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Posted on 12/09/2005 11:13:54 AM PST by Impeach98
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The conservative betrayal
Posted: December 9, 2005 1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com
The past few weeks have been a wakeup call to those Republicans, and especially those conservatives, who got stars in their eyes and supported movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger for governor during the historic Gray Davis recall campaign.
On the heels of a decisive defeat in the recent special election for his reform ballot initiatives, the Terminator is acting like he wants to terminate his alliance with the Republican Party.
Since he has failed to even slow the nonstop spending of the California Legislature, Arnold's false reading of the election-results tea leaves has now led him to join the Democrat Party in pushing for tax-and-spend policies.
The news media is full of stories about the governor working on a $25 billion bond measure for infrastructure. Wait, no, it is $50 billion. Well, maybe it will be really big – the way Arnold likes things – could it be $100 billion?
Who knows?
The governor isn't saying yet, nor is he saying how the state can finance such largess. Talk amongst politicos in the state is that some sort of a tax increase is coming, courtesy of a Republican governor.
Most shocking to conservatives has been his recent personnel moves and the conduct of some of the governor's staff – who seem to relish the role of antagonists to any and all conservative or Republican causes.
Schwarzenegger recently announced his new chief of staff would be Susan Kennedy, one of recalled Democrat Gov. Gray Davis' top deputies. Not only did Kennedy head up the California Abortion Rights Action League, but she previously served as the executive director of the California Democrat Party.
Kennedy admits that she has never voted for a Republican in her life!
And this comes on the heels of Schwarzenegger's hiring of Daniel Zingale as chief of staff to the first lady and principal adviser to the governor. Zingale is another former top aide to the recalled-Gov. Davis, and he has a long record of extremely liberal political activism.
These stalwart Democrat leftists are going to be a further influence on a man who already was viewed as a liberal Republican to be, well, more liberal and less Republican.
If there was any doubt about what this means for Republicans and conservatives, just consider the recent conduct of Schwarzenegger Cabinet Secretary Terry Tamminen.
Earlier this week, Tamminen joined former Democrat Vice President Al Gore at an invite-only event at Stanford University. According to the San Jose Mercury News, Schwarzenegger's man began his comments to the crowd with a list of "The top five things President Bush says he will do to address global warming."
Tamminen lead the audience by asking if they knew the No. 1 thing Bush would do to end global warming.
The answer? "Wait two years. President Al Gore will fix it."
This is how bad things have gotten for the GOP in Califonia.
What's perhaps the saddest aspect to this saga is that it isn't so much that Schwarzenegger has betrayed us – Republicans knew he did not have any great loyalty to our party, our ideals or our beliefs.
But, the real betrayal is by those Republican Party leaders and so-called conservatives who were tripping over one another to jump on the Schwarzenegger bandwagon.
It was back in January 2003 that then-California Republican Party Chairman, Shawn Steel and I first discussed the waging of a recall campaign against California's corrupt and failed Democrat Gov. Gray Davis. We were live and on the air on the show I co-host on KSFO radio in San Francisco.
The people of California had had enough of the corruption, the overspending, the deceitful cronies in the Davis administration, and they wanted change – real change.
Within days of my on-air discussions, former Assemblyman Howard Kaloogian had launched the Recall Gray Davis Committee and we were on the way to making history.
There was only one problem.
We needed someone to take over the governor's seat once Davis was recalled.
Republican State Sen. Tom McClintock emerged as the frontrunner, with high favorability ratings from two statewide campaigns.
The only problem was that McClintock wasn't acceptable to the Republican elite in this state, because he was a conservative.
So, Republicans did the unthinkable and knifed McClintock in the back. The entire Republican Party establishment rallied around the campaign of Arnold Schwarzenegger (who announced his campaign in true Hollywood fashion on the "Tonight Show" with Jay Leno).
Even many conservatives sold out McClintock, so eager they were to ingratiate themselves to Schwarzenegger and his Kennedy wife, Maria Shriver.
And now we are all paying the price for those conservatives and Republicans who betrayed their principles and decided to play "groupie" to a washed-up Hollywood actor instead of being the grownups that were desperately needed to help turn this state around.
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Melanie Morgan is chairman of the conservative, pro-troop non-profit organization Move America Forward and is co-host of the "Lee Rodgers & Melanie Morgan Show" on KSFO 560 AM in San Francisco.
Glad to see the article comes complete with a picture of Melanie, thereby conforming to FR rules.
What did we expect from an ex-porn star women-izer???
That's debatable.
And, I can do one better. I can post a photo of Melanie that I do not believe has yet been posted to Free Republic:
Arnold is reacting badly to his proposal defeat in November. I would say however that the national GOP did not help him. They were weak and did not do an effing thing all year, so naturally a mush like Arnold would react by going left. If Bush and the GOP keep fighting like they are now, I expect Arnold to fire these jokers next year when their approval ratings are up.
Do you remember who the proposed candidates were then? There was Darrell Issa - after he started putting money into the recall. There was David Drier or Chris Cox named as possible candidates.
There were a handful of other proposed candidates. McClintock had the highest poll numbers of any quasi-serious real or potential candidate at the time.
And then Arnold entered the picture and the GOP was star-struck.
Arnold's people attacked Bush to the press during the Special Election. It was pretty ugly.
If Arnold had not won, Ms. Morgan et al. would be complaining about Gov. Davis or Bustamante. In the only poll that mattered, the recall election itself, 'No on recall Davis' came in second with about 45% of the vote and Bustamante came in third with about 30% of the vote. McClintock came in a distant fourth with about 13%. I don't give a d*mn who he appoints; what matters is what Arnold does. So far it's been a mixed bag but far better than the alternatives.
Or maybe it was the massive bond measure he already passed and painted as "budget reform?"
Or maybe it was when he bullied legislative Republicans and told them that he would not go along with them on spending cuts because he needed to make a deal with the Democrats for more spending at a time when the state is hopelessly in debt?
Or maybe its when he watered down the Workers Comp reform measure and then pushed all his business buddies up there to rave about how great it was to have Arnold reforming Workers Comp?
Somebody is not drinking their kool aide.
Bill Simon has been recruited to help push this. He was on KFI Radio in Los Angeles (Ziegler show) the other night and said that $100 billion is really no big deal, especially when the state needs equate to more like $200 billion.
I think they are trying to make voters completely NUMB to these numbers so they don't see how outrageous they are.
Well this is a new twist as to why the initiatives didn't pass. "It's Bush's fault!"
ROFL!
There. Fixed it.
Well, at least now we know what the RINO Kool-Aid was spiked with...
Melanie should run against Arnold. I wonder if she knows any political people capable of winning a gubernatorial primary.
No. They would be serving in the McClintock administration.
Dumb-struck is more accurate. I can't tell you how many times idiots told me that Arnold couldn't possibly be anti-Second Amendment because, "like duh!, he made so many movies with guns in them!"
Very much agreed. It was appalling.
Please put me on yer "RINO-RIP-OFF" ping list... Thanks!!!
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