California equivalent of President Ford's declaration of a free Poland in 1976, the debate will be a non-factor in the race.

Oh, it could seal the end of Tom McClintock's career if he tries to land cheap shots on Arnold, and it might scare another few points away from Cruz when he announces his latest lame-brained idea ("We should socialize surfing – all boards the same length, all waves the same height and rides divided up equally, with extra attention paid to people who cannot surf!"). Arianna's desperation is growing more and more repellant, so expect some shrieking from her end of the stage, but generally, a non-event.

But no matter how odd the behavior of the second-tier candidates, or how boring the questions, it just won't matter. There is only one issue that matters to most voters. It absorbs all other issues in this race: The corruption in Sacramento.

The workers' comp mess? It is about the corrupt influence of the trial lawyers. The huge giveaways to prison guards and other public-employee unions? The corrupt influence of big labor. The massive expansion of tribal casinos and the obscene amount of money pouring from the slots into the voting process? The corrupt influence of California's Indian tribes.

Most of this corruption is legal. Most corruption is. But the stench of the decay in Sacramento doesn't diminish because Gray Davis has invented transparency in payoffs. The tribes brazenly gave millions to Cruz who transferred it to an anti-initiative campaign that features, surprise, Cruz. The money-laundering is out in the open, on the front lawn of the State House – but it is no less corrupt.

The tribes pumped huge sums into a pro-McClintock fund. This is legal, but it stinks. It is a manipulation of the electorate – a cynical assist to Cruz via the draining of votes from Arnold. Corrupt? Of course it is. Tom McClintock cannot raise enough money on his own under the $21,200 limit of the law, so he's welcoming the tribes' largesse via an independent expenditure.

Every single interest group lined up to get something from Gray as Gov. Clouseau's career dwindled into its final month. All the hands were stuck out, and Gray walked the line distributing bennies all along the way. Hiram Johnson never imagined corruption on this scale. The Los Angeles Times tut-tuts that the recall is bad for the state. How can anything that smashes the machine up north be bad for the state?

The scale of the collapse of public ethics is so huge that most pundits have given up commenting on it. Tammany is reincarnate. The Davis administration is epic in its fundraising and epic in its deal-making. It is the only thing that will be memorable about Davis – the size of his appetite for cash and the sleaze that was required to feed that appetite.

On Thursday, observers will be dissecting what Arnold said about paid leave or what Cruz said about the car tax. How boring and how beside the point.

This election is about the numbers of people that have a share in Davis, Inc. vs. the rest of us.

I think there are more of us than there are of them and that as a result Arnold wins hands down. Only McClintock can save Cruz at this point. The only interesting question is will he?

[JohnHuang2]

Wednesday, September 24, 2003

Quote of the Day by Texas Eagle

[JohnHuang2]

Hugh Hewitt MEGA PING!!

[EternalVigilance]

My recommendation to FReepers?

Pray for California.

[Roscoe]

tries to land cheap shots on Arnold

Like discussing issues?

[Reagan Man]

I'd say, pray for Arnold. If he wins, that is.

Under that scenario, Arnold holds all the cards and how well Arnold does, so goes California.

(NOTE:Watch the undecided votes)

[goldstategop]

Hugh Hewitt and other conservatives realize we have to be practical and get what we can. California is like a big ship that's steaming in the wrong direction. It'll be a miracle if we can turn her around in three years.

[Reagan Man]

Hewitt's disdain for McClintock is obvious.

Hewitt's lost all my respect with his BS.

[Roscoe]

Hugh Hewitt says Tom better not take a "cheap shop" against Arnold, then turns right around and takes cheap shots at McClintock. Hugh the hypocrite.

[Roscoe]

His attack on the tribes was predictable.

[SteveH]

The recall was, is and will be about financial responsibility at the state government level.

Hugh Hewitt is "in the weeds."

[ambrose]

The Vichy French were being "practical" when they cooperated with the Nazis.

[ambrose]

Hugh Hewitt is nothing more than an RNC Shill. He always has been.

[Reagan Man]

Very predictable.

Just what do these people have against gambling enterprises, run by Indian Tribes? Gambling is a legal vice, after all and so are political donations.

[goldstategop]

I suppose we can't hold the front-runner to his word? You would be right if he capitulated like Marshal Petain or got suckered into promoting higher taxes like Alabama's Bob Riley...

[goldstategop]

Uh huh. Karl Rove is the Wizard Behind The Curtain. Pay no attention... ;-)

[Fledermaus]

Hugh is a little too Arnold happy for me now.

I have a picture I took in the capital in Sacramento. It's of an old lady they hire to push the buttons in the elevators.

Unless Arnold, or Tom, or Cruz, or any of other 132, can't fire those old ladies sitting in elevators to push buttons, then they can't even come close to fixing California's fiscal problems.

I've been an accountant for almost 30 years and if you can't stop the nickels and dimes, you will never be able to stop the hundreds, thousands, or millions of dollars of waste or fraud.

But politicians and the left wing press laugh at anyone trying to save those nickels and dimes. They roll their eyes and say, "oooooh, so who cares if you save 3 cents per roll of toilet paper with a $100 billion budget?"

Thus the waste continues because all true waste and fraud exist on those nickel and dime levels. They add up. But the bottom line is principle. If you aren't willing to stop the nickel and dime expenditures because you think them trivial, then you will never be able to make the right decision on large budget issues.

[Roscoe]

Check out his attack on Tom for not controlling the independent expenditures made in his behalf, apparently ignorant of the fact that it would be illegal for McClintock to do so.

[Lancey Howard]

The big debate gets underway at 6:00 p.m. tonight, PST

Uh, Hugh... since when is a scripted question and answer borefest a "debate"?

Still, it will be interesting to see how Arnold tippie-toes along the fence so as not to annoy the liberals while still pretending to sound as "conservative" as he thinks he can get away with.

[Reagan Man]

"Independent expenditure by its nature means we can't have anything to do with it," Stoos said, but, he added, "it will help us compete with the millionaires."

Arnold's $8,000,000+!

[ambrose]

I am frankly getting tired of this. The RINOs have made it clear that they won't allow Tom to win... In fact, they're threatening to turn against the recall rather than allow the possibility of a victory by Tom. For these RINOs, it is Arnold or Nothing. They went "nuclear" yesterday with Issa's statements (which probably came straight down from Rove/Parsky) about voting no on the recall..