Nathan ... great job beating up on a guy that already lost partially because people kept wanting more and more and more from him. I have to have little sympathy for you and your concerns brother, because my brothers in Sacremento were syaing these exact things before the election was over.

That's because Davis vetoed so many crucial laws in past years. Note the article saying that Davis was vetoing up to 20% of laws passed by his fellow Democrats-- an amazing number.

Note that George Bush has not vetoed a SINGLE BILL passed by his Republican Congress-- one reason he's held the vibrant support of his base.

No one wanted Davis to do anything more than do nothing-- don't veto the bills. He could have done nothing and they would have become law under California law.

Doing nothing was not too much to ask of Davis-- and in any case, now that the election is over, he has no excuse. This is just a pure knife in the back of those who supported him over the years.

I honestly don't contend (except on SB 382) that it is not a knife in the back fo the people you speak of, but what I am arguing is that you can hardly call them supporters. They have on many occaisions fougth with him before they even spoke toi him about an issue.

Also Nathan you too often assume that he opposes the idea and not the bill itself. A good portion of the of the legislation that come out of the legislature is well, badly written. Often his office has complained to the leadership about this but little has been done.

Finally, as you point out if he does nothing then the law that is written badly (and that his office had told them many times over they were) would become law.

Remember he has signed or let 80% become law including many important pieces of labor legislation. Some in the labor movement spent weeks not even mentioning No on Recall during this campiagn and other used their time to pressure the governor. He's been stabbed in the back many times.

While I understand the anger the base has at Davis suggestions like Riordan would be better is downright ridiculous.

I contend this is sickness you cannot simply label as Gray Davis and call him an asshole. This is a problem that extends to the leadership of much of the state party, legislature, progressive organizations and labor. They fight like crazy. They need to stop and the party and the movement each need discipline.

If we jump on the "Bash Gray Davis" bandwagon which you seemed to have joined then we are feeding the Schwarzenegger beast that will do all he can to hurt working famalies. ONly weeks ago you mentioned all we could lose, and now you beat up on a political corpse.

Your site is a great tool in making sure progressive activist know about unions, but it seems to me that you often eat our own very quickly.

Kevin- Frankly it doesn't matter what labor did during the recall election, although I know from friends they were in many cases out working hard turning out the "no on recall" vote.

But Davis owes labor for his very existence as governor. Back in 1998, he was in a primary against two near-billionaires, Al Checchi and Jane Harmon, and labor and latino Dem leaders went all out in the primary on Davis's behalf. Based on absolutely amazing mobilization of the base, Davis won the primary.

It is just despicable that Davis is vetoing one-fifth of legislation, since that is a farlarger percentage of controversial legislation, since many laws he signs are administrative and uncontroversial.

It's a very simple issue-- Davis only won the primary in 1998 because of a mass mobilization of the labor-latino base of the party, and he lost the recall because for five years he so regularly screwed them that he lost their loyalty.

I would have swallowed my bile and pulled the lever for Davis, but for less hard-edged pragmatists, I understand why many regular Dem voters couldn't.

And now that he's lost and out of office, I wouldn't even waste piss on him if he was on fire.

Yes but two years ago CTA and the Farmworkers withdrew their endorsements of him because he wouldn't sign contraversial legislation in the middle of a campiagn.

I agree Davis is not someone to cheer. I just wonder why you delight in calling him such vile names.

I have met the man many times and he is nothing compared to McGrevey. Davis did what he promised for the Unions in 1999. Mcgrevey has yet to do so. Where are your McGrevey posts.

Don't worry I don't want to see them.

This is the kind of infighting that costs ius elections. My questions is why is this so important to you. This si the kind of fighting that plagues Jersey City (Cunnignham vs. Menendez) and where I live (Baca vs. Labor). It needs to stop. Some of that is going to require comprimise in our own party.