Week in Review : MAJOR EVENTS, IMAGES AND PEOPLE IN ORANGE COUNTY NEWS. : POLITICS : Assemblyman’s Blunt Words Backfire in the Legislature

Words can kill. At least they can kill bills in the Assembly, as rookie Assemblyman Gil Ferguson (R-Newport Beach) discovered.

Ferguson, whose blunt verbal attacks quickly earned him the nickname “Rambo” in the Assembly, was sore when his bill to reinstate an independent coroner’s office in Orange County died in the Assembly. He publicly berated three Assembly Democrats for voting against it--nothing unusual for a Republican--but Ferguson did it in such strong terms that Democrats marked it down.

Then Ferguson attacked the lobbyist against his pending bill to limit noise from the Pacific Amphitheater in Costa Mesa. Again nothing unusual, except that the lobbyist is the 79-year-old former Merced County judge and Assemblyman James D. Garibaldi, who is immensely popular among Sacramento legislators.

Ferguson, quoted in a news article, again spared no bluntness. “I have no use for Garibaldi,” Ferguson said. “He is just an old man whose name and fame have controlled the Legislature. . . . His time is past due.”

Garibaldi shrugged off the comment. “All my friends would laugh about it,” he said.

Perhaps, perhaps not. Ferguson’s name is no longer on the amphitheater bill, and the lobbyist for the City of Costa Mesa confirmed that that was done to keep Democrats from torpedoing it.

Ferguson said several Democrats indicated that they would never vote for it with Ferguson’s name attached. They want “to teach Gil a little humility,” Ferguson said.