Democrats Pitch to GOP’s Strengths in Welfare Game

SACRAMENTO â€”  To use a baseball metaphor, Democrats lobbed up a fat pitch and Gov. Pete Wilson slammed it back like a missile, darn near taking off the pitcher’s head.

This is a governor, after all, who has made a career out of blasting gopher balls--illegal immigration, three strikes . . .

On Monday, his classic swing at a Democratic welfare bill--his quick veto--provided the only drama during a tedious, interminable yawner of an Assembly “debate� most notable for its uninspiring script and lack of emotion.

A Senate welfare debate the same day also was a sleepwalk, but at least it was briefer and not orchestrated to provide TV time on the Cal Channel for selected lawmakers. There even was one spark of emotion when liberal Sen. John Burton (D-San Francisco) rose and said, in a dispassionate tone, but with clear sincerity:

“I couldn’t possibly let the welfare reform debate go by and not tell you how despicable I thought it was that the president felt he had to sacrifice millions of children for millions of votes. And I’m sure that when he goes down in history, everybody will remember that tremendous act of courage on his part.�

It was Burton’s late brother, Phillip Burton, who as an assemblyman 34 years ago wrote the basic California welfare act that now must be gutted because of the federal reform bill signed last August by President Clinton while warming up for his reelection race.

The Legislature--the Democratic majority, that is--has spent six months devising a new welfare system to jibe with the federal act. Problem is, the Democrats only have been haggling among themselves. They’ve essentially frozen out the Republicans, even though no plan can be enacted without GOP votes and the governor’s signature.

Expecting the GOP and Wilson to stand by idly on welfare is like expecting the Dodgers’ Mike Piazza to lay off a belt-high fastball down the middle.

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Monday’s floor shows were not about passing welfare reform. These exercises were about Democrats proving--mostly to themselves--that they really are capable of voting for some welfare overhaul.

The Assembly’s votes were straight party line and so mostly were the Senate’s.

Everyone anticipated the next step--a Wilson veto--but hardly anybody foresaw the rapidity. The Assembly hadn’t even finished debating the final bill of a four-bill package when Wilson pounced on the first offering and vetoed it.

The Democrats’ proposal represented “a stunning rejection of both the spirit and the letter� of the reform bill their own president had signed, Wilson charged in his veto message. “I can only assume that it was crafted by the most overzealous of welfare rights advocates.�

Indeed, among its principal crafters were two of the Legislature’s most liberal members, Assemblywoman Dion Aroner (D-Berkeley) and Sen. Diane Watson (D-Los Angeles). They make Republicans nervous.

Wilson’s blast four hours into the debate startled Democrats and unglazed the eyes of bored lawmakers who had been wandering about, ignoring the pallid rhetoric. “Essentially what the governor did was flip us off,� Senate Leader Bill Lockyer (D-Hayward) told reporters.

Lockyer also said that new Assembly Speaker Cruz Bustamante (D-Fresno) had committed “a rookie mistake.� He should have physically held the passed bill in the Assembly and delayed serving it up to the governor for the quick veto. “Welcome to term limits.�

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But Bustamante regards Monday’s exhibition game as a personal triumph. “I need to be taken seriously as a member of the Big Five,� he told me candidly, referring to the ultimate negotiators--the four legislative leaders and the governor. “The only way to do that was to deliver [all] 43 [Democratic] votes. It was a spectacular achievement.�

He also said: “My view is that the governor, as well as the Senate, know we have a new speaker and a very inexperienced membership. They think they’re just going to sweat out the Assembly and roll us over. And we’re not rolling over.

“I told the [Democratic] caucus, ‘Go home, kiss your wife and kids, give them a picture and tell ‘em you’ll see ‘em when it’s done.’ I see this going on as long as they want to sweat us out.�

Lockyer even is talking about maybe waiting for another governor--another two years--to resolve the state’s most immediate dilemma, an issue that already should have been settled.

Hey, Wilson will hammer this pitch as long as anybody will throw it. Democrats seem to be forgetting something: Welfare is a winner for the GOP. They’d best quickly play this game and move on to another. They’d best take coaching from their president.