Political strategist Garry South must sense doom for Gray Davis.
He is ditching the effort to defend Davis against a recall. The
Los Angeles Times
reported last Friday that he “will take no formal role in
fighting the recall effort.” As he explained to the Times,
“I’ve got other things going on in my life.”
South, reports the Times, is off to work for
presidential candidate Joseph Lieberman as a senior campaign
adviser. Isn’t that an even more hopeless task than defending
Davis? Apparently South doesn’t think so. Which is telling. If
South considers Lieberman’s presidential run less doomed than
Davis’s chances of surviving a recall, Davis should really begin to
panic.
Panic is certainly warranted. Tuesday’s numbers at Davis Recall.com suggest that the
question isn’t whether Davis will face a recall but when. The site
reports 535,374 signatures out of 898,157 petitions necessary for a
recall.
Taxpayers Against the Recall — the phony group Davis had to
scramble to form — looks pretty rag-tag and desperate. The group
consists not of grass-roots taxpayers but of union hacks who have
long supped at the tax trough. Notice that Steve Smith,
California’s labor secretary, has taken a “leave of absence.” Why?
Because Davis needs him free to dial up friends in organized labor
to kill the recall drive.
You can also tell that Davis is in a serious pinch because
militant abortion activists are sending out all-hands-on-deck
signals. They have decided to turn Darrell Issa, the Republican
congressman financing the recall drive, into Randall Terry. The
Contra Costa Times reports
that demonstrations are scheduled “in Beverly Hills, San Diego,
Sacramento and San Francisco, where abortion rights supporters plan
to draw attention to the congressman’s opposition to abortion.
‘Basically, the message they’re going to be sending tomorrow is
Darrell Issa shouldn’t be allowed to recall a woman’s right to
choose,’ said Carroll Wills, spokesman for Taxpayers Against the
Recall.”
The radical feminists who rallied to Bill Clinton during his
impeachment are now called to do their duty for Davis. They
probably don’t want to pick up their placards for such a dud, but
he has been loyal to them. He used to show up at abortion clinics
to cheer them on. He is their champion — at least for now. Should
the recall qualify, these Davis loyalists may prove disloyal. Say
Dianne Feinstein throws her name into the hat. Will the feminists
bolt on Davis? Garry South won’t even be around to kick them back
into line.
Maybe the Morongo Band of Mission Indians will stick by Davis’s
side. Davis recently toasted them for launching a new casino in
Southern California. Reporters asked Davis why he showed up for the
casino ceremonies. Was he trying to shore up support during the
recall drive? “I’m not here to talk about the recall effort,” Davis
was quoted as saying. “I believe credit should be given where
credit is due. This is a major economic success story for the
Morongo Band and the Inland Empire.”
(Were Bill Bennett a member of the Morongo Band of Mission
Hands, he would be credited with creating new jobs and financing
the education of children. A shameless Indian Gaming ad now running
in California touts the educational and civic benefits that accrue
from gaming revenues. So according to California liberals, many of
the same ones shocked at Bennett, Californians aren’t gambling
enough. We are supposed to pull over at Indian gaming dens and play
the slot machines so that children can have more after-school
programs.)
Meanwhile, California Republicans face problems of their own.
Will candidates vying to replace Davis cancel each other out?
Robert Novak reports
that Richard Riordan may join the fray: “Riordan has asked for
White House help in clearing out the rest of the Republicans. Since
that is patently impossible, he may run as an independent.” And
then there is Arnold Schwarzenegger, who won’t make a decision on
running, his spokesmen say, until after the July release of
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.
The only sure-fire winner from the recall are political
journalists, who will get to feast on its comic mishaps.
