Cox’s license to attack

S.J. Cahn

Rep. Chris Cox is not holding back with comments on the signing of a

law in California that allows illegal immigrants to get driver’s

licenses.

And his target is a familiar one: Gov. Gray Davis.

“The newly liberalized process of obtaining a California driver’s

license is dangerously flawed,” Cox said in a statement. “It is a

giant leap backward in the war on terrorism.”

Of Davis’ role, Cox was no less demure: “It is alarming that Gov.

Davis has ignored the lessons that we learned from Sept. 11, 2001. It

is especially cruel that he has signed this bill into law on the

two-year anniversary of the war on terrorism.”

Cox, along with 19 other California Republican representatives,

also has sent Davis a fairly heated letter to the governor.

In part, the letter says: “You vetoed this legislation twice

before over security concerns, stating just last year: ‘The tragedy

of Sept. 11 made it abundantly clear that the driver’s license is

more than just a license to drive; it is one of the primary documents

we use to identify ourselves. Unfortunately, a driver’s license was

in the hands of terrorists who attacked America on that fateful day.’

In fact, seven of the Sept. 11 terrorists obtained driver’s licenses

illegally from Virginia, whose laws at the time were essentially the

same as the one you have now signed.”

Davis has said the law will be a boon to immigrants who work in

the state. Other supporters have said it would increase security by

giving police and other officials access to more information about

those with the licenses.

Cox, coincidently or not, has given Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is

running in the recall of Davis, $21,200 via his campaign committee.

Rohrabacher ascends to new heights

Newport-Mesa’s other Congressional voice, Dana Rohrabacher, also

threw some verbal assaults earlier this month. His target: The Space

Shuttle program and NASA.

At the opening of a hearing on Sept. 4 about the shuttle program

and the crash of the Shuttle Columbia earlier this year, Rohrabacher

-- who is chairman of the House’s Subcommittee on Space and

Aeronautics -- said that traveling into space is a risk worth taking.

“We have the rare opportunity to help NASA break the bureaucratic

malaise that has gripped it for so long,” he said. “Our space program

should be about expanding American freedom into a new frontier. To

carry all humankind to new heights, into the heavens above, and to

better lives here on this planet; to finish the space station, and

move forward.”

That high oratory was contrasted by his severe take on the

shuttle.

“For the last 30 years, NASA may well have been on the wrong path

with the Space Shuttle. The Shuttle has failed miserably to meet its

original goals. Our reliance on such a complex and high-risk

technology has drained billions of dollars from our treasury and

other space programs, and has regrettably cost too many lives.”

Arianna Huffington is certainly no Terminator

Arianna Huffington made a campaign stop at Orange Coast College

this week, speaking before an enthusiastic crowd and asking those fed

up with the political system to give her their support.

But, judging from the response of some students afterward, she may

have a long way to go.

Plain and simple, she didn’t get their blood boiling like

Schwarzenegger did when he made a stop at Cal State Long Beach on

Sept. 3 -- yes, the one where he got egged.

OCC students who had traveled to that appearance were plenty

positive on the GOP front-runner. Huffington, even right at their own

door, earned more ho-hums.