That great defender of the MEChA and their Aztlan goals is at it again. Cruz Bustamante compares himself to Danny DeVito in his role of Arnold’s twin, but falls well short. If the former steroid man is not your kind of running man or action hero, don’t think that Bustamante is a user friendly version of Louie DePalma. You remember that Taxi sadistic dispatcher at the Sunshine Cab Company? The role that made DeVito famous won’t put the Lt. Governor on cruise control.

Only a partisan hack like Art Torres, chairman of the state Democratic Party, sees Bustamante’s membership in MEChA when he was a student at California State University Fresno in the 1970s as a badge of honor. Republican Tom McClintock is quoted in an interview with the conservative weekly Human Events: "I believe that Cruz Bustamante has a great deal of explaining to do, if he still supports the aims of that organization." At a recent Sacramento news conference, Bustamante sidestepped the MEChA issue. Asked whether he would repudiate MEChA, Bustamante said: "The students that are in MEChA today are just like the students when I was there. Pretty much, they are trying to get an education." That sounds like a direct response to Michelle Malkin’s charge, in a column published Monday in the Philadelphia Daily News, that called MEChA "one of the nation's most virulently racist organizations."

But why bother with the aims of demographic destiny? Calls to reconquer the American Southwest, which they assert was stolen from Mexico, on behalf of the "bronze nation," is just a battle cry for that Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan movement, isn’t it? Californians would never vote into power such folly. Surely militant methods would be renounced by the vindicators for social policy. Just ask DemocRAT mouthpiece and hit man, Bob Mulholland. "Schwarzenegger is going to find out, that unlike a Hollywood movie set, the bullets coming at him in this campaign are going to be real bullets and he is going to have to respond to them," warned Mulholland in an interview with a camera crew from ABC NEWS. If you never see Mulholland in action, just imagine that other disheveled and spooked-looking taxi driver, Latka Gravas, who jockeyed for Louie DePalma. Andy Kaufman played that role, lets hope his fate doesn’t befall anyone at the hands of Mulholland’s angels.

So with the likes of this crew, Bustamante has endorsed a proposed state constitutional amendment to let the Public Utilities Commission regulate gasoline. California gas prices usually run about twenty cents above the U.S. average, owing in part because of the unique fuel blend required in the environmentally-conscious state. According to the Mercury News:

Is this one of the ways out of the fiscal wreck that are Bustamante solutions? Where has he been during his tenure as Gray Davis’ codriver? For that answer, follow the money. While Gov. Davis defended his offer allowing Indian tribes that operate casinos a key role in selecting members for a commission that regulates tribal gambling, he and Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, the only prominent Democrat on the Oct. 7 recall ballot, reportedly have received more than $1 million in donations from tribes since 1999.

Special interests influence has been the standard of the Davis/Bustamante regime. So what evidence, other than cash payola, is there when Bustamante says: "My politics ... have grown to a point where I'm a very inclusive individual, and all you have to do is look at the politics I've shared and the kind of politics that I've had."

Louie DePalma was a straight shooter. Cruz Bustamante, like Davis, speaks with a forked tongue. When the Washington Post reports that, “After the recent endorsements by unions representing teachers and government workers, as well as expressions of support from state and national party leaders, the AFL-CIO nod makes Bustamante the Democrats' standard-bearer,” only a jerk would think that Bustamante has the desire or the ability to reverse course from his fellow travelers. Since California is in a free-fall financial meltdown, the recall vote is based upon a simple question: Does the current team need to be replaced?

Tom McClintock has emerged as the conservative standard bearer. Electing him would give the Golden State a shot at returning to past glories. However, the likelihood that any Republican could muster enough votes to overturn the culture of California Dreaming is so remote that none of the ordinary people are able to afford the gas to make the trip. Bustamante’s program for salvation is based upon huge tax increases. Pay off for the bribes already taken is not the definition of honor. A better comparison for Bustamante is with Travis Bickle, the disturbed gypsy cab driver - “you talking to me.” Yes, the remaining sane voters of California are addressing the DemocRATS. Cruzing with Bustamante in search of the Jodie Foster vote means paying the price to pimps like Sport. Hardly a game worth playing.
 
The labor that fuels the liberal limousines needs a new day. Not one condemned to endless fiscal greed and paranoia that drives the state into bankruptcy, but one that offers a new start. Deviant culture produces aberrant politics. The special interests are the procurers of favors, sucked from the body politick. The recall vote is a rare opportunity to vote NO to the elites. Recall Davis, and pass on Bustamante. Both are one and the same. Whoever wins will be better than a cycle from a De Niro psycho stand-in. Send a message to the MEChA lobby . . . Give California a chance for a new age - vote conservative.
 
Sartre is the pen name of James Hall, a reformed political operative. His website is Breaking All the Rules.