The point is not that right wingers started the recall, not who is worse between Davis, Shwarzenegger, and Bustamante, but instead, is simply this:

What message will we be sending to future Governors and other politicians if we let Davis get away so easily with being more blatant than any U.S. leader in modern history in taking large amounts of money from huge industries and then doing whatever those donors ask of him?

The message would be: You can get away with this too. The public will not hold you accountable.

Some facts:

1) Gray Davis, who has indeed taken over one million dollars in contributions from the timber industry, in his first term as Governor, tried to pass California forestry rules that would have given logging companies fewer environmental restrictions than did previous Republican Governor Pete Wilson. He also succeeded in working behind the scenes to kill a bill in the state legislature that would have banned clearcut logging in California. Davis conspired cynically with Pacific Lumber Company, Senator Diane Feinstein, President Clinton, and Vice President Al Gore to craft and pass a deal which pretends to 'save' California's Headwaters Forest while it allows Pacific Lumber to cut 90% of it down. And when that Headwaters logging didn't happen quickly enough for his liking, Gray Davis delivered his chief of staff Susan Kennedy to the State departments of Forestry and Fish & Game to demand that they "Bend over backwards" to approve timber harvests for Pacific Lumber in Headwaters Forest.

2) Gray Davis, who has indeed taken more than a million dollars in donations from the prison industry, has been seeking increases in funding to build more prisons and raise prison guards' salaries, while virtually all other budgets are being cut in the state government. He has also declared and carried out his own personal and illegal moratorium on letting anyone convicted of murder out on parole, even when that prisoner is a woman who killed an abusive spouse or partner in self defense. Gray Davis has also stated his support for executing 14 year old children for capital crimes.

3) Gray Davis, who has indeed taken over a million dollars in donations from the power industry, complained mightily about energy corporations ripping off California for tens of billions of dollars and yet somehow has not managed to get one penny of that stolen money returned to the people of California, and he has even allowed California consumers to be forced to pay higher electricity rates in order bail those companies out of their bankruptcies.

It is not rocket science to figure this out.

Give Gray Davis a million dollars. He gives you what you want.

If we recall Gray Davis we will be sending a clear message to all others who follow him that they cannot behave so reprehensibly as public leaders and get away with it.

Any other option would validate what he has done, and give them the opposite message, that to get ahead in politics, they should take millions from corporations and ignore the public good.

It is time for the public to take our power back.

We can do that by voting 'Yes' on the recall,

and then voting our conscience for a candidate to replace him.

Yes, Arnold seeks to be just as bad or worse than Davis. But as a lone, very right wing voice, in a heavily Democratic state, who has just been revealed to be an admirer of Nazis and a sexual predator, he would in fact be an extremely weak governor who would get away with far less damage than Gray Davis himself has done already.

And in any case, who is more the Nazi? A macho public action figure who admires Hitler and invites a Nazi to his wedding, or a man who wants to imprison and execute abused women, and children...

Vote out of conviction, common sense, and conscience tomorrow.

Vote 'Yes' to recall Gray Davis.

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