A Hybrid in a Field of Hummers

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You say you don't want to be part of the standard left-right paradigm. What differentiates your view from a classically liberal or leftist stance?

What differentiates me from, say, Cruz Bustamante, is that I take no special interest money. So I would govern completely differently. In his budget plan, called "Tough Love for Californians" there is tough love for everyone in it except for his big backers -- Indian gaming casinos and prison guard unions. The main difference is how I would determine public policy as a leader. The only way we will clean house is if there is no other priority, no other interest, than the people. As the only viable woman in the race, I have said that my priorities are those of a woman and a mother. What does a mother want? A good school for her children, affordable health care, affordable housing, a clean world to live in. Why I keep stressing that these are not right-left issues is because they're not. When the mainstream press defines them as left, they are basically marginalizing them.

There has been a good deal of talk in the press about your changing political views during the last decade. What prompted your shifting views on the role of government?

Maybe there is a statute of limitations coming up on this question. When I was a Republican, Saddam Hussein was our ally, George W. Bush was running a mediocre baseball team, and Ken Lay was a respected businessman; that's how long ago it was. A lot has changed. A lot of politicians have past vices. With some it's alcohol, with others it's group sex, and with me it's Newt Gingrich. I grew up. I saw the error of my ways.

But actually, seriously, the transformation, as you pointed out correctly, has been in my views on the role of government. I have always been a social moderate. I have always been pro-choice, pro-gun control, pro-gay rights. I saw first-hand how the private sector would never sufficiently step up to the plate to solve the major social problems we are facing, that you couldn't really do it without the raw power of government appropriation. So that is really what shifted my view on the role of government.

Governor Davis blames the federal government for energy deregulation. How would you have done things differently?

It is about leadership. Leadership is about looking around the corner and seeing the danger before it becomes a crisis . . . seeing the iceberg before it hits the Titanic. For example, I am now speaking about the need for renewable energy. I believe this is already a crisis, but other leaders do not. They are willing to wait until the crisis really hits us in the face. That's what happened with the energy market. Clearly, the government missed a lot of the early signs. That is the main thing I would do differently -- I wouldn't be as preoccupied with my fundraising, like he has been. Then, he really didn't play hardball with the Bush administration. I would have absolutely played hardball. I would have refused to go along with the restrictions of the FERC [Federal Energy Regulatory Commission] and the fact that they held us liable for billions of dollars in contracts even though it has been proven that the energy companies -- the friends of the Bush administration -- had manipulated the market.

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