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California primary was mint-julep time for American conservatives
who, however pleased they are about George W., very much needed
a sign of life from the outback. What was especially spectacular
about Bill Simon's victory was its dire unpredictability. We have
now in the White House the son of a GOP patriarch and, prospectively
in the governor's mansion in California, the son of another GOP
patriarch. And where in California? In Sacramento, where 35 years
ago another upstart Republican arrived, making his way to the White
House, where he officiated for eight years, pending his final destination
in the American pantheon.
We are carried
away?
Yes. Why not?
Politics should permit that, every now and then. We need to see
those occasional shafts of light; otherwise, the grayness of politics
takes over, and we tighten our belts to the ineluctabilities of
demagogy and compromise and waste and bureaucratic asphyxiation.
Or, we don't tighten our belts at all, and just wallow on in the
torpor of it all.
Everything
about the Simon upset is gratifying.
— Bill
Simon was so invisible a name in California that when he won the
primary, some people reportedly had to look in the newspaper to
remind themselves of the name of the winner.
— If
ever there was an underdog, it was he. As recently as in December,
he was being given 5 percent of the Republican primary vote, up
against 20-odd for Secretary of State Bill Jones, and 40-50 percent
for Richard Riordan, the former mayor of Los Angeles.
— Bill
Simon was not only unknown, he gave the impression of being deservedly
unknown. At his first major appearance announcing his candidacy
in New York City, his speech and manner were those of the committed
amateur, and many in the audience contrasted his performance wistfully
with that of his late father, the charismatic former Secretary of
the Treasury, a commanding figure on stage and off stage.
— This
time around, President Bush flouted the tradition of Ronald Reagan
and Gerald Ford. The president's representative in California urged
Riordan to compete for the Republican nomination. This violated
Reagan's so-called Eleventh Commandment, which was never to favor
one Republican over another in a primary contest. The backing of
the Bush machine in California appeared to deepen the odds against
Simon, but two developments began to affect favorably his prospects.
The first was the intervention of Rudy Giuliani, who had known Simon
as an assistant prosecutor when Rudy was U.S. Attorney. Giuliani
did more merely than say nice things about Simon while passing through.
He vigorously campaigned for him.
A second development
was an astonishing series of ads taken by California Governor Gray
Davis aimed at Richard Riordan, who loomed as the Republican challenger.
The ads brought attention to Riordan's eccentric record, a Republican
whose various attachments to various causes and political figures
made him politically amorphous. If it was Governor Davis's intention
to hurt Riordan — on the grounds that he was a graver prospective
menace than Simon — it's clear that he did hurt him, but not
clear that he will, in the end, have an easier time of it with Simon
as his opponent.
California
is a Democratic state, but the question in November is likelier
to rest on whether four more years of Gray Davis are to be preferred
to a term for a fresh and vigorous challenger, never mind that he
is a conservative. What doesn't work in California is a spiritless
candidacy associated with anaemic programs. It is all very well
for Terry McAuliffe, the Democratic chairman, to argue that Simon
will have to bear the weight of being pro-life, pro-guns, and anti-environment.
Even in California, there are those who will ask themselves: If
Simon is elected, does that mean the Supreme Court will rescind
Roe v. Wade? If he is elected, will people negotiate
their differences with six-shooters? If elected, will California
beaches simply disappear?
The hallucinations
are in contrast to life as it is under Governor Gray Davis, with
fitful power supplies, high taxes, high deficits, and a generation
of schoolchildren being taught illiteracy in two languages. The
prospect of a young, idealistic conservative who has already practiced
beating the odds may prove appealing. It would be fine if the Republican
presidential nominating convention in 2004 took place in Sacramento,
and were welcomed by Governor William E. Simon Jr.
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