Everyone knows about New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine's decision to speed down a state highway sans seatbelt and the price he paid for flouting the laws he was charged with enforcing.
Corzine was at least repentant, acknowledging the error of his ways.
Sen. Carole Migden |
Now meet California state Sen. Carole Migden, D-San Francisco.
Last month, after she was chewed out for colliding with another motorist between her district and Sacramento, she declared: "You can't talk to me like that. I'm a senator."
When the news first leaked out, Migden explained she'd been momentarily distracted while reaching for a cell phone. Keep in mind this is the same Sen. Migden who authored a bill banning hand-held cell phone usage while driving.
But then word got out that other witnesses had called 911 to report she was driving erratically for 30 miles along Interstate 80.
Migden revised her story. Three days after the crash, she claimed her driving problems were likely the result of a "very powerful regimen of medication" she takes every day as part of a previously undisclosed, 10-year bout with leukemia.
While we can all sympathize with Migden's health challenges, her revelation about driving while under the influence of powerful drugs raises other serious questions: Why hasn't she been arrested? Aren't there laws against driving under the influence of powerful intoxicants? Don't these laws apply even to distinguished senators from the state of California – even when they are battling health problems?
Nevertheless, Migden's tearful story of victimization seems to have quieted her critics in the Golden State. Even her political challengers seem tongue-tied.
Migden was caught red-handed endangering the lives of others and responding arrogantly when she was busted for it.
So what did she do?
She pulled a Clinton. She kept changing the subject. She made the world feel sorry for her. In no time at all, the perp had become the victim. That is the legacy, ultimately, of former President Bill Clinton. And his wife, Hillary, is hoping to build another presidency upon that foundation of deception.
And this is who Migden is. In 2006, a survey of legislative staffers by Capitol Weekly newspaper found she was the "worst boss" in Sacramento. When she was elected to the Assembly seat formerly held by Speaker Willie Brown, she declared the Legislature was getting "a lesbian with a tube of lipstick in one hand and a bayonet in the other."
In her first year in office, a San Francisco Examiner column labeld her "Sacramento's scariest boss." She has a reputation for firing key aides and dispatching her state employees on personal errands like picking up gourmet coffee and fixing her dryer.
Want more arrogance?
In a recent meeting in her office with officials from San Francisco's teachers union, one member of the group called Migden by her first name.
According to Dennis Kelly, president of United Educators of San Francisco, Migden wheeled around and scolded: "That's Senator Migden to you."
Later, she scolded Kelly's associate for using the term "more bang for the buck."
"Don't you ever say that in my office, that's a prostitution term," she claimed.
In fact, "more bang for the buck" originated in the 1960s in connection with defense spending.
But what are we going to do about Carole and politicians like her?
Should we just blame it on the meds?
Or should elected officials be held to at least the same standard of civilized behavior as the average taxpayer?
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