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RAMscam, Databacle or Geekgate? Hugh Hewitt says no matter the title, Gov. Davis has done it again
WorldNetDaily.com ^ | Wednesday, May 8, 2002 | Hugh Hewitt

Posted on 05/08/2002 12:16:17 AM PDT by JohnHuang2

Although California's elites are enjoying the latest of the many pratfalls of Gray Davis – truly the worst governor in the state's history – don't expect RAMscam to become a Watergate or a Whitewater. The elements are all there, certainly, including the huge waste of public funds, a lobbyist handing $25,000 to the Gov's guy after the contract was signed with Oracle, shredding of documents, and an accusation of pressure brought to bear by the Davis team on state legislators poking among the ruins of the $95 million dollar database "deal" with the software giant.

"Deploracle!" said one caller to my program last week as we explored possible titles for Geekgate (or Databacle or GoldenStateGate). It was Friday, and the lines were jammed with participants from coast to coast. Davis' reputation as a legendary incompetent, forged in the power meltdown of last year, has earned him a national following, along the lines of a Joe Btfsplk cult.

Davis did not disappoint. His spokesman mounted a unique defense: Davis is too dumb to be involved. Davis "is mystified by technology," according to spokesman Steve Maviglio. Davis doubled down on that line of denial the following day, allowing as how he didn't even know where the onramp to the information highway was located.

This is amusing. The nation's technology-driven state is itself driven by a self-professed know-nothing. And he's proud of it too!

The key question remains: "What did the governor know, and when did he charge for it?" Davis shook down the state's prison guard union for a quarter-million campaign fund donation after he awarded them billions in raises earlier this year, so the arc of the Geekgate story is well known. So is its ending: It will fade away. Davis is a corrupt, favors-for-campaign-dollars hack. But we know that. Everyone knows that. And the papers don't care, and the television stations don't have Sacramento bureaus, and the head of the "investigation" is California Attorney General Bill Lockyer – the fourth monkey in the line that reads "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil." Lockyer's part is to prosecute no evil.

Which shouldn't surprise. Pressed on whether his own campaign's $50,000 contribution from Oracle should lead him to recuse himself, Lockyer focused on the donation and replied honestly that not only would he not step aside, but that "I was wishing there was more."

Imagine if John Ashcroft had not recused himself from the Enron investigation – which he did – but instead had said his only regret was that he hadn't gotten more from Enron. Would the Washington, D.C., press corps have dismissed the statement as the Los Angeles Times did? (The Times labeled Lockyer's reply a quip and placed it as the last sentence of the story – which may explain why that paper has been beaten like a bongo on Oracle for months and months by the Sacramento Bee and the San Jose Mercury News.)

Lockyer is the famously ill-equipped head of the criminal-justice system in California. I interviewed him during the course of his first campaign and asked the simple question as to which side of the room the prosecutor stands, and Lockyer didn't know – so you get the picture. But he's hanging onto this investigation, though a federal prosecutor would be much better positioned to handle the matter. Lockyer's decision to take control means Davis is already out of the woods.

Could the State Legislature ride in as it did when California's then insurance commissioner was accused of wrongdoing a few years back? At that time, the State House crowd hired special counsel and scheduled weeks of under-oath hearings. The legislators could follow that plan again, but they won't. The insurance commissioner was a Republican – Davis is head of the Dems. End of story. Look for a couple of face-saving hearings dominated by softballs, and a report blaming consultants.

The central fact remains, however, that the Davis man who negotiated the deal that gave a windfall to Oracle then had dinner with the Oracle lobbyist during which the lobbyist gave a check to the Davis man for the Davis campaign. How many times has this sort of thing happened in Sacramento in the last three plus years? Why won't Davis release his schedule of fund-raising events? Why won't the Legislature put Gary South, the governor's top adviser, under oath and under some heavy questioning? Why does the Los Angeles Times write story after story on Bill Simon's campaign and next-to-nothing on Davis?

Because it's a Third World banana republic in Sacramento, with a Fourth World press and a fifth-rate attorney general.

Don't expect the scandal to have legs. That would require someone in Sacramento to have some integrity.




TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Editorial; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: California
KEYWORDS: calgov2002; hughhewitt
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To: ElkGroveDan
LOL! I did not remember Sgt. Schultz looking so DOPEY...
...until I realized that you superimposed Governor "Lowbeam's" ugly mug onto his body! What a doofus!
How did the great state of California end up with such a maroon as chief executive, and WHY is he still there???

I cannot WAIT for the NEW governor of California, BILL SIMON!!!

Also from www.grayOUT2002.com

21 posted on 05/08/2002 8:37:55 AM PDT by RonDog
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To: JohnHuang2; ElkGroveDan
Don't expect the scandal to have legs. That would require someone in Sacramento to have some integrity.

Powerful article. Well said. I hate the cynicism, but here it works. Thank GOD we have a sane and smart candidate in Bill Simon ... I hope that he continues to hammer at Davis. Even if the liberal media won't pick it up, he can get the message directly to the people.

Gray Davis is corrupt. He sells legislation for cash. He needs to be in prison, not the corner office.

Dump Davis!

Hey, someone more talented than me, can you get a picture up with Davis in a black and white prison uniform? Or the bright orange of California Correctionals?

22 posted on 05/08/2002 8:58:52 AM PDT by Gophack
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To: JohnHuang2
Datarape

Governor's 'crime of passion' for $$$$.
23 posted on 05/08/2002 8:59:26 AM PDT by d14truth
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
From April 2001, here is an EXCELLENT analysis from another one of Hugh's old friends, at http://www.mrkabc.com/news/mrnews14.html:


Opinions

Rolling Blackouts Exist Only In Davis' Office

By Mr. KABC, Daily News 04/15/01
DAILY NEWS - Ten stupid things Edison and Governor Low-Beam are doing to mess up your life:

1. We've got the power. The call for new power plants is based on fuzzy math. According to the Independent System Operator, the peak demand for power in California was less than 46,000 megawatts on July 12, 2000. We have the system capacity for 55,500 megawatts and an additional 4,500 megawatts on contract. Six new plants are ready to go online before the year's end and 16 more plants are already under construction.

2. Play a shell game. Using the pay-yourself-first method of accounting, Southern California Edison insulated their shareholders by paying dividends, repurchasing stock and moving their cash reserves to Edison International (the parent company) after spending billions on an international power-plant buying spree.

3. Create a power shortage. Convince Californians they are power greedy but ignore the fact we are second in the nation of lowest power consumers per capita. Everyone supports conservation but the Gov. Gray Davis' plan for using less power at night will do nothing to satisfy peak daytime demand this summer.

4. Collude and price fix. Mission Energy, which is a subsidiary of Edison International, is one of the companies withholding power because SCE, the other Edison subsidiary on the regulated side didn't pay for the power Mission generates.

5. If you can't beat 'em, buy 'em! Wonder why Governor Low-Beam would opt to waste the state surplus buying power instead of forcing the parent company of SCE (Edison International) to help salvage its subsidiary? Perhaps the large campaign contributions (estimated by the Secretary of State Bill Jones at $1 million) the state utilities made to ensure his victory and augment his $27 million war chest is clouding his judgment.

6. Cheaper by the dozen. Gov. Davis could have purchased every power plant in the state for less money than has been wasted buying power for Pacific Gas & Electric and SCE in the first 90 days of the "crisis."

7. Let the fox guard the henhouse. Current and former Edison employees are acting as paid consultants to the governor behind closed doors.

8. Campaign the PUC to rubber-stamp rate increases. The governor's henpecked PUC board (which he claims to have no power over or consultation with) has already approved two massive rate increases since January. Watch for more to come.

9. Let there be light. Edison has nearly bankrupted 700 small power generators in the state by not paying them $1.5 billion. These generators provide us with 20 percent of our power needs. Since without pay, they have no incentive to generate power, there is less power to go around. However, SCE hasn't delayed in collecting from us.

10. The only rolling blackout is the one in the Governor's Office. Several Republican Assembly members are suing the governor to disclose his daily spending to buy power. Democratic State Treasurer Phil Angelides is pleading with the governor to "show me the numbers." Taxpayers have a right to know how much of our money is being spent every day to buy power. If Gov. Davis is suffering from the Stockholm Syndrome, we need to get him some help.


24 posted on 05/08/2002 9:01:38 AM PDT by RonDog
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To: JohnHuang2
BTTT
25 posted on 05/08/2002 9:09:54 AM PDT by hattend
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To: RonDog
Davis is a corrupt, favors-for-campaign-dollars hack. But we know that. Everyone knows that. And the papers don't care, and the television stations don't have Sacramento bureaus, and the head of the "investigation" is California Attorney General Bill Lockyer - the fourth monkey in the line that reads "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil." Lockyer's part is to prosecute no evil...

That is so true. Hugh Hewitt is once again right on target.

26 posted on 05/08/2002 9:49:03 AM PDT by Victoria Delsoul
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To: Carry_Okie
The contribution may have been suspicious, but it's not what's important about this story.

What's important is that the governor hired people to be in charge of negotiating contracts who would find some way of messing up the business negotiations behind a lemonade stand!

The fact that they bought licenses for more people than the total number employed by the state is insane. Not to mention the fact that they bought the licenses and couldn't get them used in a year.

I normally like Oracle, which is an excellent product, but in this case the state was stupid, pure and simple. And that casts grave doubts on Davis' judgement, as does the power crisis and the current budget crisis.

I don't fault Oracle or Logicon for selling their software - the people negotiating for the state had an obligation to understand what was being sold, size it properly for the needs of the state, and behave accordingly. They obviously did none of these things.

The state buys billions of dollars worth of stuff every year. This is just a drop in the bucket, money-wise, but it's a strong indication that we're getting exceptionally poor value for money in what we buy.

And that's a real scandal, and Simon would be quite right to milk it for all its worth.

D

27 posted on 05/08/2002 10:05:40 AM PDT by daviddennis
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To: RonDog
BUMP and thanks for the ping RonDog.
28 posted on 05/08/2002 5:05:00 PM PDT by Snow Bunny
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To: JohnHuang2
The state bought a seat license for every single employee of the State of California. Don't tell me that the garderers, cafeteria workers, lifeguards, janitors, etc. all need access to high-end database query capability. It was stupid of the state to buy the deal but it was dishonest of Oracle to sell 5X the number of licenses "needed". This whole deal stinks of pure corruption from top to bottom.
29 posted on 05/08/2002 10:23:31 PM PDT by TenthAmendmentChampion
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