California: Sick

California’s Democratic Governor, Edmund G. (‘Tat”) Brown, was off last week on a four-day fishing trip to Loon Lake—and one of his own cabinet members thought that was a most appropriate place for the Governor to be. With a roar of rage, Robert McCarthy, 40, resigned from his post as state director of motor vehicles. Wrote McCarthy: “It has become difficult for me to work for a spineless administration that lacks both courage and principle. When I accepted your appointment in January 1959, we agreed to the seriousness of the traffic problem, and the need for vigorous leadership. Since that time your support has dwindled steadily and by now has disappeared . . . My attempts to curb the drunk driver, while initially receiving lip service, saw you ‘cave in’ to pressure for a softer law. These experiences are symptomatic of a sick administration.”

The Brown-McCarthy fight actually went far beyond a dispute about drunken drivers. As a veteran California assemblyman and state senator. McCarthy is a powerful Democrat whose ambitions probably do not stop short of the Governor’s mansion. Brown long ago promised McCarthy the job of state attorney general —just as soon as he could appoint the incumbent. Stanley Mosk. to the California supreme court. But, as usual, Brown dithered, reconsidered—and backed away from his promise. McCarthy’s reaction was his party-splitting resignation.

California’s delighted Republicans had every intention of using the ammunition McCarthy had given them. Gloated G.O.P. State Chairman John Krehbiel: “Now even his own cabinet appointees are beginning to realize that Pat Brown has been a poor Governor and lacks the ability to lead.” As for the Democrats, they could only be discomfited. Murmured State Chairman Roger Kent: “This is bound to do us some damage.”