Free Republic

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...

As he bounded toward the stage to address Californians for the first time as governor-elect, Arnold Schwarzenegger seemed stunned at being catapulted from superstar to leader of the world's eighth-largest economy during the historic 2003 recall election. "Only in America," he whispered to reporters before hitting the spotlight. Only in California is more like it: Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger was still in a loincloth and killing bad guys with a sword as "Conan the Barbarian" in the early 1980s when Jerry Brown was finishing his second term as governor. Only in California could such a political newcomer charge into the governor's...

A month before the historic recall that drove Gov. Gray Davis from office in 2003, Arnold Schwarzenegger appeared in a TV commercial making a promise to the voters of California."Here's my plan," he said. "Audit everything, open the books, and then we end the crazy deficit spending. "... If you're happy with the way things are, keep your current leaders. If you want to change this state, then join me."Voters joined in droves. But as he prepares to leave office seven years later, Schwarzenegger's promises are a distant echo.He leaves a legacy of landmark environmental laws, public works spending and...

Arnold Schwarzenegger began his last State of the State address Wednesday by describing how two pets, a pony and a pig, jointly filch dog food from a sealed container. "So one lesson to draw from the pig and pony story is what we can accomplish when we work together," he told state lawmakers, describing 2009 as "a pig and pony year." Schwarzenegger quickly followed that upbeat metaphor, however, with a litany of California's ills, ranging from a recession-wracked economy to continuing budget deficits, and laid out an agenda of reforms whose enactment is about as likely as his pet porker's...

Heeding the maxim that there is opportunity in crisis, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has trotted out a new, albeit much smaller, version of his 2004 "blow up the boxes" government reorganization plan.The 2009 version is part of the labyrinthine $40 billion state budget-fixing proposal the administration released Wednesday.Included in the voluminous scheme are 17 proposals to combine, cut or realign various boards, commissions and programs, including: • Consolidating the state Hearing Aid Dispensers Bureau with the Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology Board.• Combining the state boards of geologists and geophysicists into one entity representing the interests of scientific disciplines that begin with...

Ever since California voters recalled Democratic Gov. Gray Davis in 2003 and replaced him with Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sacramento has been passing gimmicky state budgets that did not raise taxes, but also kicked structural deficit spending into the next year. Well, the party's over. In September, Schwarzenegger signed another kick-the-shortfall budget. Then the Wall Street meltdown caused capital gains to disappear, rich people's income to retract - and state revenues to shrink. As the Legislative Analyst reported this week, the state budget shortfall could reach $28 billion over the next two years. State Department of Finance spokesman H.D. Palmer noted...

This week, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will release a revised budget proposal to rein in spending and set California on firm financial ground. As in the economic slowdown earlier this decade, state revenue growth has slowed. California is once again the poster child for poor fiscal management, and legislators in other states should watch it and learn. With an estimated gap between proposed spending and revenues of up to $20 billion, it's going to take more than Schwarzenegger's proposals to tax property insurance and close tax loopholes to fix the state budget. Each new cut in spending will likely bring a...

Were Arnold Schwarzenegger the bold reformer he purports to be, were he truly committed to "blowing up boxes" and obliterating "politics as usual," he would have vetoed Assembly Bill 1077 and signed Assembly Bill 2106. But he did exactly the opposite, thus perpetuating - and even solidifying - two aspects of state government that epitomize its dysfunction. AB 1077, the bill Schwarzenegger signed last month, originally dealt with complaints against police officers, but a few days before the 2004 session ended, Assemblyman Herb Wesson, D-Los Angeles, did a classic "gut and amend," stripping out the original contents and inserting authorization...

09-23) 16:56 PDT COLFAX, Calif. (AP) -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger chose a woodsy mountain setting Thursday to sign legislation establishing a 25 million-acre Sierra Nevada Conservancy, while also signing nearly 20 other bills to protect the Pacific Ocean, curb smog and clean up blighted urban land. With numerous strokes of the pen, Schwarzenegger opened 1,100 miles of car pool lanes to hybrid cars, established the nation's first Cabinet-level Ocean Protection Council in state government and barred cruise ships from burning garbage and dumping sewage inside state waters. He also banned commercial fishing fleets from bottom trawling along designated parts of...