Three Cheers for the CA Senate!

The LA Times reported yesterday that the CA Senate rejected Schwarzenegger's remaining nominee, Kathleen Smalley, for the California State Teachers Retirement System Board. There were 5 nominees originally, sitting on the board awaiting Senate confirmation, but Schwarzenegger fired the other 4 of his nominees after they voted to oppose his own plan to replace public pensions with 401k-style accounts in February. It was a 10-2 vote to condemn the plan soundly, with one of the two dissenters being a direct representative of the administration, and the other being the woman the Democrats nixed yesterday.

Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata (D-Oakland) was refreshingly up front about the Senate Committee's reasons. He did not issue some pretense--the kind of lie that has become so commonplace in our Culture of Deception. Instead, Perata said Smalley was "very qualified," but that if Schwarzenegger required his appointees to follow administration policy, Senators would use the same criterion in casting their votes. "You can't have it both ways. She is a battlefield casualty in a fight over public pensions."

IMHO, this is exactly the sort of (typically) below-the-radar fight that is so important. These appoinments are crucial and I applaud the CA Senate for showing real backbone. Schwarzenegger must learn that the Governorship is not a dictatorship, and independent boards are vital to our system.