Patrick Mallon
Friday, Aug. 9, 2002
This is the fifth article in a weekly series on the California governor's race. See previous articles:
California: Wanted! An Ethical Governor. Apply Within
Paralyzed From Facing Reality
Simon Survives Attacks, Davis Cons for Cash
Stealth Agenda Trumps Academic Success in Schools
Precisely the day after a SurveyUSA poll showed Bill Simon leading Gray Davis 47 percent to 45 percent, the B-52s were in the air. No, the raid on Iraq hadn't commenced, just the third and largest media assault on Simon's credibility in two weeks, this one dropping an apparently more damaging payload than the suspect KPMG disclosure or the tax return fiasco: the word FRAUD.
A lawsuit filed in December 2000, brought against Simon's business partnership by convicted drug lord Paul Hindelang, charged that after buying the plaintiff's company, Pacific Coin, the defendants acted recklessly, resulting in the company's failure. Seemingly out of the blue, the firm was found liable for fraud and socked with a whopping $97 million in damages by a Los Angeles Superior Court jury.
Criminal defense lawyer Harlan Braun, doing double duty, now provides legal counsel to Hindelang and accused murderer Robert Blake. Whether the charges against Simon produced the truth or not is irrelevant, it's what Braun was able to convince the jury of that matters.
And what's the crime? It's hard to say, but it appears Simon's firm had borrowed money on Pacific Coin, making the company expand too quickly and leading to its demise. This allowed the firm to significantly reduce its federal tax bill by writing off the loss. While this is a still-legal accounting tactic, an exploitative enemy can create a devastating impression if a judge and jury are so inclined.
Sensational, blockbuster and distorted, universal vilification issued forth from the leftist print media the next morning. Not a single newspaper in the state thought to classify the suspicious timing of the decision a dirty trick. The feeding frenzy conversely called for Simon to step down in favor of a "real candidate," while others described the decision as fatal to the campaign.
Can Powderpuff Campaign Team Recover?
Like a fraternity house hit by the news of an empty keg during rush week, Simon's advisers agitated the Bush team with their inability to identify incoming on their radar screen. Outwitted and vulnerable, and on their fourth campaign manager in four months, they appear to be in way over their heads, unable to manifest, let alone comprehend, the cutthroat mentality required to win.
Do the pledges now know who they are dealing with? In Machiavelli's "The Prince," the pursuit of arbitrary power concludes that some "virtues" will lead to a prince's destruction, whereas some "vices" allow him to survive. The virtues which we commonly praise in people might lead to their downfall.
It is Simon's image of integrity, balance and business sense that Davis campaign mercenary Garry South has targeted with charges of fraud. South is like the ferryman on the River Styx, but give him credit – he could care less if he comes across as a cretin, he just wants to win, an essential ingredient entirely absent at the frat house.
The ultimate questions are: Can Simon and his team conduct themselves with the same decadent, win-at-all-cost tactics as Davis and South? How bad do they want it? How willing are they to low-ball and engage in conscienceless conduct to achieve their goals?
Conversely, if it turns out that Simon really is a screw-up, then we'll know what a wise investment Davis made when he devoted $10 million to savage Riordan in the primary.
Media May as Well Be on Davis Press Team
The print media forever congratulates itself on being progressive, ultra-tolerant, value-free, culturally neutral, and devotees of multiculturalism who in essence believe in nothing but themselves and their intellectual superiority.
Most of the stories about Simon are entirely skewed in favor of Davis, not because the media think Davis is such a great guy, but because of the programs, agendas, groups and policies Davis defends. Conservatives be damned, and those with religious values a target of ridicule.
Debra Saunders, the putative conservative for the psychotically liberal San Francisco Chronicle says, "Bill Simon should just give up." This message resonates throughout the majority of the state's newspapers. Only the Orange County Register seems to offer any hope, with "Bill Simon now is going to need to develop the spin skills of Bill Clinton to become governor."
Sadly, our silent non-action becomes an endorsement of all we say we oppose. A cynical, neutered, unthinking public delivers to the left the soft mental oblongata required to form specious conclusions. The only truth is that there are no universal truths; the only absolute is that all things are relative.
Making Sense in a Sea of Journalistic Dishonesty
The decision against Simon's firm granted Davis blanket amnesty from adverse publicity for his tawdry and ineffective three-year legacy.
SurveyUSA pollster Joe Shipman offered this to the quivering multitude of Simon supporters who have bought into the swelling avalanche of negative campaign news: "Simon has secured his natural base more than Davis. In areas of the state where Simon is strong, he is very strong. Davis support is broader, but Simon's is deeper."
Ideological War and the Battlefronts
"A Prince ought to have no other aim or thought, nor select anything else for his study, than war and its rules and discipline." (Machiavelli, "The Prince") The air campaign has started, now for the ground troops. This election is far more a cultural war than a mandate on a man.
It's not necessary to win any arguments now, you just have to get people to say, "so what!" The print media does exactly that for Davis. Simon achieves the same on talk radio.
The dynamic is a field of dreams for a contentious ideological engagement. Broken bones, black eyes, public outings. Informed and respected Internet sites with growing persuasive capacity and readership, in conjunction with the dramatic movement of thinking people to informed radio, offer the obvious: Substantial numbers of people are coming to their senses and rejecting the baggy-eyed Bolsheviks in the media.
Democrats the Useful Idiots Lenin Wrote About
Expunged from the journalistic equation is the consideration of principles and abstractions. Where are they? Name one. Davis can control reality in the California press by calling himself a "centrist." Not a liberal, but a progressive. The labeling goes unchallenged as these features establish the profile of the ideal voter for "all the news that fits." One who is outside the definition is the enemy.
Reports that some GOP supporters are now contributing to Davis after the "nuclear bomb" emanate from the intimidating fact that nobody wants to be on Garry South's sh*t list should Davis win.
Nikita Khrushchev employed the same tactics.
As a modern leftist, Khrushchev capitalized on the use of words issued forth by liberal, socialist intellectuals. Pledging a non-religious moral justification for the use of brute force, he operated as a gangster, eliminating opposition in the furtherance of cultural and political control: both of the mind and of the incentive to produce wealth. One almost expects Davis soon to issue "Das Kapital II."
The embittered peasants, frustrated with news devoid of conclusions, filled with he-said/she-said, simply shut it down and impotently proxy their voice to their "leaders." This was supposed to be America. Where are you being led and by whom? Happy with any of it?
Yes, businessman Simon has made mistakes, and will have to be more persuasive and aggressive to win. But it is in fact Gray Davis who is the CEO of California, a cash-strapped, borderline insolvent enterprise that has quit paying select vendors and employees.
Despite the $50 million Davis has to trash Simon with attack ads, I'll stay with the underdog. It's a long campaign, there will be casualties and the first is the truth.
And how refreshing and hopeful it is to discover that a half truth, masquerading as the whole truth, is a complete falsehood.
California is not a left-wing state but a left-wing state of mind, established by a media dominated by the radical left and leftist politicians who benefit from this reality.
Open-minded enough to be challenged by a second thought? Just as open-minded is the medical patient whose life is saved by a second opinion.