Posted on 09/24/2003 12:11:47 AM PDT by 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?
Source?
I wonder why? (sarcasm) Could he be part of Arnie's robber baron allies?
Quotes are from the Orange County Register
"Hugh Hewitt, legal counsel to the Building Industry Association Endangered Species Committee" (1991)
"Irvine attorney Hugh Hewitt, who represents many large Southern California land interests" (1992)
"Gov. Wilson appointment of Irvine attorney Hugh Hewitt to the board of the South Coast Air Quality Management District (1995)"
...."Hugh Hewitt, an attorney and co-host of "Life and Times" on KCET-TV, was appointed to the board by Gov. Pete Wilson in May 1995, pending Senate confirmation. But the Senate rules committee voted 3-2 Monday not to confirm Hewitt's appointment. "His record is more pro-industry, at the expense of air quality," said Sandy Harrison, press secretary for committee chairman Sen. Bill Lockyer, D-Hayward. Lockyer also felt that Hewitt was not an air-quality specialist, as called for in state law, and that he had potential conflicts of interest because of his many business clients."(1996)
I have long referred to an Ideological Corral wherein all but the outside-the-3-sigma ideologies of the Establishment are contained. With those ideas, social policies are advanced.
The California recall represents a rebellion against the Establishment here. And it seems the same forces which formed the left and right of the corral are now pulling in the same direction -- to the left -- so that now my symbol seems to have altered into an Ideological Net. There is no organized Right any longer for us to turn to.
And so it has the conservatives all looking to cut the ties of the net. And behind us, wathcing, is the vast middle who were quite willing, IMO, to follow us out to our vision of freedom.
But what they are about to see, as I point out in #80, is us give up.
So, are we now in a fine kettle of fish? < LOL, sorry > Death Culture at its finest. And oh how I wish I was badly mixing metaphors. The morphing seems all to apparent: a nightmare.
What the h*ll can we do about it?
In your wildest dreams, do you think either republican can win if both stay in the race?
Perhaps it has to do with competition. Robert Earl, Arnold's partner in various past deals (Planet Hollywood and others) and one of the senior executives of his Inner City Games recently won the Las Vegas bid for the bankrupt Aladdin. The Indians have to be a thorn in their side. Las Vegas mogul Steve Wynn has also supported Arnold's After-school-programs. Tribal gaming has to be reducing their profits.
OK. Arnold drops out. Do you think that McClintock would win?
Issa was on one of the KABC talk shows this evening (Elder or Rantell). He adopted one of Arnold's tactics... He said that he did not mean that... it was an "over the top" comment to get attention. Look for a formal retraction soon.
One less leftist in the race.
You didn't answer the question. In your heart of hearts, if Arnold drops out will that be enough to elect Tom?
That's nice... but I'm sure Issa's remarks will still find their way in Grayout commercials: "Now even the man who bankrolled this power grab thinks it is a bad idea!" Grayout was beaming today, and heaped praise on Issa, per press reports.
Check again. It's the Arnold supporters pushing a "no" on the recall if their candidate keeps stagnating.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.