Welcome to Arnold, King for a Day

Gray Davis, good riddance! Into the political coffin with you and off you go to the crypt. The line I remember from your inauguration speech in Sacramento back in 1998 was your creepy pledge that you would be "death on violent crime." You let your voice peck at the word "death" like a vulture tasting a corpse, and I remember thinking then what a degraded creature you were, serf of the prison warders' union and of anyone who shoved enough money into your money sock, the threadbare soul of the Democratic Party.

You played the politics of death all the way through. There are prisoners in California, convicted of murder a couple of decades ago, who've served their full sentences, who kept a perfect record of good behavior and who still rot behind bars because you wouldn't sign off on their release. And then, in case anyone had forgotten what you were like after four years, you poured out cash to keep Riordan off the Republican ballot, denouncing him because he might be soft on Death.

You had it coming to you, Governor Davis, and just look at who knocked you off: the blue-collar workers, the Hispanics who put you in Sacramento. They looked at their utility bills, looked at the economy of California and above all looked at you, shuddered and said Yes to recall; then, some of them, Yes to Bustamante; but many, Yes to Schwarzenegger.

Subscriber Login

User Name

Password

Subscribe Now!

The only way to read this article and the full contents of each week's issue of The Nation online is by subscribing to the magazine. Subscribe now and read this article -- and every article published since for the past five years -- right now.

There's no obligation -- try The Nation for four weeks free.

• Get The Nation at home (and online!) for 68 cents a week!
• If you like this article, consider making a donation to The Nation.
• Reprint this article. Click here for rights and information.