BEWARE THE BOY GENIUS

Start Packing, Gray: The White House gets into the act to dump the governor (Bill Bradley, 6/20/03, LA Weekly)

Poor Gray Davis. California's constitutional deadline to pass a new budget came and went over the weekend, and there our embattled governor was, alone in the state Capitol with no legislators in sight, contemplating not success but disaster in the form of the seeming collapse of his budget strategy, a fast-moving recall signature drive and the looming prospect of the Terminator running against him.

Just a few weeks ago, a mega-deal seemed in the works, giving Davis and California a timely budget and giving some Republican legislators and the corporate community reforms of the malfunctioning workers'-compensation system and restrictions on lawsuits. But that all changed when Senate Republican leader Jim Brulte declared that he would punish any Republicans who voted for a tax increase by going all-out to defeat them in a Republican primary.

It was surprising because Brulte has a relatively moderate reputation, playing to reporters with off-the-record jests distancing himself from his party's more caveman tendencies. Yet there he was, scuttling a brewing budget deal by drawing a cavemanesque line in the sand on taxes that the business community did not. On the other hand, it's a sound strategy for Republicans because the more trouble Davis has getting a credible budget, the less likely it is that his anemic 21 percent approval rating goes up and the more likely it is that the voters fire him.

It's probable that the White House played a role in Brulte?s hard-line approach on taxes. The Weekly has learned that Brulte has been consulting with White House political guru Karl Rove on the Davis recall, which Brulte does not deny.

Well, the White House has had great success with regime change lately... Posted by Orrin Judd at June 20, 2003 11:37 AM