DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe is saying that no Democrat will run on the ballot to replace embattled California Governor Gray Davis. This would seem to squash speculation that someone like Senator Barbara Boxer would run to replace Davis on a California recall ballot.
Despite the spin from the Democrats, the replacement of Davis is almost a fait accompli. Davis is hugely unpopular, and even with legal challenges of the recall petition it is very doubtful that even if the initial petition is thrown out, another one wouldn’t succeed.
Right now all eyes are on Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is thought to be eyeing the California governorship. Schwarzenegger is a fiscal conservative who would enforce fiscal sanity in Sacramento but a social moderate that can’t be ripped to shreds by the more liberal Californian voters. It remains to be seen if Schwarzenegger will run, although the conventional wisdom says he likely will. If so, Davis and the Democrats will be "terminated"
The fact that you’re not condemning this unconscionable recall petition shows you have absolutely no respect for our system of democratic elections, even though you’re always quick to lecture about respecting the system organized by the founding fathers. Rabid partisanship is leading the charge to proceed with this unethical assault on voters’ decision in the November election, and California voters will now lose no matter the outcome. Just as Republicans are sabotaging the functioning of government in Washington, the GOP in Sacramento applied the same level of moral bankruptcy in the difficult 2003 session by purposefully obstructing desperately needed legislation to balance the $38 billion deficit that resulted in large part because of the energy deregulation scam Gray Davis inherited from the Pete Wilson years. Doing whatever it takes to make Davis look bad, Sacramento Republicans are intentionally holding their financial situation and the lives of California citizens underwater in the hopes that voters will blame the Governor in the costly and fraudulent election they’re engineering.
No matter how far one lowers the ethical bar on Republicans, they always manage to find a way to slither under it….and their ruinous attempts to dig their own state into a deeper and more painful hole just to one-up a Governor and an election where they didn’t like the result is proof that there is absolutely nothing these savages aren’t capable of.
If this recall happens, all bets are off on the future of democratic elections. Between Supreme Court presidential appointments and “re-votes” orchestrated by opposition parties who don’t like the result of the first, no election outcome can be deemed safe in the modern era.
You really should think hard before embracing the recalls of Governors. Given the resident crook who lives in Minnesota’s statehouse, and his disastrous job performance, Minnesota Democrats may pursue recall options in our own state as well.
As for “Governor Arnie”, the premise doesn’t even warrant discussion it’s so assinine. If California voters are really dense enough to follow through with this abomination, they deserve to roast in the hell with their maker.
Last time I checked, the ability to recall an elected official was part of the California Constitution. Article 2 Sections 13-19 to be exact.
The people of California can vote to keep Davis or replace him with someone else. Last time I checked there was nothing undemocratic about calling for a vote – unless you live in Liberal La-La Land.
Yes, allowing for a recall election is legal in California. In Minnesota, it’s legal for the Legislature to ban guns in their workplace but illegal for courthouses and other public offices to do the same. Up until last week, it was legal to arrest consensual adults practicing oral sex or sodomy in the privacy of their homes. But should society accept that legality makes ethics irrelevant? Can someone justify whatever sleazy, underhanded action they take as long as it’s “legal”? You can be assured that in a hard-left state like California, the GOP’s smashmouth tactics with this recall may result in a short-term win, but the long-term repercussions of such a partisan firefight will not bode well for the party given the demographics of California voters.
Beyond that, California’s disastrous budget woes will be worsened by the billion-dollar special election and the partisan posturing that will prevent any progress between now and then. The fact that you and GOPers in Sacramento are willing to damage their state’s finances and their people’s livelihood, along with any semblance of political civility that may exist, to try to sneak in one of your own by default reveals this plan’s supporters much more bankrupt of morals than California is bankrupt of revenue.
Wanna create a national environment where nothing can EVER get done because party power struggles will put the livelihoods of sitting elected leaders on the block outside the parameters of legally recognized election cycles, support this plan and then try for decades to come to wash the blood off your hands.
It’s patently ridiculous to argue that California’s voters acting in concord with their own Constitution is somehow a democratic crisis.
Oh, wait, it’s that this sort of thing is only bad when it’s against Republicans. In your world, Democrats can do no wrong.
Gray Davis should be recalled, and he will be recalled. That’s the way the system works in California, and that system is necessary to ensure that government officials remain accountable to the people.
Yeah, Mark, it’s fascinating how this is only an “electoral crisis” when it affects a worthless Democrat.
Are we to presume that the legislators who enacted the California constitution were not competent to draft state laws? Do they have autonomy? Free will?
Please feel free to answer in the form of something germane.
You’d think the Rebpublicans could come up with an even remotely reasonable canidate. You can’t honestly believe people will be voting for him on policy issues. (Does he even have any?) Half will vote for him becuase he is not Gray Davis and the other becuase he’s the fricking Terminator. Truely hilarious.
Oh well, couldn’t be worse than Ventura…
The founding fathers of the California constitution are undoubtedly rolling over in their graves, watching the recall option they provided as a way of removing a Governor guilty of egregious misconduct being manipulated by shameless partisan degenerates for short-term political gain.
And short term it will be indeed. My disgust with the recall abomination comes from wishing to preserve the slightest hint of dignity and integrity that’s left in American politics. From a strictly partisan standpoint, however, bring it on. If you want to take the gloves off in attempt unseat a single unpopular Democrat in one of the nation’s most left-wing states, California Democrats will have my full support when they thrust their mighty daggers into your abdomen, smiling ear to ear as they swim in the rivers of GOP blood flowing across California streets.
Your party’s picking a bad state to apply a “whatever means necessary” approach given your overall irrelevance in state politics, and the vicious retribution will be fun and well-deserved.
I’ve decided that your surname must be Saeed al-Sahhaf…