Oh, the heady days of 2003; there was a perfect storm brewing that Gray Davis could do nothing to stop. Darrell Issa was busy tossing around his car security cash around in order to be elected governor in the recall election. Of course, that never happened, as Arnold Schwarzenegger jumped in to the race, and the rest is history. But what is the CW on that?
Well, if there is a source of Sacramento CW, certainly George Skelton is your man. And today, he declares that the recall was folly:
One thing should now be evident as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger packs up his office: It was a mistake to recall Gray Davis.
Davis didn’t deserve it. He had just been reelected the year before. He would have been out of office in three years anyway.
Schwarzenegger wasn’t an improvement except for, briefly, providing entertainment. He didn’t make the state’s money mess any better. In fact, it has gotten worse. (LA Times)
Of course, seeing where he is now in the polls, and the position the state is in right now, this takes no great source of conventional wisdom. During the last seven years, Arnold made some pretty important moves. But, ultimately, he was a failure because he didn’t understand the system, and his only attempts to change it were at the margin where it is safe and cuddly.
He billed himself as a reformer, and the only reforms he could get through were do-nothing reforms like redistricting and Top 2. He billed himself as somebody who could sweep away the debt and deficit, but really, he was in no position to do either. And he never even seriously tried to work for real change on the budget system. He was content to further aggrandize the Big 5 system, making the system even more closed than it was in the past.
Gray Davis got rolled, but as we learned from Prop 8, the voters of this state can make mistakes. Some they learn quickly, and others it takes a few years. It seems with the Mistakinator, it took about 6 years.
The take-home message for Democrats is that playing political hardball never hurts you. The Republicans have
been doing this since the 70’s (Willie Horton ads, Bush v. Gore, the 2003 Recall, continued obstruction in 2009-2010 Congress) and they never get negative press coverage–even Skelton’s acknowledgement of a mistake does not hold the Republicans responsible. So it’s up to Democrats to do the same.
Yes it was a dirty trick
But, I draw a different lesson…
Don’t support SPINELESS Bozos
Gray agreed to forget the VLF fee increase
WHY not DEFEND IT?
It was needed to prevent a bigger deficit
Gray was using California as a ‘stepping stone’ for his Presidential ambitions
Democrats are still running away from taxes
Level with the American people
I voted for Bustamonte. Maybe I should have voted for Gary Coleman
to prevent him from going after the $9 billion Enron stole from California. Skelton is committing journalistic misdirection to throw more dirt on the grave of that story.
http://www.projectcensored.org…
Does anyone remember when $9 billion seemed like a large number?
Boy, talk about being late to the party ! Those of us who voted NO on the recall saw that Davis was being rolled at the time. How do you recall someone you just re-elected the year before ?
What I don’t understand is why the media never went after Issa who’s political power play it was in the first place. That schmuck financed the recall so he could be elected Governor through the back door. Arnold took care of that. Well, at least that was one good thing Arnold did.
Now Issa, still in Congress, is ready to make Obama’s life miserable by holding hearing after hearing seeking information on nonsense. Subpoena power in that man’s hand will be abused just like he abused the recall process in California.