....© 2000, Kimit A. Muston
I watched State Insurance Commissioner Chuck Quackenbush's performance before the Senate Insurance Committee on Monday morning and I have to tell you, I was not impressed. Some people have said he got as far as he has on his good looks and political connections. But now it seems that wasn't it at all. Now it looks like he was getting by because nobody bothered to challenge him face to face. Because once challenged, he folded up like a wet cardboard box.
Why is it all those stern "law and order" politicians always turn into spoiled children when someone questions the legality of their actions? They stomp their feet. They throw out counter accusations. And then they threaten to take their toys and go home.
They chortle when a private citizen proclaims their innocence, and they scoff at the idea that the court might have been wrong, the police mistaken, the prosecutor over zealous or the defense under funded. The problem, they are quick to declare, is that greed and avarice and moral decay are abroad in the land and all reside in the accused.
Unless it's themselves who are accused, or one of their friends. And suddenly every prosecutor is politically motivated and every accuser is a traitor, a liar and a fraud, the court system is not trustworthy and the news media a pack of attack dogs more interested in headlines than the truth.
Those of us without political connections know that the system can be grossly unfair but not usually to those with political connections. And if the Commissioner had simply answered questions for an hour or two on Monday the story would probably have been buried on the inside of the newspaper and gotten only a mention on the evening news. The average citizen, if they had even noticed the story, would have figured the fix was in and it was all going to blow over. And it might have.
But the Commissioner was feeling cornered, harassed and indignant. He shook his fist. He stomped his feet. He stuck out his lip and he told his staff not to play with the Senate Insurance Committee. Someone should have told Mr. Quackenbush and his attorney that petulance does not look good on an adult human male.
And he is still going to have to answer questions before the committee. Questions like; why is that private attorneys are winning judgments against the insurance companies for up to $20 million for a single client, but the Commissioner decided that $13 million was the best he could get for the 700,000 people who may have been cheated by their insurance company after the Northridge earthquake? And why did not a single dime of that $13 million go to actual victims of the actual earthquake? And why did so much of it go to his friends and his political buddies? And why did he claim to know nothing of a $500,000 gift made from the fund, when he must have known there was a video tape of him cheerfully acknowledging the gift, not to mention a room full of witnesses.
Questions, questions, questions. And Mr. Quackenbush is now going to have to supply answers, answers, answers. Unless, of course, he takes the fifth or claims executive privilege. You know what happens when a private citizens does that. The "law and order" types accuse them of hiding behind the constitution. You don't think Mr.Quackenbush would hide like that, do you?
I sure do.
Kimit A.Muston is a writer living in North Hollywood. His work may be also be read in the Los Angeles Times