Autry speech invitation pulled (Arnie Gets Even?)

...and Schwarzenegger's circle of friends grows ever smaller and more secretive (see thread below on new 501c) as the Terminator feels the power.

tHis thread, by chance..?

CA: Governor creates private corporation to oversee fund-raising

You got it Norm. Thanks.

Autry said he was asked to give the opening speech at the California Prayer Breakfast this June, but he was told this week that the invitation was rescinded. "You would think a prayer breakfast would be immune to politics, but apparently, even that isn't the case in Sacramento, sadly," Autry said.

What does he mean "apparently"? He didn't contact Schwarzenegger before going public with his hissy-fit? Sounds like an instigator to me. Is it possible he is a Log Cabin Republican?

Is it possible he is a Log Cabin Republican?

Actually he's a very moderate Republican, close to Schwarzenegger in his social views except those involving homosexuality.

Autry has never had to publicly address the subject of homosexuality but he is a practicing Christian and my guess is that if he is pressed, he would fall somewhere between "don't ask, don't tell" and "everybody has a right to individual dignity". He certainly won't be authorizing any homosexuals marriages anytime soon in Fresno.

There was an article in the LA Times Thursday outlining some nasty interchange between Autry and AS staff. (A long article - 1505 words)

(snip)

In a political atmosphere where some Democratic leaders in the capital are openly swooning over the new governor — swapping stories of having met Danny DeVito in Schwarzenegger's home — Autry said that his colleagues were surrendering to Schwarzenegger's personality, and refusing to analyze his program with the critical rigor the job demands.
"There's an element of fear here that is silencing voices," he said in an interview at his City Hall office. Trains hooted nearby as he flipped through oversized charts attesting to the strains on Fresno's finances. "If we don't have the guts to hold him accountable for what he says and does, we're not doing our state much good or Arnold Schwarzenegger much good — as a governor or a person."
Autry's candor has already exacted a cost. He said that four phone calls he's placed to the governor have gone unreturned. Twice when Schwarzenegger came to the Fresno area last month to campaign for Proposition 57 and a companion measure that would require balanced budgets, Autry did not get an invitation — a portentous snub in the political world. The reason should be obvious, sniff the governor's political aides.
"I've never heard of John Kerry being bent out of shape over not being invited to a Bush event," said Todd Harris, a spokesman for the Schwarzenegger campaign that resulted in passage of both ballot measures.
Fresno's GOP Mayor Balks at Schwarzenegger's Agenda

Autry's take on governor draws retort
By John Ellis
The Fresno Bee
(Updated Saturday, March 27, 2004, 5:00 AM)

For two months, a feud has been simmering between Gov. Schwarzenegger and Fresno Mayor Alan Autry.
In increasingly strident tones, Autry has become critic-in-chief of Schwarzenegger's economic policies -- specifically, Proposition 57, the successful ballot initiative that authorizes $15 billion in bonds to refinance the state's budget deficit.
As Autry ranted, Schwarzenegger's team grew increasingly annoyed. There was internal debate on whether to engage the mayor or fire back at him.
At first, punishment was light -- not inviting Autry when the governor came to town.
This week, it seems, a full-out attack is the strategy of choice as frustrated Schwarzenegger administration officials lashed out at Autry -- on the record. "I invite the mayor to wake up and see what 65% of the state has already figured out -- that's the number who approve of the governor's job performance," says Schwarzenegger communications director Rob Stutzman.
"The only people in this state who are dead set against this governor are hard-core partisan Democrats and the mayor of Fresno."
Autry, a Republican like Schwarzenegger, remains defiant. He says the governor's economic policies are killing local governments.
The governor, Autry says, has reneged on a promise not to raid local coffers to solve the state's fiscal crisis.
"I'm pretty simple," he says. "Do what you say you're going to do and don't do what you say you are dead set against."
Many locals are nervously watching this tit-for-tat because they think Schwarzenegger may punish Fresno for Autry's rants.
Not true, Stutzman says. He says Fresno solidly backed Prop. 57 and local legislators are keen to work with the governor.
"Fresno," Stutzman says, "is Schwarzenegger country."
Autry's feelings? There's nothing to take as punishment.
The entire San Joaquin Valley, he says, has been ignored by Sacramento for decades in favor of the Bay Area and Los Angeles.
"It is time to make a stand or fold the tents and go home," he says. "I am making a stand. The tea has got to go into the harbor in the Valley."

I did not realize until a couple of weeks ago that Autry played Bubba on "In The Heat of the Night" and he played pro football.

I admit I am not fully acquainted with the all the facts about Autry's alternative to the $15 billion bond issue, but just going by what I see before me in this thread, Autry looks like a whiner who ran to the press over a minor perceived slight, a grandstander and a useful idiot for the Democrats.

Autry has never had to publicly address the subject of homosexuality but he is a practicing Christian...

MAYOR AUTRY: And you know, this is a subject dear to me because I come from Hollywood -- I think 23 years worked in Hollywood -- and there's a lot of gay folks that I've come to know and care very deeply about, in TV shows, and [I] appointed two openly gay people to my administration. Yet they know that I don't believe that there should be a designation because of a sexual preference.

And I think we define -- people are afraid we're going to alienate a million gay folks by saying you're not going to support gay marriage. I will say that and in the same breath say that I will fight to my dying day and I would give my life for a gay person's right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness and not be discriminated against.

And I don't believe those two comments are mutually exclusive. I think they go hand-in-hand, because what we're saying is, you know, when you make a decision whether you're going to vote on somebody, it's a total thing. And I know many, many, many conservative gay folks that -- man, woman -- that, you know, I care about our kids getting educated. Is this candidate going to be devoted to education? Is there going to be local control of our infrastructure needs and have the resources there? Health care, Medicare preservation, social security preservation. And I know many that will accept the fact that that candidate does not accept -- or doesn't support gay marriage.

So I think we -- and to be quite honest with you, prior to 22 years ago, I had my own perceptions of what a particular group thought, I'm ashamed to say. And being in Hollywood for 22 years, I've had my eyes opened. And I don't think it's going to hurt the President as much as folks seem to be thinking because there's more to a gay person than their sexual preference and priorities.

Link

Thanks.

Alan Autry is of course the mayor who spoke out against the HRC during their infamous dustup with Free Republic last year.He has been IMHO a good mayor, in part because he is willing to speak up on Fresno's behalf even if it is not politically correct.Call it whining if you like, but it gets the job done and Fresno has gotten a lot better response from Washington since he has been in office.Sacramento is a whole other ball game.Autry is an evangelical Christian and very much a member of the religious right.The article posted above makes more sense in it's original context, the comments were made during a state department event in which members of the foreign press (many of whom could barely speak English) asked several different mayors a variety of questions.One of the questions was about the proposed marriage act.Autry was apparently trying to say (albeit in a roundabout, rambling way) that he felt Bush was sincere and that the president's opposition to gay marriage was unlikely to hurt him politically.The Mayor was far more blunt last year when a gay group demanded that the city of Fresno pay for the gay pride parade and issue a proclamation calling the month of June gay pride month.Autry flatly refused.He said the city would not pay for their parade and that he would not sign a proclamation.He also said he would not attend their parade or speak at their film festival.(Autry and Jerry Duncan tried,unsuccessfully in 2001 to stop the Human Relations Commission from pouring money into the Gay Film Festival)He said the only lifestyle he would condone was "between a man and a woman".That he did not support gay marriage and would not support city benefits for same sex partners.He cited his faith as the basis for his beliefs.One of the idiots he was addressing quoted a list of famous people who supported gays and Autry responded with a list of people who opposed them including his friends Charlton Heston and the Rev. G.L. Johnson.Autry goes to Johnson's church.The Reverend Johnson's name is a flashpoint for Fresno gays because he once threatened to lead his congregation in a protest march to stop the gay pride parade.This is one reason that Debbie Reyes vehemently opposes Autry (yes THAT Debbie Reyes).I would have to say that Autry's social beliefs are far more traditional than Schwarzenegger's.The mayor is anti-abortion and has hosted pro-life events.He is also 100 percent for the right to keep and bear arms.These are both subjects that the Governor has waffled on.As to the situation with Arnold I can understand Autry is disapointed. (Just for the record I voted for Schwarzenegger.)Although they had become friends through various political events, our mayor was initially hesitant to support Arnie,in part because of the abortion issue.Arnie approached him,asking for his support and made quite a few promises.In short he said everything the mayor wanted to hear.Autry staged a rally for Arnie at Riverpark and later appeared at another rally for him.Sadly with the exception of the drivers license and car tax issues, most of those promises have not been kept.He had promised (on camera in some cases)better representation for the valley,a state audit,cutting out redundant programs and welfare fraud and most notably that he would NOT devour the funds the cities so desperatly need to stay afloat.But in essence Arnold's propositions did just that.The reason this bond was so popular in Sacramento is because it shifts the burden from the state and onto the backs of local governments.It is pretty much a retread of an idea that Gray Davis had to get out of debt and since Gray Davis is now friends with Schwarzenegger that might very well be where the idea came from.To those who don't watch the Tonight show Davis appeared with Schwarzenegger promoting the bond and they were quite chummy.If there were any hard feelings it didn't show.This has been promoted as a cure all for the states money woes and I honestly wonder if the voters realize that they will be paying for this in many ways for a long time to come.In any event I think Mayor Autry realizes that Arnie played him for a sucker.One of the things that Arnie promised was accessability,but yet he stopped returning the Mayor's calls almost immediately after the election,long before Autry's opposition to the bond measure.As to the Prayer breakfast.ABC30 ran this story first and Tim Leslie's staff confirmed that the Governor's staff had requested that Autry be removed from the speakers list.ABC30 then obtained a statement from Schwarzenegger's staff and they said that Arnie would suffer a "high level of discomfort" if Autry attended the prayer breakfast.Apparently Leslie later called to explain that the Governor's staff had requested,not demanded Autry's removal.However, by the next morning's Bee Leslie's staff and the Governor's staff were denying everything.This is Jim Boren's take on the situation http://www.fresnobee.com/columnists/boren/story/8357637p-9179090c.html
I'm not wanting to throw the Governor out with the bathwater just yet,but I'm not ready to go along with Teddy Kennedy's wish to put Arnold in the White House yet either.

Thanks for the input

This squares with my recollections

Autry has been forced to make decisions regarding the actions of the homosexual community but the foreign press interview, which I had not read before PRND21 posted it, was the first time I had seen a public pronouncement from Autry addressing the individual rather than the behavior. Historically he has stopped short of public condemnation of the individual.

BTW ..paragraphs are our friend

Alan Autry is of course the mayor who spoke out against the HRC during their infamous dustup with Free Republic last year.

Worth noting and welcome to FR.