Davis - Oracle of Denial (CA)

It's got it all. Document shredding, a payment handed over in a bar, secret side deals, scapegoats taking the heat, a big-bucks contract with no independent bidding, a conflicted consultant, some disregarded warnings, potential criminality, and a chief executive who claims he didn't have a clue.

The $25,000 to the Davis campaign, given five days after a questionable $95 million contract with Oracle was finalized, has more pizzazz than your run-of-the-mill campaign finance violation.

The circumstances have placed Gray Davis on defense at a time when he would like to be on offense. They also have exposed his Achilles' heal - the mixing of fund raising with the business of governing.

The Democrats in Sacramento want to avoid the appearance of a cover-up, so hearings have begun.

Now it appears as though the governor is trying to defend charges of corruption by using a shield of incompetence. He says he never knew anything and is just as mad as the rest of us.

To buy that, one would have to believe that Davis couldn't control the actions of a whole lot of people. After all, the Oracle deal was endorsed by both the finance and general services directors and approved by the Cabinet secretary. A governor's office memo pushed the deal through by saying Oracle's fiscal year was about to expire. Apparently, the only one who wasn't cognizant of what was occurring was the governor himself.

But this is the same political character who throughout his career has been engrossed in the act of gathering money from those who have a keen interest in executive branch policy decisions. And if there's one area that Davis micro-manages, it's fund raising.

Facts have been reported that also suggest that criminal acts may have occurred. In a turn of events that could make Janet Reno blush, the criminality is going to be investigated by the state attorney general, Bill Lockyer. Lockyer is an elected official from the same political party as the governor. But this is not his only conflict. It just so happens that Lockyer received two times the amount of money from Oracle as his boss.

Lockyer refuses to recuse himself and allow an impartial investigation of potential crimes to proceed. This is damaging to both the legal and the political process. If he continues with his intransigent disdain for integrity, it will be up to John Ashcroft or Dennis Hastert to assert jurisdiction.

Of course, political strategists are retooling in the light of the Oracle mess. A word is being tossed around that the Davis camp would probably like to see obliterated from its rival's lexicon: Contract. The pesky little controversy involving long-term energy contracts signed by the governor is back on his campaign doorstep.

The Oracle matter distracts from two of Davis' primary strategies - to characterize opponent Bill Simon as an extremist and to evoke class-envy sentiments that have proven successful in many campaigns.

Scandals such as this tend to alienate potential voters from the political process. Simon has the opportunity to use the prevailing cynicism about politicians to accentuate the fact that he is not one.

In the memo from the governor's office that triggered the Oracle deal, Cabinet Secretary Susan Kennedy was given a "short window of opportunity."

- Rather than have competing bids from other software supplier large and small in an effort to bring down the cost of the contract (competition is the backbone of America’s free enterprise system), Gray Davis’ Administration signed off on Oracle’s deal with $95 million of your money.

- Forget that Oracle lobbyist Ravi Mehta recommended to Oracle’s director of legislative affairs that the software giant make monetary contributions “to a number of individuals who are presently in office or running in safe seats and will be elected to the California legislature next year” last year before the contract was signed.

- Forget that Democrats from Governor Gray Davis to state Attorney General Bill Lockyer were given hundreds of thousands of dollars in “campaign contributions” by Oracle before the $95 million contract was signed.

- Forget that hundreds of thousands of dollars in political contributions from a big corporation to a politician would never cause that politician to spend $95 million of your taxes because the politician said so.

- Forget that even when Governor Davis and AG Lockyer returned the total of $50,000 they received from Oracle last year, they had already spent that money long before the scandal erupted and still had millions left over in their campaign war chests.

- Forget any talk of nepotism when Oracle salesman Richard Polcano, Jr. brokered a meeting between Oracle resellers and Democrat state senator Richard Polcano before the contract was signed.

- Forget that this costly investigation into a sleazy deal costing taxpayers millions of dollars in a state buried in $4 billion deficits is over and nobody is taking the blame because the state and Oracle are trying to rescind the contract.

- Forget that any continuing investigation into the criminality of the Oracle database deal will be conducted by Democrat state AG Bill Lockyer, who is leads the never-ending legal battle for government sanctions against Oracle’s competition.

California has a lot to forget in the next few months before the November elections. To make it easier, all Californians should just remember when they see the words “Oracle,” “scandal,” “deficit,” “taxes,” “corruption,” or “Governor Gray Davis” to immediately forget everything they just thought. Call it “A California State of Mind.”

Old story, but for those of you wondering what Governor Davis might need document shredders for.

2 posted on 10/06/2003 3:49:28 PM PDT by My2Cents (Well...there you go again.)

Aww man! Enough of the fundraiser posts!!!

Only YOU can make fundraiser posts go away. Please contribute!

3 posted on 10/06/2003 3:50:14 PM PDT by Support Free Republic (Your support keeps Free Republic going strong!)

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Lockyer refuses to recuse himself and allow an impartial investigation of potential crimes to proceed.

Only the Democrats pull this stuff – if this had been a Republican...just use your imagination. This is old news but shows the character of Davis and he is slippery!!!

5 posted on 10/06/2003 4:07:18 PM PDT by yoe (Term Limits - and 2 terms are the limit for all elected to a Federal office!!)

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