‘Routine’? What’s Bernie Been Smokin’?

Is Bernie Richter on drugs?

Please understand: In asking this question, no disrespect is intended. The question may seem impolite, but if Bernie Richter believes we should do unto others as we would have others do unto us, the question is more than appropriate.

The GOP assemblyman from Chico, after all, assured me the other day that no offense was intended last week when his subcommittee on higher education placed Cal State Northridge President Blenda J. Wilson under oath and asked if she had taken any medication or drugs that might affect her testimony. (Wilson politely answered no, and not “Why? Are you selling?”)

The question, Richter told me later, is “routine” whenever people are placed under oath. (Lawyers tell me it’s not an unusual question in depositions, but in public settings it would probably only be asked to achieve a tactical advantage.)

Richter, I fear, may forget that turnabout is fair play. He’s livid with the media--or some of it, anyway. When I reached him by phone the other day, he was fuming over press accounts that made his affirmative action hearings sound like a witch hunt.

Why, he asked, hadn’t reporters focused on the testimony of a white Cal State Sacramento student who successfully sued the institution for denying her entrance to a graduate social work program that gave preference points to minority applicants?

When I asked him why that grad student wasn’t put under oath and asked about drug use, Richter suggested that was “an oversight.”

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But that wasn’t his only explanation. Richter said he could personally vouch for the student’s integrity. The integrity of officials in higher education, Richter suggested, is another matter entirely. Blenda Wilson and other officials were placed under oath, he said, because he has so often failed to get straight answers about affirmative action policies.

Mistrust is a two-way street. At Cal State Northridge, the questioning of Blenda Wilson was widely perceived as more petty political harassment for ex-klan leader David Duke’s appearance on campus in late September. Gov. Pete Wilson and other Proposition 209 supporters complained that students had invited Duke in a transparent attempt to smear their cause as racist.

When I asked Richter about this, again he fumed. His invitation to Blenda Wilson, he said, had nothing to do with David Duke; several academic leaders, he pointed out, are being called to testify. Still, there’s no question that Richter’s treatment of Wilson fits a pattern that began after the Duke invitation. Consider:

* Although legal decisions clearly uphold the student government’s right to invite whomever it chooses, Gov. Wilson criticized the university for allowing the event to take place.

* UC Regent Ward Connerly, chairman of the pro-Proposition 209 forces, focused his complaints directly on Blenda Wilson. In one memorable news conference, Connerly called the Duke invitation a “conspiracy” and “probably one of the sleaziest things that has happened in California political history.” Although Connerly claimed to have a witness who would blow the whistle on the Northridge shenanigans, he never backed up those claims.

* Shortly before Duke’s appearance, Blenda Wilson’s office received a letter from a Sacramento political research group requesting her phone records. The university cited legal precedents in denying the request. The yes-on-209 campaign later acknowledged that the letter was sent on its behalf.

* Richter’s letter seeking Wilson’s testimony happened to arrive by fax on Sept. 25, the day of Duke’s appearance. “Please consider this letter the Committee’s good faith effort to secure your voluntary commitment to appear prior to the issuance of a legislative subpoena,” it said.

A good-faith threat of subpoena.

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So the pattern persisted when Blenda Wilson was called to testify, but Richter’s bad-faith tactics backfired. His hearings may well be just a show trial to illustrate that affirmative action is a euphemism for reverse discrimination, but those who are ambivalent about 209 couldn’t have been impressed by the bullying.

This is especially true for people who know of Blenda Wilson’s reputation as a reasonable, capable community leader who merits praise for her handling of crises ranging from a major earthquake to a variety of social and educational tremors. Richter’s committee never asked her about the controversy that ensued when a white instructor was hired in pan-African studies. Many students complained, but Wilson, who is African American, defended the appointment. It would be wrong and illegal, Wilson said, to deny the instructor the position based on her race.

Richter’s hearings resume Wednesday at Burbank City Hall. Has he learned anything? Will Barry Munitz, chancellor of the Cal State system, be asked if he is under the influence? Hey, why not urine tests? To prove he’s fair, Richter could go first.

Scott Harris’ column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Readers may write to Harris at the Times Valley Edition, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth 91311. Please include a phone number.