We should have kept Gray Davis

[cal04]

Schwarzenegger couldn't deliver what California needed.
By George Skelton
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-cap-20101230,0,3314585,full.column

One thing should now be evident as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger packs up his office: It was a mistake to recall Gray Davis.

(snip)
It was not a citizen uprising that dumped Davis, a Democrat. The 2003 recall election was called because one ambitious Republican congressman, Darrell Issa of Vista, spent $1.7 million of his own money to collect the needed signatures.

Issa wanted to run for governor himself. But he gave it up when Schwarzenegger leaped into the race. And the "action hero" movie star entered only after popular U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-San Francisco) made it clear she wasn't going to run. The notion of recalling a sitting governor repulsed her.

(snip)
He didn't seem to understand the concept of checks and balances, the American system of democracy. It took too long for him to realize — if he ever did—that a governor cannot always force his will on a Legislature or be a pied piper to the people.
(Democratic state Treasurer Bill Lockyer)

[meow mix]

1. california had a surplus under davis, republicans gave enron a free pass

wow major screw up for cali

[ThatsMyBarack]

2. Sign of the times.

eom

[molly77]

17. Larry Summers and I think Ken Lay went to Gray Davis

and asked him to relax his environmental laws. Guess he wouldn't . So he was replaced. Enron was into wind energy. After it was all over, California was left with over six billion dollars worth of debt because of Enron.

Many ex Enron employees now work for wind farm corporations. The wind farm corporation UPC has mafia ties. They change their name with each new project. One of them is Cape Wind on Nantucket Sound. Larry Summers was a marketing director for one of the subsidiaries, First Wind, through D E Shaw Group, the hedge fund . They owned 42% of the corporation.

Because of Larry Summers' clout New England has instituted cap and trade. It is a mess. 40 million dollars worth of energy charged to New England rate payers for energy not produced. Conn AG Max Blumenthal took ISO New England and FERC to court.(the plaintiffs stated they would only open their books for the justice dept.) It went all the way to the SC. where he lost, not surprisingly. These people do not have to obey the law.

[molly77]

18. During the bush administration

Maine was having a hearing re a wind farm being sited on the Appalachian Trail. A forest ranger supervisor was testifying that it would hurt tourism and was against. Rep. Darrell Issa called someone on the Land Use Regulatory Committee and said that bush would only allow people to testify at the cabinet level. Afterwards, the forest ranger could only submit written testimony. No one asked WTF was bush and issa doing interfering with Maine energy hearings.

See above comment on wind farms and Enron. So tangled up in govt. The govt has to give a wink and a nod for the lawlessness.

[formercia]

3. Making politicians out of actors does not work very well, it seems.

People have not realized the difference between fantasy and reality. Actors are about fantasy and reality seems to prove it.

[WingDinger]

4. Nice blurb on Issa. Fing crook. I hope he steps outta line.

[WhiteTara]

5. It wasn't a mistake. He and Bustamante were in the

process of suing Enron for the 9 billion dollars they stole. The repulicons couldn't stand that, so they fixed the machines in Riverside county and the bastards stole our state.

[LibDemAlways]

6. Star struck Californians were all too eager to

vote for "The Terminator" who bragged about taking out the "girly men" in Sacramento. It's amazing how many didn't understand that Arnold was an actor who didn't know a thing about the complexities of running the nation's most populous state. We've all suffered on account of their stupidity and Arnold's incompetence.

I'll never forget the day of the recall vote. There were a couple of dipshits in line in front of me who couldn't wait to recall Davis and install Arnold. They actually thought The Terminator was coming to town.

Now Jerry Brown at age 72 is faced with the herculean task of cleaning up the mess. He'll need every bit of his political skill to do it, and I wish him all the best as the Terminator, bowed and bloodied, exits stage right with a whimper.

[Hawkeye-X]

8. I hope his acting contracts dries up

nothing but D-rated movies for him, and he gets paid nothing for his lousy acting skills.

I recently saw Expendables and Ahhhnold was terrible, as usual.

Hawkeye-X

[KansDem]

7. I knew people at the time of Davis' recall that swore he was bad for California

And when I told them about the secret meeting between Schwarzenegger, Lay, and Milken prior to the recall, and how Enron escaped Davis' investigation into its billion-dollar con game, they looked at me with blank stares.

But they still maintained that California's business community suffered from the "liberals in the north."

[Hawkeye-X]

10. LA is not liberal?

Why are they obsessed at their own dicks when they think of San Francisco?

[KansDem]

13. You got me!

I thought it strange when I heard this "theory." And "yes," the couple I referred to lived in LA county. But, I suspected they listened to right-wing radio--California style--to arrive at their conclusion.

Just for the record: this couple also swore up and down they would have to move out of California if Prop. 13 didn't pass. They would not be able to pay their property taxes.

Well, Prop. 13 passed and the next thing this couple did was buy a second house in Big Bear.

They obviously confused "entitlement" with "need"...

[Kolesar]

9. Wow. Great account of the last seven years!

George Skelton
Bio
Political columnist George Skelton has covered government and politics for The Times since 1974.

Through the years he has been a political writer in Los Angeles, Sacramento bureau chief and White House correspondent. He has written a column on Sacramento politics, "Capitol Journal," since 1993.

Prior to joining The Times, he was the Sacramento bureau manager for United Press International. His other jobs include political writer for The Sacramento Union, state capital writer and sports writer for United Press International, and local government reporter for the Sunnyvale (Calif.) Daily Standard.

He received a bachelor's degree in journalism in 1959 from San Jose State College in San Jose, Calif.

[Hepburn]

11. I just gotta say it:

To all my friends who voted to recall Davis and voted for Ah-nold:

I TOLD YOU SO!!!! :hi:

Next time, listen to me, OK?

[bemildred]

12. So what's good for Enron is not what's good for California. nt

[somone]

14. Ain't that the truth

When you hear a stupid car alarm go off, thank Darrell Issa

[seafan]

15. It was like watching a train wreck in slow motion.

LAT: We should have kept Davis, December 28, 2010

.....

It was not a citizen uprising that dumped Davis, a Democrat. The 2003 recall election was called because one ambitious Republican congressman, Darrell Issa of Vista, spent $1.7 million of his own money to collect the needed signatures.

.....

And Arnie's accomplices buried his ties to Enron from the public. Unbridled misery for Californians since then.


Here's to hard lessons learned and better days ahead for us all.

[Festivito]

16. Yeah, now they tell you! Now that the election IS OVER.

Just like Obama is now having so many successes reported, .... now that the election IS OVER.