A Lame Duck Who Still Packs a Strong Kick

Lame Duck-- An officeholder whose power is diminished because he is soon to leave office. . . . This particular fowl has an honored position in American slang. In addition to lame duck, there is a “sitting duck” (vulnerable), “queer duck” (odd), “dead duck” (finished) . . .

--[William] Safire’s New Political Dictionary

****

California’s governor hasn’t been acting like a lame duck, although he’ll soon be leaving office--in about 16 months.

True, he did look like an odd duck crunched in a first-grader’s chair Monday, answering the teacher’s question about what he’d had for lunch. “Boiled fish and vegetables.”

At the back of the classroom, a caged chicken cackled. Or maybe that was a cluck or a croak--or this fowl’s rallying cry for a perceived lame duck.

Whatever, the chicken kept up her chatter throughout Pete Wilson’s photo op visit to a suburban elementary school class. He sat in for 15 minutes--then headed to the auditorium to sign a $1.5-billion bill that fully funds class size reductions in grades K-3 all over California.

Wilson’s message: He’s one of education’s best friends and, by the way, he’s really a sucker for kids.

Chortle, go ahead. But this stuff works. The front page of the Sacramento Bee on Tuesday was dominated by a photo of four wide-eyed little girls of different races excitedly eyeballing the governor, plus a smaller picture of him chatting with a boy about lunch. Maybe Pete Wilson’s not such a bad fellow, after all.

Don’t tell that to Democrats in the Legislature. They just got pecked to pieces--on welfare reform and the budget--by a wily pol they’d mistaken for a lame duck.

*

Wilson is the first California governor in half a century not to suffer from severe lame duck syndrome at this late stage of his tenure.

George Deukmejian, having built his prisons and appointed conservative judges, lost interest. Jerry Brown, after running twice for president, became a laughingstock. Ronald Reagan wore thin and his star faded. Pat Brown was rocked by campus protests and the Watts riots. Goodwin Knight was shunted aside by his own party. Only Earl Warren retained his effectiveness and popularity.

One thing going for Wilson, paradoxically, is that he never has had much popularity to lose. Most times, this duck has looked pretty lame. Things couldn’t get much worse, especially after that embarrassing presidential race. But since then, the governor has rehabilitated himself somewhat, largely by filching the Democrats’ most popular issue, education.

Also, money’s pouring into the treasury from a booming economy and that buys a governor flexibility and leverage.

Democrats won’t agree to my income tax cut? OK, then I won’t allow their civil servant patrons a pay raise. Instead, I’ll just instantly pay off a $1.36-billion debt owed the state employees’ retirement system, saving $650 million in long-term interest. Touche! And I’ll veto $203 million in Democratic pork from the budget, then offer it back in trade for a statewide student performance test given to every kid in English.

Mostly, however, Wilson is filling a power vacuum created by legislative term limits and campaign finance reform.

This Legislature--the Assembly, particularly--has become inexperienced, unfocused and unsure of itself. Meanwhile, it has aided and abetted Wilson by institutionalizing the recession-era “big five” negotiating process, in which one governor is more powerful than all four legislative leaders. Moreover, it’s now harder for legislative leaders to lead--to reward and punish--because they’re perceived as short timers and they also no longer can spread around campaign cash.

But a governor always can reward and punish by signing or vetoing bills. “It gives you a tremendous amount of bargaining power,” Wilson told me candidly. “The job comes with quite a bit of authority if you’re willing to use it and I see no excuse for failing to use it.

“To hell with being a lame duck. That’s a state of mind. I’m going to make the most of every day I’ve got.”

*

Next year--his final year--Wilson again will ask for an income tax cut and he’ll probably get it. Legislators will be facing reelection.

He’ll push for “a lot more education reform,” including a “significantly” longer school year--”at least” a week.

He wants to attack juvenile crime with more mentoring and rehabilitation; and if that fails, stiffer sentences. “Kids need to understand there’s a price to be paid.”

This is a tough, tenacious old bird scratching hard for a legacy. You can deride him, denounce him, even despise him, but in the Capitol, Pete Wilson’s no dead duck.