From the WSJ Opinion Archives
Hasta
la Vista
Gray Davis is out, Arnold Schwarzenegger is in, and a great political show is
over. Official returns from the California secretary of state's office show
voters approving the recall
of California's Democratic governor by a margin of 54.9% to 45.1%, with 99%
of precincts reporting. In the race
to replace Davis, Republican Schwarzenegger has a commanding 48.2%; his
closest rival, Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, a Democrat, has just 32.1%.
These results should lay to rest those claims that the recall is "undemocratic." It's true that the potential existed for a somewhat screwy outcome, in which more people voted "for Davis"--that is, against the recall--than for the new governor. But Schwarzenegger has some 3.6 million votes, while only 3.5 million "no" votes on the recall have been registered, so there's no question that a plurality of Californians backed their new governor.
In addition, Republican Tom McClintock, who is more conservative than Schwarzenegger, picked up 13.3% of the vote, giving the two GOP candidates more than 60% of the vote between them, in a state that Al Gore won by nearly 12% and that gave Bill Clinton a majority in 1996 despite Ross Perot's presence in the race. As for the other also-rans, Green Peter Camejo managed just 2.8%, considerably less than the 5% he got in 2002. And it's back to Hooterville for Arianna Huffington, who got a measly 0.6%.
Remember the famous red-blue split in the 2000 presidential election? The California secretary of state's office has a map that shows California is similarly divided. Counties that voted against the recall are show in red; those that voted for it are green. The Northern California coast is all red from Monterey up to Humboldt (only the northernmost coastal county, Del Norte, is green). Every inland county is green, except a few on the outskirts of San Francisco, and so is every Southern California county except Los Angeles, where the antirecall margin was 51% to 49%.
Gov. Davis gave a gracious concession speech, though supporters booed his conciliatory words. "Let's put the chaos and the division of the recall behind us and do what's right for California," he said. Amen--though if he'd done what's right for California in the first place, he would now be looking forward to another three years in the governor's mansion.
He's
Got That Right
"I may not be going across the hall to the Governor's Office, but I'm not going
anywhere."--Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, quoted in the Sacramento Bee, Oct. 8
D
Is for Denial
"George Bush and Karl Rove have got to wish this thing never happened," Terry
McAuliffe, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, tells The Wall Street
Journal, referring to the recall (link requires subscription).
Say what? McAuliffe expanded the thought last night on "Hardball" with Chris Matthews:
People are angry. They're angry about the economic situation in California. . . . Clearly the economy in California had gone down like it had gone down in most states. As you know, 48 of the 50 states had huge deficits. And [Davis] was the governor and I think any politician in office today that presides over a gigantic budget deficit, they're going to pay a price at the polls and I think people are very angry.
I think George Bush will pay a big price at the polls next year. You're seeing a phenomenon all out there today that people are very angry. Three point three million Americans have lost their jobs since George Bush became president. Record surpluses are now record deficits. Forty-three million Americans, they don't have any health insurance and they're taking it out on the politicians who are in charge of running the government.
Now, one has to take this with a grain of salt; McAuliffe's job is to "spin," which means to say things he doesn't necessarily believe. But his comments can't be dismissed entirely. Democrats could well take comfort in the California result on the ground that what happened to Gray Davis is what they are hoping will happen to George W. Bush next year.
The spin is catching on. Howard Dean issued the following statement today (ellipsis in original):
Today's recall election in California was not about Gray Davis or Arnold Schwarzenegger. This recall was about the frustration so many people are feeling about the way things are going. All across America, George Bush's massive tax cuts for the wealthy are undermining state budgets, causing cutbacks in services and increases in local property taxes. Were recalls held in every state, it's quite possible that 50 governors would find themselves paying the price for one president's ruinous national economic policies. Tonight the voters in California directed their frustration with the country's direction on their incumbent governor. Come next November, that anger might be directed at a different incumbent . . . in the White House.
A New York Times "political memo" similarly claims the recall "was in many ways a manifestation of the force that has powered Howard Dean to the front of the Democratic presidential contest."
The problem is that although considerable anger exists toward George W. Bush, there is no evidence that it crosses partisan and ideological lines. Show us someone who's enraged at Bush, and we'll show you someone who's a Democrat, a liberal or both. By contrast, according to exit polls, 54% of self-described independents and 56% of moderates voted to recall Davis. (So did 24% of both Democrats and liberals.) Another telling exit-poll result: California voters were evenly split in their views of Bush's job performance (49% approve, 48% disapprove), while they overwhelmingly disapproved of Davis (27% approve, 71% disapprove).
Sacramento Bee blogger Daniel Weintraub has a warning for the Dems:
Several of the Democrats I spoke to were in strong denial about the message sent by the voters, the message being that they, and Davis, have been poor stewards of state government. They see this is an isolated event, a venting, that will quickly pass while they fight to maintain everything they have done the past five years. My gut tells me they are wrong, that there is something deeper here, a desire for fundamental change in the way the state does business and in the way politics works, or doesn't work, in California.
Similarly, if the Democrats nationwide learn the wrong lessons from the recall, they may only be hurting their chances in 2004.
The
Angry Right
Not all Republicans are thrilled about the prospect of a Gov. Schwarzenegger.
Here's Alan Keyes, a columnist for WorldNetDaily and erstwhile novelty candidate
for president:
On all the matters that touch upon the critical moral issues, Arnold Schwarzenegger is on the evil side. This is a fact. A mere list of the positions he supports is enough to make this plain: abortion as a "right," cloning of human beings, governmental classification of citizens by race, public benefits for sexual partners outside of marriage, disrespect for property rights against environmental extremism, repudiation of the right to bear arms--no more need be said to show that this candidate is wrong where human decency, human rights and human responsibility bear directly on political issues.
C'mon, Alan, nobody's perfect!
Scandal
at the L.A. Times?
Bill Bradley of the LA Weekly suggests that there may be a journalistic scandal
lurking behind the Los Angeles Times' late hit on Schwarzenegger:
According to a well-informed source at the paper, the story, which hit the political world with a thunderclap, never appeared on the paper's internal or external publication schedules. Indeed, project editor Joel Sappell and the three reporters working on what the Times has described as a seven-week-long investigative project were very tight-lipped about both the scheduling of the piece and its contents. They discussed the story only with the paper's senior editors. Although the story did not appear on the schedule, it was reportedly placed in the "write basket," in which other Times editors and reporters can look at upcoming pieces, after hours last Wednesday night, just a few hours before it appeared on the Times Web site.
Even with utmost secrecy surrounding the piece, senior Democratic strategists with long-standing ties to Davis knew not only when the story was coming but also the particulars of what was in it. These strategists felt that the story held the possibility of tipping the election away from Schwarzenegger and of defeating the governor's recall.
The Angry Left has of late been pushing the idea that the "liberal media" are a myth, and in fact the media are too conservative. A new Gallup poll suggests that this is a fringe view. Forty-five percent of those polled said the media are "too liberal," vs. just 14% who say they're "too conservative"; 39% said "just about right." Eighteen percent of self-described liberals said the media are too liberal; only 30% of liberals, 15% of moderates and 9% of conservatives said they are too conservative.
Too
Many Jobs
The most pro-Davis county in California was San
Francisco. More than 80% of voters in California's fourth-largest city (the
city and county are coterminous) voted to keep the governor in office. The San
Francisco Chronicle's "Surreal Estate" column has this vignette about
Matt Gonzalez, "a young progressive public defender," that illustrates
the insanity of California-style "progressive" ideology:
Like most other ultra-progressives, Gonzalez blames the local business community for the City's recent housing crisis. "There were something like 16 jobs for every one unit of housing," he explains. "That's what led to the landlord-tenant wars."
Even the "Democratic wing of the Democratic Party" doesn't argue that jobs are bad for the economy.
Good
News Watch
"Iraq's American-led administration said yesterday that it had finally
restored the electricity supply to pre-war levels," London's Telegraph
reports. Meanwhile, the Associated
Press reports that the Turkish Parliament has voted to send peacekeeping
troops to Iraq. Just one hitch: "Baghdad's Governing Council declared it
was opposed to soldiers coming from any neighbor, including Turkey."
We've
Got Dibs on One of the Drumsticks
"Iraq Council Seeks Compromise with U.S. on Turkey"--headline, Reuters,
Oct. 8
The
Road to Damascus
Reuters reports Israel has issued "a map pinpointing what it said were
homes and offices of Palestinian militant leaders in Damascus," Syria's
capital. Actually, the Israelis probably said the Palestinians in question are
terrorists, but that's Reuters for you. Meanwhile, the Associated
Press reports that "President Bush on Tuesday said that Israel's air
strike in Syria was part of an 'essential' campaign to defend the country, and
drew a parallel between U.S. policy on terrorism and the actions being taken
by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon."
Could it be that there's a coordinated antiterror strategy here, with the U.S. dealing with terrorism in places like Iraq and Afghanistan while leaving Syria to the Israelis?
The AP also reports that Syrian dictator Bashar Assad said the Israeli air strike, in the AP's words, "will enhance his country's role in the Middle East, not diminish it as sought by Israel." In that case, by all means, let's let Israel enhance the Syrian role more.
Arafat's
Bum Ticker
"Yasser Arafat has suffered a mild heart attack," London's Guardian
reports from Jerusalem:
The 74-year-old Palestinian president, who is suffering from Parkinson's disease, disappeared from public view last week and re-emerged at the weekend looking extremely ill. His face was pale and pinched, he had lost weight and he was almost inaudible. He had trouble standing for more than a few minutes at a time.
The Sydney Morning Herald, in a wire-service reports, says Arafat's advisers deny the heart attack and said Arafat "is suffering from a stomach flu and remains weak." Blogress Meryl Yourish is conducting an "Arafat Death Watch."
What
Would We Do Without Cyber Experts?
"Bombs, Not Worms, Favored by Terrorists, Say Cyber Experts"--headline,
San Jose Business Journal, Oct. 6
The
Moral Authority of the United Nations
"The UN has told the Canadian government to ban all forms of corporal punishment
of youngsters--including even a light slap," reports the CanWest News Service.
The Committee on Rights of the Child said Canada, as a signatory to the Convention
on the Rights of the Child, is obliged to make spanking illegal. So if you're
a Canadian parent and you want to discipline your children without running afoul
of the U.N., you may soon have to hire a Palestinian to blow them up.
Clark Campaign Crack-Up
Just three weeks after Wesley Clark joined the presidential race, his campaign
seems to be in disarray. His campaign manager quit yesterday "in a dispute
over the direction of the Democratic presidential bid, exposing a rift between
the former general's Washington-based advisers and his 3-week-old Arkansas campaign
team," the Associated Press reports:
Donnie Fowler told associates he was leaving over widespread concerns that supporters who used the Internet to draft Clark into the race are not being taken seriously by top campaign advisers. Fowler also complained that the campaign's message and methods are focused too much on Washington, not key states, said two associates who spoke on condition of anonymity.
This leaves the campaign under the control of Clintonites like Mark Fabiani and Ron Klain.
Bush
Weighs In on Plame
Yesterday we heard from some readers who demanded to know why we hadn't weighed
in on the "latest development" in the Valerie Plame kerfuffle, namely
President Bush's remark that the disclosure of Plame's name to columnist Robert
Novak was "a criminal action"--a claim many of Bush's detractors have
made, and of which we've been skeptical.
"Boy," sneered one correspondent, "that must suck to be pushing the White House talking points so vigorously and then just have them ripped out from under you like that." Just to set things straight, this column reflects only its author's opinion; we do not take "talking points" from the White House or anyone else. We didn't bother commenting on the Bush remark because it did not strike us as significant. Whether or not a crime occurred is a determination for investigators, prosecutors and (if they decide they have a case) a jury to make. Bush was merely stating an opinion, and one we don't find particularly persuasive.
It's possible that Bush has information we don't; perhaps he knows, for example, whether Plame had her last foreign assignment within five years before the disclosure of her identity, a necessary condition for a violation of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act. (The Washington Post, which earlier reported that Plame listed a CIA front company as her employer as late as 1999, today adds that "she lived behind a facade even after she returned from abroad.")
Even if Plame does fit the legal definition of a "covert agent," however, that would not be sufficient to establish a violation of the act. The person who revealed her identity would also have to know of her covert status and that the government was "taking affirmative measures to conceal" her relationship to the CIA. Bush says he doesn't know who Novak's sources were, and if that's true, he can't possibly know whether they knew this. Thus, by declaring this purported leak "a criminal action," the president is jumping to conclusions as surely as his critics are.
Is
She Running?--II
On Monday we
noted that Hillary Clinton appears to have filed with the Federal Election
Commission as a 2004 candidate for president. Insight magazine has contacted
the FEC, which "explained the "odd" entry in its database as having been
filed on Sept. 17, 2003, by an outfit called "DraftHillaryforPresident2004,"
which the commission describes as an "unauthorized" draft committee.
Who's
Missing?
"Living History," Hillary Clinton's memoir, is the No. 10 nonfiction
book on the most recent New
York Times besteseller list, and it's been on the list for 16 weeks. But
here's something odd. The Barnes & Noble Web site has its own list of "Year-to-Date
Bestseller"--the "top 100 bestselling books for Barnes & Noble stores
and Barnes & Noble.com, for January-September, 2003." Atop the list sits
"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," followed by "The
Da Vinci Code" and "The South Beach Diet." The list does include
political books, including Ann Coulter's "Treason" (No. 41) and Al
Franken's "Lies" (No. 42).
But Hillary's book is nowhere to be found. The list only goes to No. 100, so there's no telling where she ranks, but it is below the No. 95 book, which is called--we kid you not--"Captain Underpants and the Big, Bad Battle of the Bionic Booger Boy, Part 1."
We
Get Results
On Monday we
noted some curious omissions from the State Department Web page listing
"famous speeches" by American leaders. Since then, the folks at Foggy
Bottom have made some additions to the list, including speeches by Presidents
Eisenhower, Reagan and both Bushes. A speech by Hillary Clinton that appeared
there before no longer does.
Zero-Tolerance
Watch
Santiago High
School in Corona, Calif., has suspended 17-year-old Robert Bollong because
he had an "emergency roadside kit" in his car, reports KNBC-TV in
Los Angeles:
Lori Bollong bought the kit for her 17-year-old son who drives 20 miles to an after-school job. But inside the new, unopened kit was a utility knife.
"According to them it's a weapon. . . . No tolerance for weapons," said Lori Bollong.
Drug-sniffing dogs at Santiago High School detected Bollong's asthma inhalers inside his truck parked at school. That's when security opened a bag behind the passenger's seat and found the utility knife. Bollong says the principal warned him "not to bring weapons to school, that someone could get hurt."
Sanity narrowly won the day, however, in Maple Grove, Minn., where, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports, the local school board "did not approve a recommendation" to expel Jake Trembath "for having a toy cap gun in his car." The board split 3-3 on the recommendation, which means Trembath, who says he didn't know the toy was in his car, can go back to school.
What
Would We Do Without Producers and Directors?
"The quality of films seems to have deteriorated in the last 20 years,
a panel of producers and directors said during a salute to American filmmaking
in the 1970s."--Associated Press, Oct. 6
You
Don't Say
"Even in Magic Acts, Tigers and Bullets Can Be Lethal"--headline,
New York Times, Oct. 8
This
Story Has Legs
"Residents Wary After Legs Found in Trash"--headline, San Diego Union-Tribune,
Oct. 7
They've
Gotta Be Kindding
"German women fed up with their partners' grumbling on weekend shopping
trips can now dump them at a special kindergarten for men offering beer and
entertainment," Reuters reports from Berlin:
"The women are issued a receipt for their partners when they hand them in and can pick them up again when they return it to us later," Alexander Stein, manager of the "Nox Bar" in Hamburg told Reuters Tuesday.
The men are given a nametag on arrival and for 10 euros ($11.80) they get two beers, a hot meal, televised football and games.
Stein said the idea for the "Maennergarten" came from a female customer who thought it would pacify her husband while she shopped. . . .
"Last week the men had a remote control car to play with. Next week there's going to be a mini racetrack," Stein said.
This may not be as silly as it sounds. After all, the last time German men were left without adult supervision, they ended up overrunning Europe.
(Elizabeth Crowley helps compile Best of the Web Today. Thanks to Michael Segal, Darren Gold, Peter Rice, Tom Linehan, Justin Taylor, Barak Moore, Doug Payton, Darryl May, Jamie Extract, Buddy Smith, Richard Miniter, Peter Cummings, Mary Pinkowish, Dave Bookless, Ron Finch, Jeffrey Spiegel, Paul Music, Rosanne Klass, Edward Hildebrand, David Beebe, Robert LeChevalier, Abe Beyda, Carl Sherer, Steve Roberts, Jerome Marcus, Joel Goldberg, Natalie Cohen, Perry Braun, Reagan Lynch, Lars Hedbor, James Young, Ted Clayton, Mark Kolmar, Alan Jones, David Stein, Bob White, Ed Miseta, Timothy O'Reilly, Tom Stiff, Brooke Lundquist, Pamela Smith, Sheryl Rosander and Erik Moy. If you have a tip, write us at opinionjournal@wsj.com, and please include the URL.)
Today on OpinionJournal:
- Ruth Wedgwood: By backing terrorists, Syria defies even the U.N.
- Claudia Rosett: Electoral politics are distracting Bush from the war on terror.
- Andrew Sullivan defends same-sex marriage.
- Joe Morgenstern: Independent filmmakers can't compete if their films aren't seen.
- Political Diary: Schwarzenegger's Texas example, postelection litigation, "other voters" and more.
