A good question for a Saturday morning… Why is Rob Reiner still the Chairman of California’s Children and Families Commission? Its been a couple of weeks now since the FR suggested that the Governor replace Reiner. Starting with the revelation by FR friend Hugh Hewitt that Reiner’s 
term on this influential commission actually is long-expired and that he can be replaced at will by the Governor, everyone I know is asking the question: why isn’t he being replaced?
Our reasons for believing that Reiner should be "terminated" from this spot exist on multiple levels. First and foremost, his socialistic mentality of increasing taxes on those who are responsible for job creation in the California economy, and then providing questionable government-run services that he has invented is loonacy. He is so far off of even the liberal main-stream that he is an embarrassment to the Golden State. That recalled Governor Gray Davis would have appointed him in the first place is bad enough. But now this guy is sitting on this commission because HIS REPLACEMENT HAS NOT BEEN NAMED. Now we all know that the Governor is responsible for thousands of appointments, and it is a laborious process to wade through all of those. That said, this particular appointment should be at the TOP OF THE LIST because of its symbolism, and its substance.
We addressed the symbolism above, but the substance is this: Reiner, while Chairman of this group, voted and directed that millions of dollars (this commission oversees the spending of vast sums of Tabacco-tax dollars) into television commercials promoting universal preschool, while at the same time Reiner was paying signature gatherers to go out and convince Californians to sign petitions to support a universal pre-school measure for the ballot. In a startling revelation, it appears that Reiner may have led an effort to take an entire year’s worth of advertising budget and blown it all in the few months while this was going on.
Since all of these revelations have come forth, you have had a number of Republican and now Democrat officeholders become increasingly vocally critical of Reiner, his position on this commission, his actions on the commission, and more. Politicians ranging from State Senate President Don Perata, Assembly Majority Leader Dario Frommer, State Senator Dave Cox, former Assemblyman Tony Strickland, State Senator Chuck Poochigian, and now even Controller Steve Westly.
Everyone is talking audits and investigations, it is time to "terminate" Reiner from this commission. Clearly this commission needs some mature, responsible and ethical leadership going forward, and also leadership that will cooperate with all of the investigations that are going to take place. Now is the opportunity for Governor Schwarzenegger to appoint a new Chairman (a Republican, if you please) and bring some sanity into this commission.
Now, new FR friend Bill Bradley, a columnist for the Los Angeles Weekly, has his very own blog, New West Notes, and has been penning some amazing revalations in "Reiner-gate" as this has all been developing. Below are links to his blog entries on this subject in just the last week alone. All worth reading.
- Update: Another Democratic Leader Moves On The Reiner Situation
- California’s Gubernatorial Candidates On Reiner
- Reiner — All In The Family
- FLASH: State Audit Of Reiner Commission Coming
- Reiner: Erosion Of Democratic Support … with Update
Hopefully there is a process taking place behind the scenes, being overseen by new Appointments Secretary Timothy Simon (a good Republican), that has resulted in a few names making their way up to the Governor’s desk, and maybe we will see a new Chairman announced in the coming days.
Of course, Reiner is no friend to the Governor. Reiner decided that the fire was getting a little hot, and had the audacity to announce he was taking a ‘leave’ (yes, from his EXPIRED TERM) until June. He did this when he could have just as easily tendered a resignation to the Governor.
Well, we’ll leave you to chew on this over the weekend.
Have a great day!
Jon
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