(CA Democrats) DRUNK WITH POWER

The Sacramento News & Review ^ | 8/29/02 | Capitol Bites

[evilsmoker]

Drunk on power Tales from the End-of-Session Bash

Last call: The arrogance of power finds telling manifestations in the waning days of the California Legislature’s session each year, and things get particularly ugly when you mix in copious quantities of booze, as policy-makers did at their End-of-Session Bash last week.

We all like to blow out the pipes after a big project, but these guys had yet to even pass a budget or deal with much of the session's most important bills when they lit up the Sacramento Convention Center like a high school prom without chaperones.

When male legislators don pretty dresses for skits, you better believe there were some serious courage-building tequila shots involved. So the amount of slobber slathered all over every eligible and even not-so-eligible female in the room was high by even the standards of the Capitol, which seems to exempt itself from sexual harassment laws.

The most audacious example was the story widely circulated through the Capitol of a certain Senator getting slapped backstage by an Assemblywoman after he made a lewd comment about her skimpy dress. If only staffers felt enough power to slap a Senator.

Other spectacles were more public, like Assemblywoman Rebecca Cohn bumping and grinding on stage with Assemblyman Lou Correa and then the Hip Service bandleader, who finally had to physically remove her so they could play their set.

And the party didn't end there, as the legislators and staffers sloshed over to Simon's afterward, where they were still smoking tobacco and boozing it up until 3 a.m. Yes, that's no typo, and it's no isolated incident either. When the session ends this Saturday night (if it ever ends), expect Simon's to again be hopping well after other bars are forced by law to close.

Which takes us back to the arrogance of power. If legislators like to smoke cigarettes in bars that stay open past 2 a.m., don't they think some of the rest of us might enjoy that as well? But just as it is with labor laws--from forcing unpaid overtime on staffers to hitting on them--our leaders feel above the laws they create.

[evilsmoker]

Democrats again prove what a bunch of hypocrites they are! This publication is a liberal rag so that's why the story fails to mention that this was a CA Democrat Leadership fundraiser.

[evilsmoker]

Oops - don't know how I managed to screw up the headline and not catch it before posting. Sorry.

[Gabz]

Interesting, isn't it???

[evilsmoker]

It sure is. You can bet your bottom dollar that if this was a GOP story it would have made the mainstream news.

[SheLion]

And the party didn't end there, as the legislators and staffers sloshed over to Simon's afterward, where they were still smoking tobacco and boozing it up until 3 a.m. Yes, that's no typo, and it's no isolated incident either. When the session ends this Saturday night (if it ever ends), expect Simon's to again be hopping well after other bars are forced by law to close.

Yep! A bunch of the worst! Do as we say not as we do. But a bunch of phonies!

[SheLion]

Bump to the Puff_List!

[Gophack]

Which takes us back to the arrogance of power. If legislators like to smoke cigarettes in bars that stay open past 2 a.m., don't they think some of the rest of us might enjoy that as well? But just as it is with labor laws--from forcing unpaid overtime on staffers to hitting on them--our leaders feel above the laws they create.

Great article. And from a liberal rag. Love it when they eat their own, and it's not just us conservatives who practice cannabalism.

[Theodore R.]

My understanding is that the entrenched Democrat majority in CA has gerrymandered all legislative districts in such a way that Republicans could not win a majority even if they got 60 percent of the statewide legislative vote. So, even if Simon were to become governor, wouldn't his every action be blocked, the way the LA Democrats did to Republican Governor Dave Treen from 1980-84?

[Free_at_last_-2001]

But...but.. it's in the Constitution...."Everyone is equal but some are more equal than others!"

[SheLion]

And from a liberal rag. Love it when they eat their own, and it's not just us conservatives who practice cannabalism.

[stimulate]

Who is Dave Treen? He was never a Calif. Gov.

[MadIvan]

I was really not curious about what socialists do in their spare time. It's pleasing to know I was right not to be curious.

Regards, Ivan

[lowbridge]

California bump

[Max McGarrity]

I signed up for the email service alerting me to any movement of SB 1849, the bill that will raise the tax on a pack of cigarettes to $2.13, which will increase the price to near that in NYC, and add 5% tax to the subscription price of satellite TV, among other things. Every day since the 6th of August the bill was held over to the "next legislative session." Today, a vote was taken, 48 AYES, 29 NOES--"Reconsideration granted. Re-referred to Com. on RLS. From committee with author's amendments. Read second time. Amended. Re-referred to committee."

Anyone wanna bet it will slide through just before our civil serpents leave tonight?

[Great Dane]

Typical....... bunch of hypocrites.

[Feiny]

Well, isn't that special.

They probably stuck CA taxpayers with the bar tab as well! Too bad there is no video tape of this party to play onthe news......or is there?

[Theodore R.]

LA (Louisiana) Governor Treen, 1980-84

[Great Dane]

#16...... And the cost of the smokes.

[Saundra Duffy]

Democraps strike again.

[Saundra Duffy]

If we don't get a Republican governor elected, we're doomed to FOUR MORE YEARS OF THIS CRAP! Go, Simon!!!