GO SIMON
Posted on 08/05/2002 8:52:01 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
Are we suffering a crisis of principles, or just closer scrutiny? In the cavernous green Assembly chamber, big gold letters proclaim in Latin: Legislatorum Est Justas Leges Condere -- "It is the duty of legislators to make just laws." The golden motto in the red Senate chamber reads, Senatoris Est Civitatis Libertatem Tueri --"It is the duty of the Senate to guard the liberty of the people." Headlines on newspapers scattered around the labyrinth of Capitol offices these days -- questioning the ethics of corporate America and politicians at both the national and state levels -- stand in jarring contrast to the august surroundings. Polls, meanwhile, show the public growing even more cynical. Many academics, political pundits and lawmakers are alarmed, but in very different ways, about the questions that are being raised. While some are worried the state is slipping toward another corruption scandal, many are in general agreement that government is performing at its highest moral plane in history. Instead, they are concerned about the effects of public cynicism and the preoccupation with sensational questions rather than key policy matters. And the questions being raised are numerous. Have special interests been "paying to play" with Democratic Gov. Gray Davis' administration in many instances? Did his Republican challenger in the November general election, Bill Simon, employ tax shelters and other improper tactics in his business dealings? In what's been dubbed the Oracle debacle, the Davis administration was forced to rescind a $95 million contract with a Silicon Valley software provider amid concerns about the costly, questionable deal and a $25,000 Oracle contribution to the Davis campaign. In the Democrat-dominated Legislature, a Fresno-area Democratic assemblyman says he was fired from his role as head of the Oracle inquiry because he was too tough, an assertion denied by the Assembly's Democratic leaders. Amid clashes over the deadlocked state budget, a Redding senator sided with Democrats in exchange for funding of local projects, then was shunned by fellow members of the GOP. In what critics call an improper vote-trading deal, Senate leader John Burton, D-San Francisco, apparently agreed to support a smog-check bill opposed in the Bay Area in exchange for the support of Central Valley lawmakers on a measure aimed at eventually curbing "greenhouse gas" auto emissions. The air-quality bill would extend the more costly and stringent Smog Check II tests imposed on most Californians to the Bay Area. Taken together, these recent events and similar developments are leading some to say California is drifting back toward the corruption scandals of the 1980s and before. "In the late 1980s, as a Senate staff member, I witnessed the rise and fall and eventual imprisonment of elected officials and their staffs in a series of influence-peddling scandals," says Assemblyman Dean Florez, D-Shafter, who chaired the Joint Legislative Audit Committee hearings that probed the Oracle deal. Legislature's code of silence "Although it was pretty clear that laws had been violated, the Legislature was deafeningly silent when it came to condemning this action. There existed a code of silence. "While not rising to the same level of corruption as the '80s-era FBI sting operation known as Shrimpscam, the Oracle debacle has told me that we are drifting dangerously close to those go-along to get-along code of silence days once again." In California's infamous "Shrimpscam," FBI agents posed as officials of a shrimp fishery seeking special legislation in return for money. The case resulted in the conviction of five members or former members of the state Legislature and left the reputations of several others darkened. The string of recent flaps -- many of them tied to political fund raising -- have sharpened the call of campaign finance reform advocates. Others, however, say it's business as usual in the political sector -- the news media, analysts and the public are just focusing a more critical eye on government dealings. "I don't think we're on the edge of another Shrimpscam," said Barbara O'Connor of the Institute for the Study of Politics and the Media at California State University, Sacramento. "There's just a lot more attention paid to it now then there was, say, 10 years ago. No matter how events unfold, they get interpreted as ethical or judgment choices or leadership vacuums. We're quick to give that label," O'Connor said. "Over the last couple years, when you do polling, increasingly the disgust with politics -- and now corporations -- translates into a fairly harsh standard of how the public judges people," she said. Indeed, some analysts say, political corruption used to be much worse. "In our era, ethical standards are, in general, higher than they have been at any other time in American history," said Daniel Lowenstein, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. "Some of the things that people get very upset about today might not even have been regarded as questionable in the past." "If you think back to times past, bribery was quite widespread in state legislatures and vote buying was pervasive. There used to be a number of states in which it was commonplace that elections were decided by bosses falsely counting the votes," said Lowenstein, co-author of the 1974 voter-approved California Political Reform Act. "Most of the things we're seeing today are pretty tame," said Lowenstein, who also served as the first chairman of the state's Fair Political Practices Commission. Public cynicsm Even so, with the heightened ethical standards, today's public has grown very cynical, he said. "Most people, who aren't quite as familiar with these things, believe that the government is for sale. When I talk to people on airplanes or other places, I invariably hear that. I hear it from most of my students. But I don't believe it's true," Lowenstein said. "Not that most of the people in politics are saints, but what they're really preoccupied with is not doing things that will cost them votes," he said. "Despite what people think, the ability to raise money is not a particularly important determinant of their conduct in office." Analysts see varying negative consequences from the current political flaps, be they at the state or national levels. "You can't separate what's going on at the federal level and what's going on at the state level, because the voter doesn't," said O'Connor. "Over the last couple years, when you do polling, you increasingly see the disgust with politics and now corporations," she said. "That contributes to people disengaging. That contributes to not voting. We're on the edge of a big crisis -- people just don't care. They're very cynical." Lowenstein sees a different downside. "We sometimes get preoccupied with these issues and the question of ethics and conscientiousness in government can get trivialized. We worry about little rules and conflicts of interest, and then we don't worry as much about whether the people in office are actually acting responsibly on the public issues that come before them," he said. "Legislators, for example, who enact a state energy policy premised on the assumption that they know in the future which direction electricity rates are going to go -- that kind of irresponsibility raises much more important ethical issues than some of the things that get bandied about."
Public grows increasingly cynical, but many observers say they see high moral tone
SACRAMENTO -- From its gold-tipped dome to its ornate marble-columned legislative chambers, the state Capitol appears to be the bastion of those struggling mightily to lead California in the right direction.
the media's answer to this question is, "when a democrat is involved, it is simply closer scrutiny, but when a republican is involved, it is definitely a crisis of principles"...
Indeed, some analysts say, political corruption used to be much worse.
I THINK THIS IS THE OBJECTIVE !
Davis and Simon are to be treated as being morally equivalent in their ethics!( BARF)!!!!!
calgov2002:
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It is both.
There is a crisis of principles, and it deserves closer scrutiny.
There is no guarantee that laws made for decent purposes in one administration won't be abused by the next administration for it's own purposes.
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