Plus royaliste que le roi

Today’s post is sparked by a comment posted by Joanne Steele yesterday to an item I wrote last year, about the City of Coburg issuing speeding tickets on Interstate 5.  I had compared Coburg’s action with that of Jordan Valley nearly 30 years ago, when that small town aggressively ticketed speeders on the short stretch of U.S. 95 that runs through town on city streets.  I had titled a post "Coburg wins the Paul Arritola Memorial Award," naming the former chief of police of Jordan Valley, and believing him deceased.  Ms. Steele and another correspondent politely informed me that Mr. Arritola, the former police chief, is alive and well, and that I had confused him with his late father, also named Paul Arritola.  So I’ve made a correction to that post.

It brought to mind a different question, which is this.  As I recall the news stories about Jordan Valley and Mr. Arritola, the Whimperer was outraged not that Mr. Arritola was effectively paid on commission — the more speeders he caught, the more he could earn — but that he outearned the governor.  I don’t know that the Whimperer would have cared if a small-town police chief earned a quarter or half of what the governor was paid, but to earn more — outrageous!  Just as the French used to say "il ne faut pas etre plus royaliste que le roi" (one must not be more royalist than the king), so the Oregonian might say "a public servant can’t earn more than the governor."

Of course, since then quite a few public servants have earned more than the governor: basketball coaches, college and professional school presidents, and many others.  Perhaps the Oregonian was unconsciously drawing a class distinction, and trying to say that no public servant who wears a uniform should earn more than the governor.  I don’t recall any editorials recently saying that we’re spending too much on college coaches.