Davis Sharpens Attack on Bush Energy Plan

Gov. Gray Davis is going on the attack as the Democratic Party’s point man against President Bush’s energy plan, even as he seeks to bolster his drooping standing in California by hiring consultants who honed their crisis-management skills during the scandal-ridden Clinton administration.

Davis was expected to again criticize Bush’s energy plan today as he makes the official Democratic response to Bush’s weekly radio address.

In the last week, Davis has variously blasted the president’s energy plan and Texas energy companies on an ABC talk show, on CNN, and in an opinion piece for the Washington Post. In an interview with Associated Press, Davis vowed to “hold everyone accountable: myself, the energy producers and the president of the United States.”

“We are literally in a war with energy companies who are price gouging us,” Davis said Friday. “Many of those companies are in Texas. Mr. President, you didn’t create this problem, but you are the only one who can solve it.”

At the same time, Davis all but acknowledged his own political problems when he announced that he has retained two political aides, Mark Fabiani and Chris Lehane. The two, who also do work for Southern California Edison, will be paid by taxpayers at a combined rate of $30,000 per month--more than the $13,750 earned by the governor himself.

Lehane, known for his tart-tongued commentary, was Vice President Al Gore’s main campaign spokesman, and had a knack for getting under Bush’s skin during the 2000 campaign.

Fabiani, a Harvard law school graduate, became a highly partisan and acerbic White House defender when President Clinton was mired in investigations ranging from the Whitewater land deal to the Monica Lewinsky affair. Fabiani developed his reputation for being able to handle crises while defending Mayor Tom Bradley against various investigations near the end of the late mayor’s tenure.

In political circles, the nickname of their firm is Masters of Disaster.

Davis’ decision to retain Lehane and Fabiani comes as the governor’s once-sterling poll numbers have fallen sharply and he faces persistent criticism over his handling of the energy crisis.

Their arrival also corresponds to Davis’ increasingly aggressive stand on the energy crisis. In recent days, Davis for the first time has attacked an individual generator, Reliant Energy of Houston, for charging a record $1,900 per megawatt for electricity on two days last week. He also dared President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney to “stand up” to their “friends” in the energy business by capping wholesale electricity prices charged in California.

Davis’ more assertive stance comes as Democrats nationwide step up their attacks on the president, using the energy plan to launch a broader assault on Bush’s leadership and policies.

“One of the glaring flaws in the Bush energy plan is that it offers no short-term relief for consumers,” said Dan Pfeiffer, a spokesman for the Democratic Governors Assn., which Davis chairs. “And there is no better example of that than the fact he does nothing to control runaway prices in California.”

In addition to portraying Bush as ignoring the plight of California--the nation’s largest electoral prize--Democrats see Bush’s energy response as a way of confirming their broader assertion that he is captive to oil interests.

“This is a way for us to show how they are really an administration and a party that is bought and paid for by special interests,” said Jenny Backus, a spokeswoman for the Democratic National Committee.

To press the case, the party has created a snide Web site--https://www.grandoldpetroleum--and will soon start running TV ads attacking GOP lawmakers over the energy issue, including in California.

Paul Maslin, the governor’s pollster, said Davis had given the president a grace period after he took office in January to see how Bush would address the energy problem. But the governor grew increasingly frustrated when it became clear “we weren’t going to get any help from Washington.”

For his part, Bush made glancing reference to California in a speech Friday at a hydroelectric plant in Pennsylvania, part of his tour to sell the administration’s energy blueprint. The president praised Californians for doing “a fantastic job in conservation.”

“And yet they’re lacking energy. They’re having blackouts,” Bush said. “We all must be deeply concerned about our fellow citizens in the great state of California. But the problems in California show that you cannot conserve your way to energy independence.”

While Bush did not mention the governor, the president’s deputies have rushed to criticize him.

Virginia Gov. James Gilmore, head of the Republican National Committee, suggested Davis was hypocritical to attack Bush when “the president is the one who came forward with the first energy plan we’ve seen in years.”

“He’s going to have to answer the question of what he’s done as governor,” Gilmore said. “While he’s in the process of attacking, one might suspect he may be diverting attention away from his own record.”

On Thursday, Environmental Protection Agency administrator Christine Todd Whitman was overheard criticizing Davis to Iowa Republican Party official Darrell Kearney.

“He’s had plenty of time to do something, and he hasn’t done anything,” she said as she left a meeting room in Nevada, Iowa, where Bush had just finished speaking.

Some more independent observers see political liabilities in the Bush plan, namely the focus on long-term solutions at a time voters are growing increasingly upset about high gas prices and soaring utility bills.

“While [the administration] talks about how we approach things in the next five years, there’s not a lot of empathy or understanding for what’s affecting people now,” said Stuart Rothenberg, a nonpartisan political analyst in Washington.

“Maybe it’s unfair to talk about Bush and Cheney’s oil backgrounds and Texas backgrounds,” Rothenberg said. “But it’s an obvious thing for critics to do.”

Rothenberg predicted a backlash that could cost Republicans control of Congress next year, “if the energy issue continues to grow and Americans really become concerned. . . . It puts the burden on the White House and Republicans to change that.”

Davis’ new aides, while considered expert in solving the kind of political crisis threatening Davis, pose the potential of controversy on their own.

As consultants, Lehane and Fabiani, unlike government officials, are not required to file conflict of interest statements detailing their holdings and sources of income.

However, in an interview on Friday, Lehane acknowledged that he and Fabiani have worked for about two months as consultants for Southern California Edison. He insisted there is no conflict.

Davis is struggling to win legislative approval of a deal he struck with Edison to rescue the utility from bankruptcy. Several lawmakers oppose the deal, contending that it is too rich for Edison.

“Both sides [Edison and Davis] are in agreement on what needs to be done here,” Lehane said. “As the governor said . . . we are literally in a war with these out-of-state generators.”

Although Lehane and Fabiani will be working on broader communications issues for Davis, Harry Snyder of Consumers Union, a critic of the Davis-Edison deal, blasted Davis’ decision to hire consultants who also work for the utility.

“Davis has done everything politically wrong,” Snyder said. “He hasn’t done anything that is consistent with the democratic process. It is the worst abuse of power that I have seen in 25 years of lobbying.”

Others suggested that Davis was helping himself by bringing the duo aboard.

“Mark is the premier crisis manager in the country in terms of communication strategy,” Democratic political consultant Bill Carrick said. “He has tremendous experience. . . . He takes the incoming. You get hit with something in the morning. He knows how to turn it around by the afternoon.”

Lehane said the governor’s decision to hire them does not suggest Davis will become more pugnacious, although he added that Davis is “not someone afraid to pick a fight when someone, like the out-of-state generators, represent policies that are bad for the people of California.”

“Gov. Davis has been very successful in politics for quite some time in this state,” Lehane said. “He has a keen understanding of how this state works and how politics in this state works. I don’t think his style is going to change or be any different than he has been throughout his career.”

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