Lawmakers, Davis Are Not of Like Mind

“In recent years we’ve had too much scapegoating and finger-pointing. I believe the time has come for all of us to pull together, not apart. . . . If we work together, there’s no telling how far we can go or how high California can soar.”

--Gov. Gray Davis, State of the State Address to California Legislature, January 1999

“People expect government to reflect the vision that I suggested. Nobody . . . in the Legislature ran statewide. Their job is to implement my vision. That is their job.”

--Davis, meeting with editorial board of San Francisco Chronicle, July 1999

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What a difference six months makes. And it all bubbled up as July’s summer heat in Sacramento was surpassed by the friction of political theater.

It wasn’t the best of times for our California governor. One day he was being jumped by the self-styled consumer advocate Ralph Nader and the next he was being pestered by reporters probing for differences between him and California legislators.

Nader, whose destiny it seems is to loathe the unattended microphone, busted Davis’ chops for attending political fund-raisers with so-called special interests whose livelihood could be affected by gubernatorial policies. “Now that you at long last occupy the governor’s office,” wrote the huffy Nader, “your leadership has seemingly evaporated amidst disturbing reports of aggressive fund-raising from interest groups.”

The governor responded somewhat testily: “Ralph Nader got 2% of the vote. We got 58% of the vote. I am adhering to my agenda, not the agenda that other people have for me.” Perhaps it’s a quibble, but technically Nader got 0% since he wasn’t on last November’s ballot. But we get the point.

As for the dust-up with the Legislature, it was triggered by a letter sent to all Democratic committee chairmen by Davis’ fellow Democrats--Senate President Pro Tem John Burton and Assembly Speaker Anthony Villaraigosa. The two legislative leaders cautioned their members to ignore the governor’s demands to slow down their statist liberal agenda.

So when reporters--spotting a good “wedge” when they see one--needled the governor about his differences with Democratic legislators, an annoyed Davis fired a brushback pitch. Actually, a couple of them.

Those legislators, he observed, “have a totally different view of the world than I do. . . . It was my vision that commanded a 20-point victory, the largest victory in 40 years.” (Attention, gubernatorial fact-checkers. George Deukmejian waxed L.A. Mayor Tom Bradley by 24 points in 1986. But who’s counting?)

And then the editorials and columns poured out, frothing with indignation. Characteristic was the Sacramento Bee which hissed: “Davis apparently thinks he was crowned king. . . . [B]efore he can sell a vision he must first find one.”

Well, what to make of all this?

First, we conservatives love to watch the lefties devour each other. Nothing is so sporting as seeing the self-righteous Nader deservedly marginalized by a governor who wears a scarlet P--for pragmatism--on his forehead. Nader, the perennial lap dog for trial attorneys and anti-business causes, is the last person in the world who should be complaining about special interest influence. Score one for Davis.

Second, the Democratic leadership in the Legislature has reared its ugly partisan head--trying to drive our state to the extreme left with its bizarre positions. Thwarted by sensible Republican governors for 16 years, the left wing’s pent-up desire to transform parlor room prattle into actual law has been too tempting to pass up. And, predictably, they’ve gotten carried away.

Third, Davis at least ought to get a bouquet for consistency. He told the world in his inaugural address that he would “govern neither from the right nor from the left, but from the center, propelled not by ideology, but by common sense . . . “ All his pals--in the media, in the Legislature and among ultraliberal special interests--were so elated at the slaying of their conservative demons that they heard Davis’ words but did not listen to them.

Finally, Davis should be aware that he ignores at his own peril the admonition of the late Lyndon B. Johnson: Never get into a spitting contest with those who buy ink by the barrel. Reporters are not the governor’s cheerleaders, except when they choose to be. And when they sniff out a volcanic reaction, they will do their best to provoke it.

Davis should follow one of the first rules of politics: Don’t pique too soon.