Justice Bird’s Losing Campaign

If it was “arrogance” that led Bird to decline Zimmerman’s offer to devise an emotional, negative, mudslinging campaign for her, then I only wish I could see more such “arrogance” among California’s public officials.

The chief justice’s refusal to stoop to the level of her Republican detractors was a singularly refreshing example of personal integrity in an election year marred by the most unprincipled and vulgar television campaigning in recent memory.

Instead of blaming Bird for her own defeat, Zimmerman should point the accusing finger right where it belongs--at an electorate characterized by willful ignorance and intellectual laziness on a monumental scale. In a democracy, the people get the government they deserve, which doesn’t say much for the citizens of California.

BRENN von BIBRA

Los Angeles