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Posted on 09/24/2003 12:33:19 PM PDT by Sabertooth
Hugh Hewitt, a well-known conservative radio talk show host and political columnist, has written a short column today called California recall: One issue, and one issue only
Hewitt got on the Arnold Schwarzenegger bandwagon the day after the actor's candidacy was announced on Jay Leno's Tonight Show. His column today is a hopeful attempt to at favorable spin for Schwarzenegger prior to tonight's gubernatorial debate (6:00 pm, PDT), the first at which Schwarzenegger's appeared.
A few of Hugh's highlights...
My take is that unless Arnold comes up with the California equivalent of President Ford's declaration of a free Poland in 1976, the debate will be a non-factor in the race.
Oh, it could seal the end of Tom McClintock's career if he tries to land cheap shots on Arnold
Hugh Hewitt is fretting about "cheap shots" against the debate-ducking, excited-to-be-learning-the-issues Anold Schwarzenegger?
Will Hewitt's definition of "cheap shots" include any mention of Schwarzenegger's left-leaning comments or positions that are the issue for tens of thousands of California Republicans not willing, at this point, to vote for Arnold? Should McClintock tip-toe around all of that, for the dubious "good of the party?"
Schwarzenegger has conducted a run-and-hide campaign, hoping the field would clear as he ran out the clock. Didn't happen, Hugh. Bad strategy.
Schwarzenegger missed chances to earn respect and sway holdouts by skipping debates. There are consequences to missed opportunities.
There is only one issue that matters to most voters. It absorbs all other issues in this race: The corruption in Sacramento.
The workers' comp mess? It is about the corrupt influence of the trial lawyers. The huge giveaways to prison guards and other public-employee unions? The corrupt influence of big labor. The massive expansion of tribal casinos and the obscene amount of money pouring from the slots into the voting process? The corrupt influence of California's Indian tribes.
Leave it to Hugh Hewitt to prepare a laundry list of Sacramento's corruption that doesn't include Gray Davis' legally questionable spiking of California's Proposition #187, after it was held in the judicial dungeon of Carter appointee, District Judge Marian Pfaelzer for three and a half years under the Pete Wilson administration.
Proposition #187 would have prevented much of the fiscal crisis now facing California, by preventing the State from paying any benefits or providing social services to California's millions of Illegal Aliens. The corrupt Democrats used the courts and a dubious arbitration process to thwart the will of the voters here.
The Democrats knew they could get away with it, because of the rank cowardice of the Republic Party, from the RNC, Jack Kemp, Bill Bennett, George W. Bush, Orrin Hatch, John McCain, etc., on down. Democrat corruption doesn't happen in a vacuum, it is enabled by do-nothing Republicans.
Among the do-nothings on Illegal Aliens are not a few self-absorbed conserative talk show hosts, such as Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Michael Medved, and... Hugh Hewitt.
No surprise, then, that Hewitt won't mention Sacramento's corruption with regard to Illegal Aliens: Hugh is part of the problem.
Most of this corruption is legal. Most corruption is. But the stench of the decay in Sacramento doesn't diminish because Gray Davis has invented transparency in payoffs. The tribes brazenly gave millions to Cruz who transferred it to an anti-initiative campaign that features, surprise, Cruz. The money-laundering is out in the open, on the front lawn of the State House - but it is no less corrupt.
Gray Davis' penchant for soliciting donations just prior to signing or vetoing legislation that would affect the donors is legendary, and a clear violation of conflict-of-interest, in spirit, if not in law.
But Hugh Hewitt goes on...
The tribes pumped huge sums into a pro-McClintock fund. This is legal, but it stinks. It is a manipulation of the electorate - a cynical assist to Cruz via the draining of votes from Arnold. Corrupt? Of course it is. Tom McClintock cannot raise enough money on his own under the $21,200 limit of the law, so he's welcoming the tribes' largesse via an independent expenditure.
As for McClintock, any campaign finance law that respected the First Amendment would allow the tribes to give as much money as they please direcly to his campaign. People who don't like gambling or Indian casinos are free to vote against candidates who recieve campaign contributions for the trbes.
One example of such a candidate, of course, would be Arnold Schwarzenegger, who took contributions from some Indian tribes in the campaign for his government-growing, Proposition 49 - after school program.
Democrat Cruz Bustamante denounced Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger as a "phony" and a "hypocrite" for running television ads questioning the political clout of Indian gaming tribes that have contributed large amounts of money to the lieutenant governor.
He noted that Schwarzenegger raised money from tribes to support last year's Proposition 49, the Schwarzenegger-sponsored ballot initiative to finance after-school programs.
San Diego Union-Tribune - September 24th, 2003
Ooops.
That's a bit of legal corruption (by his own definition) that slips under Hugh Hewtt's selective radar, while he's shilling for Arnold Schwarzenegger.
And ain't if funny how Hugh Hewitt objects to independent expenditures on behalf of Tom McClintock, given that...
...records show that Total Recall, a committee controlled by Schwarzenegger that is permitted to raise unlimited sums to promote the recall, is also spending money specifically to boost Schwarzenegger's candidacy. Records show that Total Recall transferred $211,000 to Californians for Schwarzenegger, and is helping to pay the salaries of several top campaign staffers.
Colleen McAndrews, the campaign's lawyer and treasurer, said the division of money between the two committees was done with the approval of the Fair Political Practices Committee, the agency charged with overseeing state campaign finance law.
Davis, Schwarzenegger lead fund-raising race
Redding Record Searchlight - August 29th, 2003
Here is a list of 19 donors (including Arnold), to Schwarzenegger's Total Recall Campaign, which isn't subject to California's Proposition #34 campaign finance restrictions...
Arnold Schwarzenegger's Total Recall Committee 19 records found (1 page.)
Contributor Employer Amount Date ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER [Google] OAK PRODUCTIONS, INC. $500,000 09.04.2003 ALEX SPANOS [Google] A. G. SPANOS COMPANIES $100,000 09.09.2003 AMERICAN STERLING CORPORATION [Google] $100,000 09.08.2003 WILLIAM A. ROBINSON [Google] NONE $100,000 09.16.2003 WILLIAM LYONS HOMES, INC. [Google] $100,000 08.22.2003 PAUL FOLINO [Google] EMULEX $99,164 08.25.2003 CAPITAL PACIFIC HOLDINGS, INC. [Google] $78,800 09.09.2003 THE NEW MAJORITY PAC [Google] $78,800 09.18.2003 DIVERSIFIED COLLECTION SERVICES, INC. [Google] $60,000 09.05.2003 FLETCHER JONES MANAGEMENT [Google] $57,600 09.08.2003 PAUL FOLINO [Google] EMULEX $40,000 09.22.2003 TIMOTHY DRAPER (THE TIMOTHY DRAPER LIVING TRUST) [Google] DRAPER, FISHER, JURVETSON $20,000 09.22.2003 FRANK E. BAXTER [Google] JEFFERIES & COMPANY, INC. $10,000 09.22.2003 ROBERT YELLIN [Google] CAL. PROTECTION $10,000 09.02.2003 TIMOTHY DRAPER (THE TIMOTHY DRAPER LIVING TRUST) [Google] DRAPER, FISHER, JURVETSON $10,000 09.19.2003 JOHN HURLEY [Google] CAVALRY ASSET MGMT. $3,442 09.10.2003 JOHN STAHR [Google] LATHAM & WATKINS $2,500 08.28.2003 JOHN C. HERKLOTZ [Google] NONE $2,000 09.19.2003 JOHN R. SAUNDERS [Google] SAUNDERS PROPERTY CO. $2,000 09.18.2003 Total itemized contributions to committee: $1,374,306 19 records found (1 page.)
Arnold Schwarzenegger's Total Recall Committee
RecallMoney.com - Updated September 22nd, 2003
For a complete list of donors to Californians for Schwarzenegger, who are subject to California's campaign finance restrictions, go here.
Note Schwarzenegger's $1.5 million loan to his own campaign. Though the loan is legal, potential for conflicts of interest will arise when Schwarzenegger is raising the money to pay himself back.
Note also that Hugh Hewitt omits all of this information in his piece today.
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Many of us believe that this is reality. We try to deal with it.
I've enjoyed many Hugh Hewitt's columns in the past. After this one though, he's lost my respect.
From the beginning, there has been a concerted effort by many different political entities, to make sure Tom McClintock's efforts in the recall campign aren't given the prominence they deserve.
McClintock is a fairly popular GOP legislator and a bonafide conservative. Theres no hint of scandal in his past. Yet the Arnoldnaut's have demeaned and insulted this good man from the get-go and instead have found it more appealing to vote for a liberal Republican like Arnold. Arnold isn't a principled conservative and lacks true Republican convictions.
Pathetic and very sad.
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