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DOUBLE STANDARD

October 6, 2003

All of the sudden, Gray Davis became a staunch and uncompromising defender of the law. "The authorities should do their job," Davis said. "They should review all the facts. Upon the completion of that review, if they think a crime was committed, then they should follow their oath of office."

When I saw the above clip from San Diego Union Tribune, my first thought was: Thanks God! Gray Davis takes his promise to become a better governor really seriously. Thrilled with a possibility of losing his job, he realized that he was bad and now he is going to be a honest leader that is determined to uphold the law and not tolerate many law enforcement agencies' in California refusals to enforce the U.S. immigration law or to report illegal aliens to Federal authorities. Finally, lawbreakers will not be cut loose by police after they loiter on city streets, drive without a license or insurance, claim services and benefits that are reserved for legal residents, openly demonstrate against any attempt of enforcing the immigration law, or engage in gang activities, just because they are "undocumented".

The infamous "Special Order 40" that prohibits L.A. police to even question about the immigration status of suspected criminals is a blatant disrespect for the rule of law that the L.A. Police Department is supposed to enforce. And so is the recently signed by Davis "Illegal Aliens Driver's License Bill" that de facto instructs the DMV to not obstruct all those who are in this country illegally with their efforts to avoid being caught and removed. Also, the bill that grants tuition breaks for illegal aliens belongs to the same category of rules that go against Davis's advice "if they think a crime was committed, then they should follow their oath of office."

Unfortunately, Davis hasn't change a bit and the above call applies only to alleged crimes by his winning rival in tomorrow's recall election. Once again, Gov. Davis has proved that he is a man of principle, except that he has a double standard in his ethical hierarchy and uses one its side or another depending on the circumstances. So careful to not offend "undocumented immigrants" with "unproved allegations" of criminal violating the American border, Davis had no problem with rushing to judgment and labeling whatever Schwarzenegger did "a crime", although no charges were filed and no evidence was presented, as if there were no citizen's right to being presumed innocent unless proven guilty. And, of course, Davis, a self-proclaimed specimen of uncompromising morality, had quite different idea of what constituted a prosecutable offense when he was defending then-president Bill Clinton who lied under the oath while in office and had a number of serious criminal allegations, like rape, on his record.

Whether Arnold Schwarzenegger is qualified for the job of the governor or not is a matter of debate, and we may have a chance to see it for ourselves in the near future. But Gray Davis is obviously not qualified to pronounce any judgments in that matter. Neither his scandalously low job "performance" nor a record of not upholding the law of the land give him a mandate to judge his rivals. Clearly, he assumes that Californians are stupid enough to not see the obvious. Tuesday's election results will show if he is right.

So, make sure you go to the polls tomorrow and send Governor Davis a message he cannot file in a trash can.

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