MEATHEAD

Oh, Meathead!

How could you?

It appears that Rob Reiner is deeply embedded in a Culture of Corruption. (Gasp!)

Using taxpayer dollars for campaign activities is against the law.

Does Meathead think he is above the law?

Who does he think he is? King Rob?

Tsk, tsk. Now Reiner must step aside in shame.SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Hollywood director Rob Reiner stepped down temporarily as chairman of a state early education commission amid scrutiny about the potential misuse of taxpayer funds for a June ballot initiative he is spearheading.

In a letter Friday to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Reiner said his leave from the First 5 California Children and Families Commission will end June 7, the day after voters cast ballots on Proposition 82. That bill would establish a state constitutional right to preschool for 4-year-olds.

Reiner helped create the Children and Families commission, a state agency that uses tobacco taxes for early childhood development programs. State law prohibits the use of public funds for campaign activities.

But a Los Angeles Times story earlier this week detailed how the Children and Families commission spent $23 million in state funds on ads that promoted the benefits of preschool.

The television ads aired this winter, coinciding with a signature-collecting campaign for Reiner's "Preschool for All" initiative, Proposition 82. The commission stopped airing the ads when the initiative got state approval to be on the June ballot.

The commission also earlier paid for a political consultant who now is the campaign manager of Proposition 82, the paper reported.

Reiner has said that he and the commission have done nothing wrong, but he is stepping aside for the commission's good.

Obviously, I don't have any concrete details.

BUT, if taxpayer funds were used inappropriately, as the LA Times suggests, then Reiner and his commission have most definitely done A LOT wrong.
State Controller Steve Westly has ordered a review and will use that to determine whether to conduct an audit, his spokesman, Yusef Robb, said Saturday.

$23 million?

I'd say a review is certainly in order.

Reiner's dream of a future in politics has taken a severe hit. He should have been smart enough to know that he couldn't get away with using state funds to promote his agenda.

Reiner really blew it.

"You are a meathead. A meathead -- dead from the neck up."

--Archie Bunker