Editorial: Doug Ose is GOP's best choice in 4th Congressional District

With John Doolittle vacating the 4th Congressional District seat after 16 years, voters will elect someone new. This heavily Republican district stretches from Sacramento to Lake Tahoe and runs up the Sierra Nevada to the Oregon border.

The winner of the June 3 Republican primary will face presumptive Democratic nominee Charlie Brown.

The GOP race features two well-known candidates. Doug Ose is a land developer and former three-term congressman. Tom McClintock is a 22-year state legislator who has been on the statewide ballot seven times. (Suzanne Jones and Theodore Terbolizard also are on the Republican ballot.)

Ose and McClintock have much in common. Both want to make the Bush tax cuts permanent. Both believe the United States is in Iraq for the long haul. Both advocate property rights.

Ose, with his congressional experience and business acumen, is the better choice. From 1998 to 2004, he represented the neighboring 3rd District, serving on committees important to the region – Agriculture, Financial Services and Government Reform. He would retain his seniority. He was chairman of the House Subcommittee on Energy Policy, Natural Resources and Regulatory Affairs that investigated California's energy crisis.

Over the last eight years, congressional oversight of the executive branch has become moribund. Ose, however, knows the role of the Government Reform Committee. He led an investigation into White House reporting and accounting of gifts given to presidents by supporters and foreign dignataries. While issues other than gift-giving may be more important, a commitment to disclosure and oversight is important.

McClintock is a career anti-tax, anti-spending warrior. He was the driving force in the Legislature to abolish the car tax, which has been reduced. He has voted to OK a state budget only five times in 22 years in office. He is proud that he often is a "lone dissenting vote," that he has "stayed true to his principles."

This is McClintock's greatest weakness. His career is long on eloquence and principle and short on results.

Here's one example: McClintock wants to "end pork-barrel earmarks," which he believes "have not helped any district in California." In contrast, Ose believes McClintock's "no earmarks" pledge is nonsensical. He points to key infrastructure needs in the district: flood control, transportation, wastewater treatment. "Think Roseville bottleneck," Ose says of McClintock's pledge. He believes the district needs a congressman who will fight for key projects. He's right.

McClintock sees the world in black and white. Yet as former House Speaker Tip O'Neill used to say, "The hardest part of leadership is compromise. People often think when you compromise, you are compromising your morals or your principles. That's not what political compromise is. Political compromise is deferring your idea so a majority can be reached."

The 4th District needs someone to get things done in the House to the benefit of the district. In the Republican primary, Ose fits the bill.