Swing Vote Senator: GOP Sought To Bankrupt Calif. ("let it fall of a cliff")

[Kadie]

Mar 25, 2009 9:52 pm US/Pacific
Swing Vote Senator: GOP Sought To Bankrupt Calif.

Sen. Abel Maldonado, the Republican legislator who broke party ranks and was the deciding vote to break the state's budget stalemate, said some GOP leaders had urged him to "let California go bankrupt... let it fall of a cliff" in order to score partisan political points against Democrats.

snip...
Members within my caucus, in essence, were making the point 'Why vote for this? Why not make a point? Why not let the state just fall off a cliff?' In essence bankruptcy... just to prove a point," said Maldonado, of Santa Maria, in an interview at the statehouse.

Maldonado indicated he was in disbelief at the suggestion from his GOP colleagues to put the state into bankruptcy.

"I just couldn't believe that was coming out of the voices of some of my Republican caucus members within the party," he explained.

snip...
Senate Republican leader Dennis Hollingsworth didn't deny the allegations when asked about them by CBS 5 on Wednesday.

"Some of those comments may have been made in the heat of passion," he acknowleged.

more...
http://cbs5.com/local/republicans.bankrupt.california.2.968131.html

[Dramarama]

1. I think I respect Maldonado

:scared:

[Stuart G]

2. This is exactly the same menatlity that many U.S Republicans in

Congress have. Let the country fall apart to make political points.

" Doesn't matter if 20 million have no jobs. Let us make our points so we can win the next election" It is exactly Rush's point of view..

[AntiFascist]

20. It's probably worse than that...

the far right-wing base of the Republican Party probably would like to see the democracy, as we know it, completely destroyed only to be rebuilt into some sort of system where they have total control. Only the moderates can save the Republics from their own self-destructive hubris.

[gratuitous]

3. I'm glad the GOP isn't bothering to deny it

Who would believe them anyway?

[alfredo]

4. Remember in 2001 bush sat back and let Enron bleed California dry.

[Art_from_Ark]

10. And then the Republicans ousted Gray Davis

and installed The Gropenator to cover it up.

[alfredo]

11. I think bush's inaction was to let Davis twist in the wind.

[Art_from_Ark]

12. I think it's more complicated than that

1) California law wouldn't let Davis "defend himself" by running in the recall election.
2) The Republican Party establishment essentially pushed the other serious Republican Party contenders out of the way and threw its whole support behind Arnold.
3) Arnold had actually met with Enron people sometime before the recall election
4) Once installed, Arnold put an end to the Enron investigation that Davis had been pursuing.

[alfredo]

13. What a prick.

[Art_from_Ark]

14. That is why I don't like Arnold as governor

I also saw a similar thing happen in my home state of Arkansas several years before:

Governor Jim Guy Tucker, a Democrat, was targeted in 1996 by Ken Starr's witch hunt. In Arkansas, the governor and lieutenant governor are almost always of the same party. But in this case, the lieutenant governor at the time was none other than Mike Huckabee, a Republican and big critic of another politician from his home town, Bill Clinton. Starr relied on the testimony of two known perjurers to convict, and therefore oust, Governor Tucker, paving the way for Huckabee to take over and spend the next 10 years occupying the governor's office.

[alfredo]

18. Huckabee is the type of person who hides his darkness behind a funny

facade.

[Kadie]

16. That entire ordeal was such a mess.

:grr:

[Art_from_Ark]

17. And it was all set up

One of several recent legal coups that toppled a duly elected Democratic governor

Arkansas-- Jim Guy Tucker was ousted by Ken Starr
Alabama-- Don Siegelman was ousted by Karl Rove
California-- Gray Davis was ousted by Republicans who wanted to shut down his Enron investigation

[CAcyclist]

19. And don't forget Kevin Shelley was ousted

by the RNC smear campaign for exposing Diebold and suing them in court and winning.

And Eliot Spitzer was taken down by the warrantless wiretapping dragnet for exposing the misdeeds at AIG and other corporate corruption.

[Kadie]

21. I forgot about Shelley.

So much has happened I can't keep up with it all.

[ColbertWatcher]

5. And yet, he sticks with his party and not his state. Good boy, Abel! Good boy. n/t

[villager]

6. ah, the party of "fiscal responsibility..."

n/t

[Pirate Smile]

7. I hope they hang this like an albatross around the Republicans necks next election.

[AlCzervik]

8. Then Abel needs to walk away, are those the kind of people he really wants to be associated with?

[Laelth]

9. That party has become so vile, it's no wonder a few of the sane ones are speaking out.

It's about time.

:dem:

-Laelth

[MonteLukast]

15. Punishing blue states... I knew it!

Remember those military base closures 3-4 years ago? I didn't think it was such a coincidence that most of them were in blue states (while new facilities sprang up in red states)

[inna]

22. what bastards. great thread, rec'd. nt