Former California Gov. Pete Wilson let it be known today that he is no fan of Tom McClintock.
Wilson began by putting out a letter attacking the veteran state lawmaker as an obstructionist who has accomplished little.
"As governor, I could never count on Tom McClintock," Wilson said in the letter sent out on behalf of Doug Ose, McClintock's rival in the 4th Congressional District race. "He was always first to criticize, but the last to help the team. His record doesn't match his rhetoric."
Later, appearing with Ose outside the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Capitol Park, Wilson ripped McClintock for voting against recent state legislation to help veterans and for opposing a cut in the car tax while Wilson was governor.
It may not come as a shocker that Wilson isn't warm to McClintock. In 1993, McClintock assailed Wilson for passing a state tax increase and editorialized in the Los Angeles Times that the governor was dead politically. Predicting Wilson would lose re-election in 1994, McClintock suggested Republicans instead run his Persian cat, Gizmo.
Wilson, who went on to win re-election handily in 1994. Today he defended his move to raise taxes during a state fiscal crisis, telling reporters that McClintock "didn't have the guts to do what should have been done."
Campaign spokesman Stan Devereux said McClintock voted against a car tax cut under Wilson because the version the governor supported wasn't generous enough. And he said McClintock is proud of having been a pain in Wilson's backside on taxes.
"This is the same governor who walked into the Assembly Republican Caucus and asked them to support a $7 billion tax increase and then referred to them as (expletive) irrelevant Republicans," Devereux said. "That wasn't team play."
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