Coming Down A Little Too Hard On Bustamante

After reflecting on my criticisms of Cruz Bustamante, and considering the decision today ordering Cruz to give the big money donations back, I've come to the conclusion that I came down to hard on him.

Though I strongly disagree with any intentional dickering around with fair elections law, if the judge in today's case found no reason to believe Bustamante intended to break the law, I certainly don't have the information to say so.

It's too bad that it has to get like this though. Even the appearance of impropriety hurts the cause of the everyday voter, and also in this case Cruz Bustamante's campaign. He will tarnished by this court action, if only even slightly. The race just might be that close.

Regardless how close that part of the recall vote goes, there's still little question in my mind that it needs to be shot down. It is a silly law, in the sense of allowing less than 10% of voters to oust a sitting governor. In today's partisan world, it's absurd actually. This could be done everytime, and there's little doubt that this will be a one-shot wonder, unless Arnie becomes governor, in which case the Democrats may just turn the tables before then rewriting the recall process.

The first and only important principled vote is NO on the Recall. Do not let this great state of California be hijacked. We just had an election, and if you can't win that, then quit your crying. At least wait a little while. But this timeline is absurd, and is another example of the coopting of politics by monied interests. It's time for that to be reined in, so that the everyday Californian voter again begins to believe that their vote counts.