Thenk yew.
> Seriously, though, as a die-hard Republican (who voted
> for a local candidate whose only campaign promise was
> to abolish his office as soon as possible and do no
> work thereafter), it worries me that we are setting
> the same sort of precedent for elected officials that
> the Democrats did for judges with Bork. The Senate
> should advise but ultimately consent; recalls should
> be used for crooks. Same problem. In fact, one is
> probably a reaction to the other.
Yep. The comedians have been jesting about a Recall Arny campaign for weeks. When all you need is to stir up resentment over "the job the governor is doing" - not a hard thing to do by any means - then no governor is safe. And, of course, the people that started the whole proces weren't in at the end. They started the recall, costing the state $70 mil., and weren'teven men enough to stick around.
> That said, direct democracy as a whole in California
> is a massive failure, so Ahnold did us Republicans no
> favors by winning the race to become the next failed
> governor of an ungovernable state.
It's not ungovernable, except that the Legislature won't let the Governer do his job. Take the case of the State Budget - one of the things Davis was blasted for. The legislature is the body that comes up with the budget, and they are suipposed to do it in a timely manner. It then goes to the Governer for his signature. He does have the right and responsibility to review it and approve it *or not*, but the problem is that the Legislature does not produce a budget in a timely manner (leading to the state being unable to pay its workers or debts) because of partisan bullshit. Unless we give the Governor martial authority to hold guns to the heads of the senators we won't see a budget on-time any time soon. (I blame both parties evenly, here.)
Now, if *I* were in charge, I'd fire every single state senator and forbid them to run for office in California ever again if they pulled that shit. Further, I'd inform the legislators of all other states that these bozoes were unable to perform their duties, and admonish them not to allow these assholes to run in their states either. And no golden parachutes - if the budget is on my desk by a month before I have to sign it, its adios amigos, don't let the door hit your butt on the way out.
> > The Republicans will do anything to win an election - except get the
> > votes.
>
> 3,675,552 votes, last time I checked.
>
> http://vote2003.ss.ca.gov/Returns/summary.html
>
> That's more than whatshisname got last year, either by raw numbers or
> percentage.
They lost the regular election last year. The only way they could "win" is by calling for a recall just because "We don't like the results". Gray Davis did no overtly criminal deed that led to this recall, all he did was beat the Republican Candidate (being a sleazeball is not overtly illegal).
Florida. Texas. California. The Reps have shown that they have less interest in the Democratic process than in winning.
I'm not happy that the recall happened because it was petty politicking. If Davis had been caught in a Watergate, then I would have been all for it. But this was Republicans dissatisfied with the legal results of a legal election.
I say call in the UN to oversee any and all elections in America until we have a legally elected government.
RR
Powered by hypermail