Demagogue

Anyone who has ever been elected to (or who has sought) public office seems to be afflicted with an oversized ego. So it's easy to understand how former California Gov. Gray Davis once had a swollen self-image. But shouldn't Davis' ego have been downsized by the rather ignominious experience of being tossed out of office by voters in a 2003 recall election?

Apparently not.

On Friday, the Los Angeles Times published this article on Davis and how he is spending his time these days:

Three years ago, fanned by a whirlwind of anger, opportunism and novelty, the recall began. That autumn, Davis was swept from office, cutting short a lifetime of public service.

,,, Catching up with Gray Davis now, you find him settled into a new life in Southern California — and not so bad a life, either, from the looks of it and what he says of it.

"I view myself as a teacher and an elder statesman," he says.

An "elder statesman"? No way. But the "teacher" reference makes sense to me. Davis is highly qualified to teach the following lesson: how to piss off the voters so badly that thousands of them will volunteer their time to get petitions signed so they can vote you out of office prematurely.