The View From Highland Ranch
By John McCormick
Recall, REecall, RECALLl!
If you view California politics as only a slightly less bloody version of Nero's Circus Maximus, then you had better develop an appetite for cotton candy and peanuts. You might also consider buying a pair of elephant boots because next year's a presidential election year and the circus is coming to town! Soon we'll be hip deep in it.
I guess I haven't been keeping Jack away from the boob tube enough lately because he's gotten all excited over this recall thing since he saw political novice AArnold take over a state in the course of nine weeks.
If you missed it, the new Governor of California is a heavily accented Austrian who, to the best of my knowledge, never before ran for, let alone won, any political office, not even in high school.
The last Austrian who leapt from nothing to political dominance in a country where he wasn't born had to work at it for several years and it took the Munich Beer Hall Putsch to give him a real boost.
Now I'm not comparing A.H. to AArnold in any way, although AArnold has expressed admiration for the Austrian paper hanger in the past and on film, but it is remarkable how quickly both jumped to political prominence in another country, Germany in one case and California in the other. (BTW, the California State Flag still refers to the state as "California Republic").
I keep trying to tell Jack all of this is just a promotion for remake of Total Recall, but he's not buying it. He says he's looked up and seen Mars and there's nothing nearly as strange up there.
Jack is always more interested in local politics and he wants to know why everyone complains about the school board buying a swimming pool instead of text books or why county commissioners around the state want to re-appraise everyone's house instead of cutting spending. He thinks we need more recalls in this country, not fewer.
I tell Jack that the voters don't really care about education or high taxes or they would elect other people to office in the first place, but he isn't buying it.
I keep trying to shut him up. "Jack," I say, "if you don't keep quiet the county will raise our taxes and then what will we do?"
But Jack won't listen; he just keeps chanting recall, RE-call, RECALL! And now he has all his 6 kids doing the same.
Trends really do start in California so I think any politician, from the president of the senior class to state legislators who block tax-saving ideas from a newly elected governor who promised to cut property taxes, can expect a really tough campaign next time around and possibly even a local recall attempt.
Of course, the California state flower is the poppy which, come to think of it, may explain a lot about what goes on out there.
Still, "throw the bums out" is obviously the theme of the day in California and neither lack of political experience nor governing experience, or even a solid command of the English language, seem to be important to the voters.
Although Pennsylvania, along with most states, doesn't allow for recalls, politicians shouldn't be too complacent because if they were to start today to try to straighten out their act and actually do something to pacify overburdened taxpayers, they probably will still be kicked out the next time they come up for election.
And, speaking of Pennsylvania, the Philadelphia police just found audio bugs in the mayor's office.
It turns out that the FBI planted the bugs.
The Feds have responded to charges of a political angle in all this mess by ridiculing the very thought that someone in the Administrative Branch would do anything to interfere with an election for purely political purposes.
Hmmm.
Now I know absolutely nothing about what's actually happening, but I have been around the block a few times and not while waiting to pick up a stickup accomplice.
Let's see. We have a Democratic Governor, a Democratic Mayor up for re-election in a few weeks, and a Republican President who has, in just three years, taken this country to war for apparently no urgent reason; alienated most of the other governments in the world with our foreign policy; and, much more importantly, took the U.S. from the largest budget surplus in history to the largest deficit in history.
Now I personally think Insane Hussein should have been removed simply because he was probably the second worst dictator in the world (No. Korea's KIM Jong-ill has him beat by about a light year) but President Bush decided it was easier to lie to all of us instead of just saying he wanted to make the U.S. the world's police force, so he has to pay the penalty for lying to all of us.
So, we have an administration that just might possibly be feeling a bit wary of next year's national election results.
Have we ever had a situation in the U.S. before where a Republican administration in Washington resorted to bugging opponents in an attempt to slant election results?
Nope, I can't think of any. Can you? Oh, by the way, the next time you drive into Washington from Virginia, the big apartment/office building off to your left? It's still called The Watergate.
Of course, this was the FBI, not The White House Plumbers' Union, and we all know that the FBI only bugs major criminals such as John Lennon and Martin Luther King.
p.s. If any of you want to complain about my spelling of a Korean name, remember it's not even the same alphabet so it's all just a matter of opinion and I've probably worked a lot more closely with a Korean Zen Master than you have.
p.p.s Still haven't heard from any wannabe journalism students who were willing to work for www.15767.com so I guess there's no one in the PAHS who really wants to work with an internationally recognized journalist and former Washington wire service bureau chief.
I also tried to get in touch with the local math wiz to offer some nice math software which Wolfram Inc. offered to donate but no luck there either.
Oh well, I've done my part by offering. If anyone disagrees, contact me through The Spirit.
Copyright, 2003 John A. McCormick, Inc.
