Ah, the end of summer! Time for parents to get ready for shuttling their kids around some more, time for kids to get ready for school, students to get ready for college, and politicians to fight recalls.
Grey Davis, governor of California, is under the pressure of a recall vote that threatens to overturn his repressive economic regime. Nobody questions that he's been a jerk when it comes to economics. You can't blame Republicans for a $38 billion dollar deficit, when the most powerful Republican hasn't even been elected yet. And that's why Grey Davis will lose. And also why California will go to Bush in the 2004 election. The "little people," the non-actors, the people whose opinions actually do matter, have now realized that Grey Davis and his cronies do stuff, and then try to blame it on Republicans. But Davis was too methodical this time. Without any Republicans to blame in his own state, he goes out and blames Bush. In this politcal climate, blaming a still popular president for something that is entirely your doing, would appear to any politically inclined person, to be PR suicide.
So now he has to deal with a recall. He's threatening to fight it. I bet he'll do everything in his power to look just like Clinton. He's suing the state because he wants to be on the ballot to replace himself if the recall is successful. The state constitution specifically says that no public servant being subjected to a recall election may be on the ballot to replace himself. So techincally, he's suing the state constitution in federal court. And if I remember correctly, what goes in the state constitution is the states business, and the federal government and court system has no say on what goes on there.
The only good thing for the Democrats has been Mr. Bustamante's entrance into the recall election. When Feinstein said she wouldn't run, Democrats thought all was lost. Mr. Bustamante won't have an easy time beating the Govinator, but he will have a better chance than that porn star.
Ah, the Govinator. Arnold Schwarzenegger. (I can guarantee I misspelled his last name.) This actor worth multiple millions of dollars, started from nothing. That's pretty good for someone who started with just muscles. But did he start with just muscles? Now it appears that he has financial brain power also. He has already recruited Warren Buffet to be his financial advisor if/when he becomes governor, and Steve Forbes, another legendary financial guru, has endorsed Arnold, even though Forbes has little or nothing to do with California.
So what's going to happen in California? I don't like the outlook much. One good thing is that Davis will be recalled. There's little doubt about that. Unless of course, Davis succeeds with his second unconstitutional lawsuit, pushing the election back to the March Democratic primary election. California's constitution again states that a recall election must be held within 80 days of the certification of signatures on the petition to recall the public servant. Davis is trying to push the recall back almost 5 months, more than 100 days past the deadline. He says that the state has to make sure that the recall vote is held in compliance with federal guidelines. But the law states that the guidelines must be established before the petition is certified. The petition has already been certified, and anyway, there's still the problem that the federal government/court system cannot interfere with a state's constitution. So that lawsuit is also doomed for defeat.
Here's what I think is going to happen. Davis will lose both his lawsuits that he has filed at the moment, and will just let the recall go through, while still blasting the Republicans, and right wingies for bringing this environmental disaster? Washington Post article. Read seventh paragraph. upon California. If he keeps making stupid things up like an election will hurt the environment, then it makes me wonder even more why this guy wasn't recalled sooner. Who will replace him? That's not such good news. I think that Mr. Bustamante will replace him, unless Bill Simon drops out of the race. If Mr. Simon drops out, then I believe that Arnold will win the election with over 50% of the vote. Then what will happen? President Bush will win the 54 electoral votes in California easily in the upcoming election. In the long run, I think that California will continue it's downhill slide, until the independants take it over. Then it will split into North and South California, and the North California will prosper, while South California falls back into the control of Democrats. In other words, South California will go back into the hands of the Devil.