Opinion: In today’s pages: Action heroes, CIA assassins and Marines

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The editorial board grants rare praise to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday for his actions with regards to the California Nursing Board. The governor dismissed four members of the board after a L.A. Times and ProPublica article exposed negligent nurses who stayed on duty during protracted investigations into their conduct. While the board members called Schwarzenegger an ‘action hero’ for his response, they wished it would have come sooner -- and with other boards too:

From the start, the governor has had a love-hate relationship with the various boards he has appointed. This time, he acted to protect patients, but where was the gubernatorial outrage when the state Board of Chiropractic Examiners, which included several of Schwarzenegger’s friends, was accused in a state audit of similar failures to put consumers first?

The board also delves into the Cheney-CIA case and calls for...

... an investigation by the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is already looking into other alleged Bush-era wrongdoings. But the probe into the reported CIA ‘capture or kill’ squad should not lead to a series of politicized hearings on the issue, the board warns.

Finally, the board lauds Obama for getting Africa right in terms of foreign assistance and the message he delivered in Ghana on Saturday:

Obama is building on a solid aid network that Bush created on the African continent. Most foreign-aid advocacy groups give the U.S. high marks on its expansion of programs that fight poverty and disease overseas.

On the op-ed side of the fold, Yale Law School Professor Peter H. Schuck urges Congress and the media to look beyond ideologies and the typical liberal-conservative dichotomy during the Sotomayor hearings, as her worthiness for the position lies in her impressive legal knowledge:

As the Sotomayor hearings proceed, much of the questioning and the media coverage will describe the nominee in crude ideological terms. But if you listen carefully as she explains her reasoning, you will hear a good legal mind at work, one that defies those too-convenient categories. In the end, her lawyerly skills will determine her fitness for and her potential legacy on the court.
On a lighter, less political note, Pat Saperstein, editor at Variety, reflects on her son’s decision to buck the traditional college bound path and become a Marine. Though faced with much criticism and concern from her Angeleno friends, Saperstein says she’s become proud of her son’s decision to do what priviledged Angelenos have forgotten how to do: ‘Entering the military and serving [our] country.’

Rounding out the page, columnist Tim Rutten predicts that Sacramento’s budget dysfunction will open the door to another round of contentious initiatives aimed at illegal immigrants and their children, including those who are American citizens. If such a fight ensues, it’ll be both ugly and unnecessary, Rutten says, given that Washington is actually making progress on reforming the immigration system:

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) has said he will introduce a comprehensive immigration reform bill sometime in the fall. Meanwhile, the Obama administration has begun a low-key crackdown on employers, as opposed to mass roundups of their mostly blue-collar workers. The White House recently said it would require companies seeking federal contracts to check their workers’ status against the computerized E-Verify database, which contains Social Security and other personal records. At the same time, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has begun systematically examining the records of firms in industries known to make regular use of illegal immigrants.