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The world according to Irwin

The world according to Irwin:

On Republicans:
“The two greatest Republican Presidents — Abraham Lincoln and William
McKinley – were pro labor and pro-immigrant — they were not nativists. And
I am rather bemused over these attacks on trial lawyers. Abraham Lincoln was
a trial lawyer. He was a leading plaintiff and defense litigator in Illinois.
The same is true for William McKinley in Ohio.”

On the number of times he’s allegedly been fired:
“When Lockyer or Brown would get mad at Peace, they would retaliate through
me. During the Gang of Five, Willie had me canned.”

On his major accomplishment:
“Creating rules for private firearms transactions. Private party firearms
transactions used to be totally unregulated.”

On his name being used on pro-gun web sites:
“That doesn’t bother me. I believe people have a right, under controlled
circumstances, to own firearms.”

On energy deregulation:
“The notion of a deregulated wholesale market in electricity is a
nonstarter. In order for it to work you would have to have such stringent
controls that the major providers would run away.”

On Gray Davis:
“My main complaint with Gray Davis is on healthcare. In 2000 he got approval
from the feds to get a fee waiver, but the waiver was never put in place.
That was an outrage that he never figured that out.”

On his letter to Margaret Thatcher:
“It may have been a little too picaresque.”

On democracy:
“The greatest advance of democracy is the creation of a stable middle
class.”

On Don Perata:
“I think he’s a better leader than Burton because he takes a longer-term
view.”

On California’s “bloated” government:
“We have the lowest per capita number of state employees in the country.
Take out the UC, the CHP, corrections and the DMV, and we’ve got 10,000
people to do everything else.”

On Governor Schwarzenegger:
“I don’t think he’s well-served by his staff – inside and outside the
capitol – in many cases. On the policy areas I have been directly involved
in day to day with I really have no complaints other than in certain cases
ideological disagreements. In terms of his big items, he could have gotten
meaningful mid year correction authority, a meaningful ed. reform package
and a redistricting reform commission for 2010 if he had engaged much
earlier – as in December – and was much more focused and his people looked
at how other states worked through these issues in a balanced manner. As a
result, he really didn’t’ have a clear agenda in a way that was sellable and
sensible. We still have major problems in this state and I assume that he
is committed to dealing with them. One major additional challenge he has to
face – we all do – is how to address state implementation of the federal
Real-ID Act. “

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