Posted on 10/03/2006 12:25:30 PM PDT by SmithL
SAN FRANCISCO - Democratic gubernatorial nominee Phil Angelides launched what could be a crucial campaign week Monday by renewing his call to bring California's National Guard troops home from Iraq.
Joined in the Golden Gate Club at the Presidio of San Francisco by two Bay Area members of Congress and several veterans, the state treasurer said Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has voiced only support for the war and for President Bush, and so hasn't acted in the state's best interests.
"This is an issue that deeply affects California," he said. He noted that some of the $400 billion spent on what he called a misguided and failing war could have bolstered the state's security, schools and health care. Hundreds of the state's National Guardsmen have been wounded or killed.
Angelides again vowed that on his first day in office, he would petition the president to bring the troops home. Then he would walk the Capitol's halls with lawmakers like Barbara Lee and Lynn Woolsey -- who were with him Monday -- to urge congressional action, and mobilize other governors to raise their voices. He also said he might sue, although he cited a former Minnesota governor's 1990 lawsuit in which the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled the federal government doesn't need governors' consent for National Guard deployments.
"We know that Arnold Schwarzenegger backed this war from the very beginning," said Lee, D-Oakland.
"I know Phil Angelides will not sit still and will not, as governor, say nothing. He will do the right thing. ... He will put everything behind his position as governor to join with us and make sure our young men and women are brought home out of harm's way."
Woolsey, D-Santa Rosa, agreed. The state needs "a governor who understands and isn't afraid to say" that he should do all he can to end the occupation of Iraq, she said.
Said former assistant deputy Navy secretary Wade Sanders: "A vote for Schwarzenegger is a vote for George Bush. A vote for Schwarzenegger is a vote for this war. A vote for Phil Angelides, however, is a vote for our troops. It is a vote for peace. It is a vote for California."
The attempt to link the governor and the president may not be working well, according to a poll released Monday.
San Jose State's Survey and Policy Research Institute reported that 62 percent of state voters say their opinion of Bush will have no effect on their gubernatorial vote.
"Schwarzenegger has rewritten the script for this movie," San Jose State professor Melinda Jackson said in a release announcing the results. "After his ballot-box flop as a fire-breathing conservative reformer, the governor has adroitly recast himself as a pragmatic moderate -- exactly the kind of leader California voters tend to support."
This follows the Field Poll's announcement Saturday that while 29 percent of California voters approve of President Bush's job performance, 48 percent approve of Schwarzenegger's work. Similarly, 30 percent believe the nation is heading in the right direction, while 49 percent believe the state is doing so.
Asked about the polls Monday, Angelides stuck to his guns.
"Here's the fact: The war in Iraq is wrong, and every leader needs to speak out. ... Polls don't matter."
Schwarzenegger "has used the power of the governor's office to engage the war in Iraq" by campaigning for Bush's re-election in Ohio in 2004 and by telling national media the war is the right thing to do, Angelides said. On the war, education spending cuts and other issues, "at each and every turn, George Bush and Arnold Schwarzenegger have stood together," he said. "Their agenda is the same."
The governor's campaign has dismissed Angelides' Iraq focus as a desperate tactic.
Angelides is nearing do-or-die time with a week of disastrous poll showings behind him, his only head-to-head debate with Schwarzenegger coming up on Saturday -- and five weeks left until Election Day.
A sure sign Angelides is losing. I'm withholding my vote from Arnold on principle, but I bet he still wins by over 20%.
LOL. Sanders was John Kerry's lackey during the 2004 election. An idiot then... an idiot now.
Islam-rat way of thinking...
This was largely in the cards once the Professional Left -- big labor, primarily -- chose to back Red Phil over the much-more-electable Steve Westly. Westly was overwhelmingly preferred by "Joe and Jane Democrat" types, and Westly was the one whom Schwarzenegger feared.
Now the best Red Phil can do is to say that Arnold is Chimpy McBu$Hitler? To paint the very liberal Arnold as too CONSERVATIVE? Please.
Pathetic. Here's hoping Red Phil's negative coattails ensure that McClintock wins, and maybe even give us a few squeaker races in the Legilslature and perhaps Poochigian.
So Angelides is going to withdraw our troops from Iraq? Lotsa luck with that, Phil. Don't let that pesky piece of paper known as the US Constitution slow you down.
This from a dem? They don't have anything but polls - no principles, no judgment, no morals, no faith, nothing but polls.
Please don't take this wrong, but that's just plain silly. Even if you feel you can't vote for Arnold (and just keep in mind what the alternative is), be sure to vote on the rest of the ballot - there are a couple of conservatives to elect (McClintock, Poochigian), and a whole bunch of initiatives and bond measure to defeat. VOTE! A lot of people died to preserve that privilege for you.
Shouldn't Angelides be charged with sedition? Because if he plans on ordering the Guard back from Iraq over the President's orders then isn't that fomenting an insurrection and causing soldiers to abandon their posts? And isn't Kalifornia going to have to secede after he does all of this?
Yep. And the sad thing is that since this is CA, it'll probably work.
Heck, you can get elected to the SF city council by promising to impeach Bush.
Did I say I wasn't voting? I'm voting, for the rest of the ticket and on the ballot measures, but I'm not voting for stem-cell-funding, global-warming-warrior Arnold.
Well, good. I feel better now. BTW, I love the pictures on your webpage.
Hi, I'm Phil Angelides and I'm completly desperate!
Every smear they undermine
ends up making Arnold shine.
Well, after Angelides ends the Iraq war thing, maybe he can solve that perpetual motion puzzle and solve all our energy problems, too.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
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