Arnold Schwarzenegger can't be blamed for California's chronic mess

Sacramento Bee ^ | 5/29/11 | Dan Walters

[SmithL]

Now that the tabloid feeding frenzy has abated somewhat, it's time for a cooler look at the furor over former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's fathering a child by one of his household workers.

A few pundits have tried to make the connection between his marital betrayal and his failings as governor, but one has nothing to do with the other.

Illicit sex involving political figures is nothing new and, as we know now, was rampant even among the nation's founders. More recently, we have seen scandals involving Bill Clinton, Eliot Spitzer, Strom Thurmond, Mark Sanford and John Edwards, to name but a few members of the club.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa had a scandalous affair with a television newswoman. The current lieutenant governor, Gavin Newsom, dallied with the wife of an aide while mayor of San Francisco.

Some of those touched by scandal were effective political officeholders and some were duds. Schwarzenegger's record as governor, positive and negative, stands on its own and has nothing to do with the child he fathered before entering politics.

On the positive side, he engaged on issues that other politicians had ignored, such as the state's deteriorating infrastructure, water supply, flood safety and reforming the truly scandalous way in which legislative and congressional districts are redrawn every 10 years. And he made some progress.

That said, he made many errors of political judgment, mostly out of naiveté, squandered his early opportunity to balance the budget and left a whopping deficit to successor Jerry Brown.

[SmithL]

Schwarzenegger can be blamed for not "blowing up boxes in Sacramento" like he promised. He can be blamed for capitulating to the tax and spend forces and for killing of California businesses with that greenhouse gas nonsense that he inflicted on the state. And the list goes on and on.

[Albion Wilde]

Bill Clinton, Eliot Spitzer, Strom Thurmond, Mark Sanford and John Edwards, to name but a few members of the club.

Besides thinking with their small heads, what do all of these creeps except Mark Sanford have in common?

(Hint: it begins with the letter "D.")

[Brilliant]

He can’t be blamed for creating it, but he could have advanced the cause of fiscal conservatism by simply vetoing everything that came to his desk.

[unixfox]

I'd say Californias problems err on the part of the voters.

Stupid is as stupid does.

[Pelham]

What’s Dan Walters smoking? Arnold was the poster boy for RINOs.

[truth_seeker]

“He can’t be blamed for creating it, but he could have advanced the cause of fiscal conservatism by simply vetoing everything that came to his desk.”

Actually, on several major items which his democrat opponents knew he would veto, they lined up enough GOP defectors to achieve a veto-proof majority.

And the practice of GOP defectors is still continuing.

[GeronL]

immoral in office and out.

That is what we get from immoral people.

[Oldexpat]

We may never know how many times he was blackmailed into his actions. We must assume that the pardon the knife welding son of Nunez got off because of that.

[MinorityRepublican]

It doesn’t really matter who the Governor is, after all California is now a Banana Republic.

[Randy Larsen]

This affair was definitely Blackmail material!

This may explain Arnold’s sudden swing to the left!

[EGPWS]

He sure has proved himself to be able to screw things to the point of unrepairable damage being done hasn’t he?

[Loud Mime]

Can I be blamed for a rape if I just watched it and did nothing to help the victim?

Arnold never rose to the defense of the State. He’s heavily at fault.

[forgotten man]

If you think California is completely screwed up now,
wait a few years. Millions of illegal aliens are registered to vote. Their ballots are mailed to addresses other than their residences. Union thugs fill out the ballots. Soon the rats will have more than two thirds of the legislature and taxes will go even higher.

[marsh2]

The funniest one I read was from the fish sniffer which tried to make a tie between his sexual immorality and his alleged anti-fish agenda.

You are right about global warming. It is now taking off from tying up land use and promoting smart growth/sustainable development to health issues reaching deeper into our lives.

“Sustainable Communities Strategy” (SCS) that integrates transportation, land-use and housing policies to plan for achievement of the emissions target for their region. http://www.sustainability2030.com/sustainabilityclips/2009/10/20/california-sb-375-sustainable-communities-strategy.html

Strategic Sustainability Center
http://scanph.org/node/2274
http://www.transformca.org/sb375/implementation
http://www.pcl.org/resourcecenter/sb375.html
http://ab32.org/
California Strategic Growth Council http://www.sgc.ca.gov/
Exec. Order S-04-10 http://www.sgc.ca.gov/hiap/docs/about/Executive_Order_S-04-10.pdf
“Vision California” - Report Charting our Future (New Land Use Policy); (Exec. Sum)http://www.visioncalifornia.org/
CA Health in All Policies Task Force http://www.sgc.ca.gov/hiap/
Health in All Policies Task Force Report to the Strategic Growth Council; http://sgc.ca.gov/hiap/docs/publications/HiAP_Task_Force_Report.pdf
Recommended Priorities http://sgc.ca.gov/meetings/20110601/june2011-hiappriorities.doc

[Navy Patriot]

What’s Dan Walters smoking?

He sure sounds like a jealous fudgepacker.

[CIB-173RDABN]

Soon the rats will have more than two thirds of the legislature and taxes will go even higher.

---

The Democrats already control Sacramento. The main stream media in California support Democrats 100%. They do not need support of illegal aliens, they have all the power they need right now. They can pretty much do what ever they want to do.

However, it is all an illusion.

Even Dictators with the military behind them can not get away with doing everything they want forever.

First, the financial problems in California is not lack of money (which more taxes might solve) but the out of control spending.

So they can continue raising taxes until the entire house of cards falls down upon them.

Schawarzenegger was elected with a mandate. The previous governor was kicked out of office because of the out of control spending, the voters clearly wanted the spending stopped. He could have shut down the spending train but instead he jumped on board and helped shovel the coal to get the train to run faster.

I did not think about it until someone here posted it, but I think blackmail is a possible reason for his action.

So let them raise taxes, it will not get them anymore money.

Let the public employee unions act like spoiled children, they will in the end pay a price for their action.

Economics have laws just as unbreakable as natural laws. Ignore them at your own peril.

[truthguy]

Schwarzenegger can be blamed for not "blowing up boxes in Sacramento" like he promised. He can be blamed for capitulating to the tax and spend forces and for killing of California businesses with that greenhouse gas nonsense that he inflicted on the state. And the list goes on and on.

Yes, just the mention of Schwarzenegger's name makes my blood boil. I'm trying to keep him out of my mind because it's bad for my health. You are correct about Schwarzenegger being a terrible governor. Yes, it could have been worse, but barely. I voted against the recall and also for Tom McClintock. But Walters is not completely wrong. Many of the problems of California were in the works before any of us even heard of Schwarzenegger.

The states pension system is out of control and that wasn't Schwarzenegger's fault. He couldn't do anything about it because the Democrats completely control the state legislature.

The problems with California are systemic.

California has two major problems; culture and demographics. I don't know if it's politically possible to do anything about this. I cannot envision a solution to California's problems even in a full economic recovery for the rest of the nation.

[truthguy]

I did not think about it until someone here posted it, but I think blackmail is a possible reason for his action.

YES! You nailed it! I thought about the exact same thing when this scandal broke. Candidate Schwarzenegger's rhetoric was so different as Governor Schwarzenegger actions. I wrote this off as politics as usual and the fact that the Democrats are in complete control of the state legislature and the media. I never even considered blackmail until the scandal broke. But it makes perfect sense now that I can put the pieces together. Fascinating.

[dragnet2]

It doesn’t really matter who the Governor is, after all California is now a Banana Republic.

Hmmm

California has by far the largest economy of ANY state, so I guess that makes the rest of the states the Congo Republic in competition with Ethiopia.

[DB]

Insanity really...

With major financial crisis much of the country turned towards conservatism while California doubled down on leftism...

Albert Einstein: “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”