Mad Cows and O.C. Republicans

Last month’s election results show that the Orange County GOP has a back-door affirmative-action program for indicted felons and other incompetents. Scott Baugh’s insufferable victory statement declaring his election to be a renunciation of Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi diagnoses him as a victim of mad cow disease.

Baugh’s reelection in November would put Orange County in the same company with Boston (who reelected James Curley as mayor while he was in prison), Washington, D.C., (who elected Marion Barry as mayor after he got out of prison) and Chicago (where most of those who get elected ought to be in prison).

Baugh, [Assembly Speaker Curt] Pringle, [Rep.] Dana Rohrabacher et al. got into this mess by trying to split the Democrat vote. They should be hoisted on their own petard. How about launching a strong, well-organized write-in campaign now for a Republican (Doris Allen?) who’s electable? When the GOP establishment tries (as it surely will) to strong-arm the organizers, they should be reminded that, if Baugh gets convicted before November, he’ll have to resign, and then a Democrat will win the seat.

DAN EMORY

Huntington Beach

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* After following the Scott Baugh fiasco, I would like to recommend that Messrs. Rohrabacher, Baugh and Pringle start checking the length of their noses daily.

GEORGE E. MOFFAT

La Habra

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* Thanks for the great investigative reporting. I am referring to the Scott Baugh case and also to the University of California system. This is what makes the Los Angeles Times the best in the West.

JOHN R. CENTENO

San Clemente

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* Good for Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi and shame on my party’s state vice chairman, Michael Schroeder, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) and Baugh for trying to pressure Capizzi into not doing his duty by publicly ridiculing him as “berserk” and engaging in “Nazi” tactics.

Tampering with the election process is apparently trivial to those guys. Elections in Orange County should be guarded and treasured. Rohrabacher called Baugh’s stunt “inappropriate,” yet he blasted Capizzi for arresting Baugh for his part in the stunt that apparently broke the law. Baugh accused Capizzi of timing the indictment to coincide with Tuesday’s election--as if Baugh’s dirty tricks were not timed to coincide with the election. I expected denials, but this bleeding heart crybaby stuff from Rohrabacher and Baugh was a surprise. Would “B-1 Bob” Dornan be this wimpy?

MARK DAVIDSON

Costa Mesa

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* As a Republican, I am outraged and disgusted with the people of the 67th Assembly District for being duped and manipulated by the Republican Party leadership into voting for the likes of a Scott Baugh.

Knowing what we all know about his criminal indictments, how could the voters of Costa Mesa, Huntington Beach and Los Alamitos embarrass themselves so much? It is a national disgrace to Orange County. What in the world were these voters thinking?

I know what I was thinking when I saw the smiling face of the victorious Baugh on the front page of the Los Angeles Times. I immediately started thinking about what happened in Washington, D.C., a couple of years ago. I remember very clearly the smiling face of Marion Barry on the front pages of all the newspapers when he won reelection to the City Council there after getting out of prison.

I wonder if any of the voters in the 67th Assembly District remember this? Apparently not many.

PHILLIP KNYPSTRA

Anaheim

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* Scott Baugh--what a sad little Bible-toting puppet!

Educated by Jerry Falwell and guided by the virtuous Pringle and Rohrabacher, he has learned his lesson well: Do whatever is necessary to win an election. When all else fails, lie! Blame the district attorney! Cry a lot!

Baugh has chosen a very dangerous path. He had better let those puppeteers continue to pull the strings, or else off with his head. He has only to remember [former Assembly members Paul] Horcher, Allen and [Brian] Setencich.

BESSIE LEVY

Huntington Beach

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* Many years ago on a business trip to Boston, I learned that the mayor, James Michael Curley, was serving time in prison--however, he had just been reelected.

That’s why when people ask if I am surprised that Scott Baugh is ahead in his election bid for the Assembly, I say, “Not at all.”

DIXON GAYER

Huntington Beach

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* It is amazing to what outlandish heights the art of self-serving rhetoric can be taken by politicians who have put themselves in a corner.

Such is the case with Scott Baugh, Curt Pringle and Dana Rohrabacher. Their insane broadsides, including comparisons of Mr. Capizzi to the Nazis and the Communists, are obviously the words of men desperate to deflect guilt and attention from themselves and their misdeeds. They simply buttress the feeling in the general electorate that they have totally lost touch with reality. If even one of them could show half the record Mr. Capizzi has against government corruption by Republicans and Democrats alike, they might have some credence, but they can’t.

Even in the county where some still revere the most embarrassing president ever, their behavior will be regarded by most people as a shameful reminder of what a politician can try to get away with in a one-party region.

Thank goodness there are people like Mr. Capizzi who value principles of law above the self-serving interests of the good ol’ boys in certain political circles. Watching some of these people like Rohrabacher and Gov. Wilson defend the obvious financial misdeeds and dirty tricks of Scott Baugh makes one wonder just what means they would consider acceptable if the political ends were even more important to them than the control of the California Assembly.

Hopefully, Rohrabacher’s and Pringle’s supporters will wake up by November. If justice prevails, Scott Baugh will probably be in jail by then and his supporters will no doubt have faded red-faced into the background.

The campaign workers already convicted have dutifully taken the fall for their elected patrons. It’s time Rohrabacher, Pringle and Baugh admitted that it was their direction that got those people in trouble, not the enforcing of “hard to understand” campaign laws by a prosecutor doing the job we all expect him to do.

T. WINSTON VICKERS

Anaheim