It is being reported today by Fresno Bee editorial board member gail Marshall that in an interview that the Bee Ed Board conducted with Governor Schwarzenegger, he told them that he will not fire Rob Reiner as Chairman of the California Children and Families Commission. Marshall, in her blog post, says that: "Schwarzenegger said there is only an "appearance" of a problem with Reiner, and he sees no reason to remove him at this point. The governor said it isn’t right to dump Reiner without evidence of wrongdoing."
First and foremost, this is bad news. Bad because the reason to appoint a new Chairman of the Commission (remember, Reiner’s term of four-years to which he was appointed by Gray Davis has long expired) is because there should be someone in charge of this Commission who shares the Governor’s vision and philosophy. Specifically, Reiner has decided to go ahead and put a massive tax increase measure on the upcoming ballot. Reiner has made himself the issue by being such an outspoken, partisan liberal.
The post ends with Marshall writing about the Governor’s talk:, "The auditors are looking into the issue, the governor said, and Reiner is "innocent until proven guilty." Besides, Schwarzenegger said, he wouldn’t do that to a friend."
Rob Reiner is being no friend to Arnold Schwarzenegger. If he was truly a friend to this Governor, he would have resigned from the Commission, not stay on their to create this re-election year issue for the Governor.
As we approach the election, Reiner is only going to become more and more the target of the angst of fiscally conservative voters, who don’t want to be taxed to finance a centralized pre-school education bureaucracy.
I admire loyalty among friends, but again — there is plenty of good reason for the Governor to appoint a new Chairman without even getting into the scandolous mis-use of taxpayer dollars to lobby the public that appears to have taken place.
(H/T to Bill Bradley, "Mr. 24/7 Reiner-gate" for the heads-up on this. His blog, New West Notes, is on the FR Blog Roll above.)