Out With the Old -- and Their Capitol Perks

Inauguration week moments in Sacramento:

Tony Beard, the Senate’s chief sergeant, had to field some “begs” from Capitol alums, the termed-out angling for parking spaces in the Capitol basement or for rides from the airport. Ix-nay, said Beard politely, knowing how hard it must be to cut the umbilicus to the big white dome. “This place is very hard to leave. There’s no place like it, and once you go, nothing quite fills that void.”

Gray Davis, the original Mr. Belt-and-Suspenders, surprised aides when he was rehearsing for his big State of the State speech and was asked whether he wanted to run through it one more time. “That depends,” said the governor. “What’s the score of the 49er game?” At the answer -- 38-33, 49ers losing -- Davis bailed on the speech, planted himself on a folding chair backstage and watched the California team manage to come from behind to beat the New York Giants 39-38. (Davis was born in New York City but came to California at the rooting age of 11.)

The state Assembly convened last Monday for all of 20 minutes -- enough time for a prayer, the Pledge of Allegiance and some short tributes to election law expert Joseph Remcho, who had died in a helicopter crash two days earlier. Then the legislators dashed off to inaugural celebrations -- but will still collect the $125 living-expense per diem for showing up. The only one to turn it down: Sacramento Democrat Darrell Steinberg.

A ‘Proud Republican’ Tells of Embarrassment

To get bumped off the top of his party’s ladder, Trent Lott had only to evoke nostalgia for the 1948 candidacy of segregationist Strom Thurmond.

To imperil his candidacy for head of the California Republican Party, Bill Back reached all the way back to the Civil War, sending along without comment in a 1999 e-mail newsletter a copy of an essay arguing that, if the South had won the Civil War, “history might have taken a better turn.”

Back said in a statement that he “strongly” disagrees with the essay and “should have been more sensitive” and not put it in his e-mail.

This is about punch No. 12 in the one-two punch the state GOP has been taking, from ideological splits to losing every statewide office and the Legislature in November.

California’s Republican congressional caucus voted last week to endorse Back’s opponent, Duf Sundheim; the party will elect a new chairman at its February convention. Back has worked closely with President Bush’s No. 1 California guy, Gerald Parsky, which makes this all the more awkward. The White House and the Republican National Committee are officially mum on all of this.

Now, in a long, moving and painfully forthright letter, Shannon E. Reeves, secretary of the state GOP and the highest-ranking African American in the state party’s history, called on Back to withdraw his candidacy.

Reeves said he is a “proud Republican” of 14 years’ standing who is nonetheless “sick and tired of being embarrassed by elected Republican officials who have no sensitivity for issues that alienate whole segments of our population.” He detailed the embarrassment of having to “behave professionally toward Republicans who share this heinous ideology,” of being expected to “provide window dressing and cover to prove this is not a racist party, yet our own leadership continues to act otherwise.”

Reeves, who also heads the Oakland NAACP, recounted his travel to Republican events, like the 2000 Philadelphia convention, which nominated George W. Bush, where in spite of his credentials and badge, “no less than six times did white delegates dismissively tell me [to] fetch them a taxi or carry their luggage.... All they saw was a black face and made an assumption.”

Reeves isn’t endorsing anyone in the chairman’s race, but said an endorsement of Back by party leaders “would take the CRP beyond the point of repair with voters in a pluralistic state ... and doom us to irrelevance.”

Borrowing Figures of Speech

Yes, yes, that was President Clinton whom Gray Davis seemed to be channeling, twice, in his State of the State speech

President-elect Bill Clinton, Nov. 4, 1992: “I am going to focus like a laser beam on this economy.”

Gov. Gray Davis, Jan. 8, 2003: “I’ll focus like a laser beam on two [economic] sectors that promise high growth and high wages.”

Clinton, Feb. 17, 1993, joint session of Congress: “When presidents speak to Congress and the nation from this podium, typically they comment on the full range and challenges and opportunities that face the United States. But this is not an ordinary time and, for all the many tasks that require our attention, I believe tonight one calls on us to focus, to unite and to act, and that is our economy.”

Davis, Jan. 8, 2003, State of the State speech: “When governors speak from this podium, they ordinarily discuss a range of issues. But these are not ordinary times. We have one overriding task before us. We must come together to create new jobs and get our economy back on track.”

The pinched prose created a brief fuss among the politiscenti, recalling Sen. Joe Biden’s 1988 unattributed use of remarks by a British politician, which doomed Biden’s presidential try, and Barry Goldwater’s 1964 tweaking of Thomas Paine for his ringing “extremism/moderation” remarks.

Davis speechwriter Jason Kinney says Davis has been using the laser line so long that “I presumed President Clinton got it from him.”

As for the other passage, “I take responsibility, but I don’t apologize.”

He said the lines were “unintentional, accidental homage to a president whose speaking style I think we’d all like to emulate. If I have to draw inspiration from a president’s speaking style, I’m glad it’s Clinton and not one of the Bushes.”

And on that subject, Kinney pointed out that, speaking in 1999, Davis told a self-deprecatory anecdote of stumping the state the year before and being advised by his wife Sharon before his speeches, “Don’t try to be charming, witty or intellectual. Just be yourself.” In 2000, Kinney notes, candidate George W. Bush was trotting out the same anecdote with his wife telling him, “Don’t try to be witty, charming or debonair. Just be yourself.”

Points Taken

* Rep. Christopher Cox, a Newport Beach Republican, was named by House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert to be the first chairman of the House’s homeland security committee, responsible for overseeing the massive homeland security department created last year.

* San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors is now led by the board’s sole Green Party member, Matt Gonzalez, making it the largest U.S. city or county with a Green heading its legislative body. Only 3% of San Francisco’s voters are registered Green, but gubernatorial candidate Peter Camejo got 15.5% of the city’s vote in November.

* The fight over a new airport at the closed El Toro Marine base must be over: The main advocacy group promoting the plan has folded its Web page. The Airport Working Group of Orange County’s eltoronow.com now links back to the group’s main page, which is under construction -- unlike the airport.

* Parents of an eighth-grader in Lakeport say they’ll ask the school board to fire a teacher who told the boy to leave class for refusing to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. They deny the teacher’s claim that the boy was disruptive and tried to get others to join him. State law requires a patriotic exercise daily, but school districts have been told the pledge is not mandatory.

* Five former first ladies plan to attend a private black-tie dinner Friday in Palm Desert marking the 20th anniversary of the Betty Ford rehab center: Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barbara Bush, Nancy Reagan, Rosalynn Carter and, of course, Betty Ford. No word on whether wine will be served at the $1,000-a-ticket dinner, to be emceed by Larry King, with videotaped remarks from George W. and Laura Bush.

* Berkeley’s newly elected mayor, Tom Bates, pleaded guilty to petty theft and was fined $100 for trashing copies of a campus newspaper endorsing his opponent last November.

You Can Quote Me

“Bill Simon never gives up. He wants a recount. There’s no stopping this guy.”

Gray Davis, promoting his economic agenda at a school construction site, as a cement truck moving in reverse emitted the standard wailing warning beeps. He got big laughs but maybe you had to be there.

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Patt Morrison’s columns appear Mondays and Tuesdays. Her e-mail address is patt.morrison@latimes.com. This week’s contributors include Michael Finnegan, Jean O. Pasco, and Jenifer Warren.