A California Recall Showdown: ‘Meathead’ vs. ‘The Terminator?’
July 1, 2003
by Joseph P. Tartaro
Executive Editor
Syndicated columnist Robert D. Novak’s June 9 column claimed that “The movement to replace just-reelected Democrat Gray Davis as governor of California is beginning to look like a runaway train with nobody at the controls.”
Novak said that the Golden State’s voters might be going to the polls this fall to decide whether Davis should be recalled, then vote on the same ballot to select his successor.
The recall petition was begun by people who were clearly fed-up with Davis’ stewardship on many issues, including their right to self-defense. Even though Davis dragged his heals a bit on some proposals, the state legislature, controlled by his fellow Democrats, keeps piling on gunowners.
But the gun issue isn’t Davis’ only problem. There are huge budget deficits and most Californians are still burning over his electrical power fiasco.
Novak claimed that a consultant gathering petition signatures had 520,000 and was aiming for 1.2 million by the Sept. 2 deadline in order to have the 897,000 valid signatures required to put the recall on the ballots in November. Two days later, in a story about major financial contributions to both sides of the recall effort, The Washington Times reported that 587,000 signatures had already been collected.
Most politicians are offended by the chaotic nature of the recall process, but some have begun to back different horses for the successor’s race. Almost anyone could be elected if voters recall Davis—with US Sen. Dianne Feinstein as a ripe possibility.
One of the names frequently mentioned by Republicans is action-movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger, aka The Terminator.
Despite persistent rumors and previous coy replies regarding a candidacy for governor, these days Schwarzenegger insists the only thing he’s campaigning for at the moment is his forthcoming film “Terminator 3.”
The 55-year old Schwarzenegger, who gave a campaign-style speech to the conservative Washington anti-tax group Club for Growth, brushed off questions about his political ambitions.
According to Associated Press, his political advisers have said Schwarzenegger will decide whether to run after the July 2 release of “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines,” and only then if it becomes clear the Davis recall will qualify for the ballot.
The Democrats are becoming worried enough that the recall will make the ballot and Davis might lose that they are shopping around for celebrity candidates. One of the leading prospects, according to some sources, is actor-director Rob Reiner who is still know as “Meathead” for his 1970s role on TV’s “All in the Family.”
Reiner is well aware of the tag. “I’ve always said, if I won the Nobel Prize, the headline would read: Meathead wins Nobel Prize,” says the director of “Spinal Tap,” “A Few Good Men” and “The Princess Bride,” as well as the new release, “Alex & Emma.”
It has been suggested to Reiner by various politicos that he seek the Democratic nomination for California governor, should Schwarzenegger follow through on his hints of entering the gubernatorial race.
“People ask, ‘Are you going to save California from The Terminator?’ ” Reiner, told The Toronto Sun.
“I never say no, I never shut out possibilities. But right now I’m focusing on my films. I don’t know if even he (Arnold) has decided that’s something he wants to do.”
Stay tuned.
NYC Defenders
Ronald Dixon, 27, a Brooklyn, NY, Navy veteran who shot a burglar as the crook crept into his toddler’s bedroom seems to have won his much publicized debate with the District Attorney who didn’t want to prosecute him for the shooting but did want to exact as much as he could for the unlicensed handgun possession charge.
Dixon dodged a possible three-month prison sentence in the DA’s previous offer on June 9 after pleading guilty to a reduced charge of disorderly conduct, a violation that will send him to Rikers Island for just three days.
To get the reduced sentence, Dixon, who works a second job on the weekend to support his family, had to acknowledge his wrongdoing, document where he got the gun and prove that he had taken steps to register it, according to The New York Post.
The conviction will not appear on his record.
In another similar New York City case, The Daily News reported on June 13 that Manuel Falquez, 22, an Air Force serviceman who killed a burglar in his mother’s Queens Borough home won’t go to prison after pleading guilty to a firearm charge. Falquez agreed to the deal after prosecutors said he was justified in shooting the burglar in the head in February with an unlicensed 9mm pistol.
The Feb. 18 incident occurred not long after his mother won $100,000 in the New York lottery. He was visiting her when a man with a knife and a .38-caliber revolver slipped in through a balcony door. Falquez told the man, John Mejia, 36, to drop the weapons, but the burglar refused. Falquez shot him once, killing him instantly, cops said.
The gun was not registered, and Falquez was hit with a weapons charge that could have landed him a year in prison. By pleading guilty to attempted criminal possession of a handgun before Criminal Court Judge Stephen Knopf, Falquez got a conditional discharge.
Falquez has two years to go in the Air Force tour, said he hopes to get a city or state job working with computers if he doesn’t reenlist. To do so, he’ll have to stay out of trouble for one year, and then Knopf will have to order him relieved from the civilian penalties that go along with any misdemeanor conviction.
The TSA Waltz
In early June, USA Today reported that two airline pilot groups and key members of Congress were blasting the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) for moves they fear could delay arming pilots.
At the end of May, the TSA fired Willie Ellison, the head of the TSA academy, despite high praise by the pilots who received firearms training, and revealed plans to move the training from Georgia to New Mexico.
“It’s one more bureaucratic disaster devised by those who want to make this more complex and expensive than it has to be,” said Rep. John Mica (R-FL), head of the House aviation subcommittee.
Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR), the ranking Democrat on the aviation committee, complained that the changes came as a surprise to Congress. “No attempt was made to rationalize the waste of money spent setting up the program in Georgia and then moving it to New Mexico,” he said. “It’s just another attempt by the Administration to disrupt the program at the behest of the airlines who have always opposed arming pilots.”
TSA officials told the 50 people who provide the training that the program would be moved from the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco, GA, to a facility at Artesia, NM. The TSA training staffers, many of whom moved to Georgia in the past year, were offered the chance to relocate to New Mexico.
TSA spokesman Robert Johnson said courses would resume in Georgia in July as scheduled. Then the training would move to New Mexico in the fall because of “a surge of other training” in Georgia.
Pilots worry about what the shake-up means for those awaiting training.
Then, a few days after the USA Today story broke, there was further evidence that TSA was catering to the airline industry on this security issue.
Wire services reported that TSA announced that “non-lethal” stun guns could be allowed on airplanes as another layer of security.
In a report to Congress, the agency said electronic shock devices could be an effective deterrent against hijackers. But it deferred a decision on whether to approve requests for such guns already filed by United Airlines and Mesa Air Group, which operates America West Express, US Airways Express and Mesa Airlines.
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