Payback's a bitch, Jenny.
Posted on 12/01/2003 7:08:24 PM PST by NormsRevenge
If anyone should learn from the recall election, it is voters.
Just about the time we think state legislators have found a constructive lesson in California's recall election, they prove us wrong again. Take, for example, a recent display of petty tyranny.
Petty tyrants, according to Carlos Castaneda, come in three subcategories: pinches tiranos, pinches tiranitos, and pinches tiranitos chiquititos (the teeny weeny kind). We'll leave it to you to judge the category befitting behavior in last week's special session.
Members of both political parties qualify, as columnist Jill Stewart makes clear (on the Comment page). The Republicans started it by ignoring appeals for cooperation and plunging right into hardcore partisanship. The Democrats responded in kind.
But for pettiest tyranny, none could compete with Long Beach's Jenny Oropeza, who as chairwoman of the Assembly Budget Committee, had summoned Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's director of finance, Donna Arduin, to present a fiscal audit. Knowing that Arduin had a noon appointment, Oropeza kept her waiting for an hour and 15 minutes before calling on her at 11:45 a.m., then, knowing Arduin felt ill because of a severe sinus infection, refused to let her sit down while making her presentation.
Remember, Oropeza's committee was the one responsible for putting together the Assembly's version of the most calamitously bad budget ever devised for the state of California. And, you'll recall, Oropeza had voted in favor of every job-killing, budget-busting, screwy scheme to come out of the last legislative session.
With that kind of history, followed by a voter uprising that tossed out the governor who had signed all of that bad legislation, you'd think you'd find a dollup of humility. Instead, you find, in our judgment, all levels of pinches tiran os.
But Castaneda would not have left this matter on a negative note. He would have said that when pinches tiranos provoke in us reactions of frustration, anger or resentment, they are revealing our own petty feelings. We should be grateful for this revelation, and realize they are among our greatest teachers.
The lessons of the recall election, therefore, are not so much for the pinches tiranos of the Legislature, but for the voters of California.
Payback's a bitch, Jenny.
This is FR. The cry should be "Come on, conservatives"
To the newcommers: Clinging to a party won't do it. Clinging to a principal usually will.
That's just the thing. It's not the conservatives I have a problem with. It's the GOP leadership.
Political parties are far from perfect, but they can be useful outlets for promoting ideologies. The Republican Party, to me, appears to be our best bet. But it needs help.
Clinging to a party won't do it. Clinging to a principal usually will.
No argument here. However, like I said, political parties can be very useful to promote ideologies. Throughout the 80's, the Republican Party was an excellent outlet for the promotion of conservatism. Now, it's kind of cowering in the corner, but I strongly believe that there is still much hope for the GOP yet. This is why I am still a registered Republican.
I am not, however, a person who clings to his party no matter what. I cling to the Republican Party simply because I still believe it is currently the most effective way for me, a U.S. citizen, to voice my conservative opinions. If I jump ship now, that's one more person who won't be able to help bring the party back to its greatness. We Reaganite Conservatives must stay in the GOP if the party is to ever hope to return to Reaganite Conservatism. And if it does, then it may become the majority party and force the Democrats into a new era of realism.
Just for the record, though, during the Rockefeller era, I would never have voted Republican. :)
Was this the meeting that she walked out of? Or was this a more recent episode?
Arnold should put together a list of senators and representatives that he feels are not capable of fullfilling his dream for California. He should ask all voters to rid our statehouse of them immediately.
Make a list, and check it twice if necessary. "The people of this state want to see positive changes and we can no longer afford to support expensive socialist experiments espoused by certain members of our government". And name names.
Time to check all 'feel good' legislation and move instead toward that which actually produces some good.
And since people like her make laws for Americans in California, can anyone not figure out what country our state will resemble in the wake of such laws?
Making nice with her will only make her sneer. If Schwarzenegger and his people want respect, they need to slam Oropeza every way they can think of. Thugs - even female thugs - only respect force. Political force in this case, but force nonetheless.
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