Democrats In California Ignore Rule Of Law To Keep Their Supermajority

Political disagreements on the issues are one thing. A blatant disregard for law and an essentially fascist mentality are another.

California has a Democrat majority in both house of the state legislature, which means they can essentially do whatever they want. But it's slightly less in the state senate than in the assembly.

Two California Democrat state senators have been recently convicted of felonies. Sen. Ron Calderon was indicted last week on 24 counts of corruption, which included accepting thousands of dollars in bribes from undercover FBI agents posing as a film studio owner and a Southern California hospital executive as well as wire fraud, money laundering and falsification of tax returns. Given that he's a powerful state senator in the majority party, the vice-chairman of California's Latino Legislative Caucus and the fact the FBI is heavily involved, the fact that he's been indicted at all means this is almost a slam dunk guilty verdict and Calderon's lawyers are already attempting a plea bargain. Calderon is so dirty that even the Democrats in the state senate voted to give him until March 3rd to take a paid leave of absence while his trial is going on.

The other senator is Democrat Sen. Rod Wright, who was convicted of 8 counts of voter fraud and perjury which included lying about living in the district he represents.

The normal procedure for senators in these circumstances has always been to expel them from the senate, especially in Wright's case where he's already been convicted. But there's a problem...because if Wright and Calderon are both expelled from the senate, the Democrats lose their supermajority and would be unable to simply to ignore the concerns of the Republicans. So we can't have that:

So the senate Democrats blocked a resolution to expel Wright by sending the Republican proposal on a party line vote to the Rules Committee, where they can can permanently stall it. Instead, both Calderon (when he accepts it as he almost certainly will) and Wright already is - wait for it - going on a paid leave of absence at the taxpayer's expense.

Sen. Steve Knight, the Republican from Palmdale who introduced the resolutions said, “This will be precedent-setting.”

“We have gone past any time period where someone has been convicted of a felony and not resigned.”

Sen. Joel Anderson, R-Alpine, said, “You guys are the supermajority, you can do anything you want any time you want. ... Except for of course, if two members are expelled from this house. And then you would have to work with us to get that supporting vote,” Anderson said.

Democrat Senate leader Darrell Steinberg's excuse for this disgusting maneuver is both dishonest and bizarre. First, he gave the excuse that since Wright is already on a paid leave of absence, expelling Wright would “make zero practical difference.” Except this way, the committees and chairs stay in Democrat hands, and Calderon at least will still be allowed to vote if necessary.

Sen.Steinberg also made the ridiculous claim that technically,Wright isn't a felon even though he's been convicted by a jury since that jury's verdict hasn't been 'finalized' by a judge, and Wright plans to ask the judge to override the verdict...even though Steinberg acknowledged that judges almost always uphold juries’ verdicts!

“The integrity of this institution cannot tolerate a convicted felon in its ranks. But at this point in time Senator Wright is not a convicted felon,” Steinberg said. Ri-ight.

Not only that but Steinberg took the opportunity to throw some gratuitous slime,saying (without naming any names of course) that several Republican senators face allegations that they do not live in the districts they represent...even though that's by no means the only thing Wright was convicted of. He even had the nerve to quote the New Testament in which Jesus says, “Let him who is without sin among you cast the first stone.”

Of course the answer to this is simple...if there actually are Republicans in the senate who are guilty of multiple felonies,bring charges, indict them, convict them and throw them out of the senate.If Darrell Steinberg could pull that off, don;t you think he would?

And Steinberg's faux sophistry brings to mind a quote from Martin Luther.."Even the Devil can quote scripture to his own purpose."

Sen. Steve Knight is entirely correct, this is a precedent setter. It will not go unnoticed.