Posted on 11/13/2004 9:58:45 PM PST by NormsRevenge
SAN FRANCISCO - When Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced last week that he had selected a Democratic labor leader, Pat Henning, to run the state's Employment Development Department, it was the just the latest move to confound observers seeking a window into the Republican governor's political soul.
In his first year in office, Schwarzenegger has largely kept his promise to toe a conservative line on fiscal matters while veering left on social issues like gay rights and the environment. The unorthodox approach has perplexed hardcore partisans of both parties while winning praise from voters, with polls showing some 65 percent approve of the job he is doing.
Schwarzenegger appears to move between the conservative and the more liberal political worlds with ease. While sometimes donning the mantle of GOP stalwart - giving a rip-roaring speech at the Republican National Convention, for example, or campaigning for President Bush in Ohio just before the election - Schwarzenegger has also actively courted Democrats through his bill signings and staffing decisions.
He has approved legislation requiring insurance companies to cover same-sex domestic partners and allowing hypodermic needles to be sold without a prescription to slow the spread of AIDS. Days after campaigning for Bush he named the state EPA director, longtime environmental activist Terry Tamminen, to the influential post of Cabinet secretary, and former Republican Rep. Tom Campbell, a budget hawk known for socially moderate positions on abortion and gun control, to be his finance director.
"He reaches out to Republicans and to people like me, and it's been very good for California," said Bob Hertzberg, a Democratic former Assembly speaker and member of Schwarzenegger's kitchen Cabinet. "I think he's looking for good ideas and people who have good judgment. That's his standard, and it's unique among people in political life."
But puzzled observers who have tried to detect patterns in his decision-making often turn to his disparate cast of political advisers to seek clues.
"He reads voraciously, listens to diametrically opposing views, and synthesizes them," said GOP strategist Don Sipple, who produces Schwarzenegger's political ads. "That's the beauty of the guy; he synthesizes everything himself."
Some of the advisers influencing Schwarzenegger's thinking include legislative secretary Richard Costigan, once an official with the state Chamber of Commerce; longtime friends Paul Wachter, who serves as his chief financial officer, and prominent Democrat Bonnie Reiss; and members of his political team, including Sipple, strategist Jeff Randle, and Mike Murphy, who's become his overall political consigliere.
Most influential is his wife, Maria Shriver, whose Democratic leanings and strong will are already part of Sacramento lore.
Reiss, who ran Schwarzenegger's nonprofit groups before he was governor and now serves as his senior adviser, said looking at his aides and his policy decisions through a partisan lens misses the point.
"Instead of putting a label on it - conservative, liberal, Democrat, Republican - the better question is, what is Arnold about? What's important to him?" Reiss said. "I've sometimes seen him come out on a side of a piece of legislation differently than I might have or others might have, but it's always done for the right reasons."
Even so, partisans at both end of the spectrum do grumble about Schwarzenegger's choices.
Democrats and labor leaders have criticized his decision to veto bills raising the minimum wage and limit the off-shoring of jobs, and to campaign against a ballot proposal requiring employers to provide health insurance. Many blame the influence of Costigan and other aides with strong ties to business for undue influence on Schwarzenegger.
"When you surround yourself with very one-sided anti-consumer staff, you get information and recommendations that are very one-sided and we see that happening here," said Art Pulaski of the California Labor Federation.
Hertzberg and others dispute that, saying the governor's staff reflect his views rather than vice versa.
"It's Arnold," said Hertzberg. "He believes that to bring California back, he needs to make it more business friendly. He's concerned about the business climate in the state."
Other staff said to have the governor's ear include his communications director Rob Stutzman and legal secretary Peter Siggins, a Democrat whose last job was with Attorney General Bill Lockyer, a sometime Schwarzenegger adversary.
Even in largely Democrat-leaning California, Schwarzenegger seeks much of his political advice from Murphy, who made a fortune overseeing Republican campaigns across the country and who moved to California after steering Schwarzenegger's successful campaign during the recall election.
Most recently, Murphy helped craft Schwarzenegger's fiery speech to the Republican National Convention and has advised him on other major political decisions, such as how and when to campaign for Bush and how heavily to get involved in legislative and ballot initiative campaigns in the state.
Still, observers agree that Shriver, a television journalist and member of the famously Democratic Kennedy family, is first among equals when it comes to influencing Schwarzenegger. And he is not shy about reminding people about his wife's partisan leanings, even startling an audience last month by announcing that after his speech at the GOP convention, "there was no sex for 14 days."
Jokes aside, many conservative Republicans have groused about the extent of Shriver's influence on Schwarzenegger's policy decisions - from the naming of Tamminen as Cabinet secretary to Schwarzenegger's decision to support Proposition 71, a $3 billion bond measure to fund stem cell research that was opposed by the California Republican Party.
But Wachter, who has known Schwarzenegger for over 25 years, dismissed the notion that Shriver or anyone else can talk him into policy positions that run counter to his own instincts.
"This kind of myth that Maria or anyone else - I've even heard me - is in his ear pushing him, I don't believe it," Wachter said. "The way he comes to his decision making is not particularly political, but rather what's the right thing."
Kevin Spillane, a GOP strategist not involved in the Schwarzenegger administration, said the governor's tendency to keep partisans off balance contributes to his overall strength with voters.
"At the end of the day, despite all the competing factions, he keeps his own counsel and he knows what he is doing," Spillane said. "He has better public relations and marketing skills than 99 percent of politicians and the results speak for themselves."
The article states it incorrectly. His soul is simply political.
Regardless of what he thinks, there will never be a constutional amendment allowing naturalized citizens to become President.
Lay down with dogs, get up with fleas. Arnold better figure out quickly that the party of socialist mediocrity which has an agenda that includes belittling the normal family unit and destroying traditional America is not his friend.
Bull. Instead of slashing expendictures, we have more bonds which will only beget more taxes to pay them off. Hell, in this past election cycle, Arnold supported one proposition (Prop 71) that puts the already debt-saddled California economy in debt for another $6 BILLION, accounting for interest.
If that's fiscal conservativism, then I'm the King of Jamaica.
The King of Jamaica? LOLOL
Hey Mon!!! No problem. :-)
The DebTinator has it all under control.
She's been writing about politics and doing analysis for AP for years. :-)
She studied at the Helen Thomas School of Journalism, I guess.
She seems a bit... ummm... out of touch?
I found this:
Beth Fouhy is a reporter at the Associated Press. Before joining the AP, she worked as an executive producer for political coverage at CNN. Fouhy has covered the California recall election, Wesley Clark’s recent run for president and numerous other federal and local elections. She was a Knight Fellow at Stanford University in 2001. Fouhy graduated from Oberlin College.
In a pig's eye. Taxes are still being raised, businesses and taxpayers are still leaving in record numbers, and the state debt has just grown by an additional $6 billion dollars.
When (not if) California tanks, I sure as hell hope that right-thinking Republicans are in charge and refuse to bail the state out of the mess it made for itself.
I may have her confused with Erica Werner.
I agree with you. Local taxes have been raised right and left. University fees, Park fees, etc. are all being raised. In the meantime, the State is borrowing for the deficit, for stem-cell research, for pension contributions, etc. And that doesn't count the promises made for future increases in exchange for interim reductions in spending (education, prisons, etc.). We were told there would be cuts in spending; none were implemented, let alone proposed by the Governor. There is a huge cliff in front of us, one that an "improved economy" cannot solve (IMO).
A new report from the Legislative Analysts Office is due out next week which will reportedly show more deficits in our future.
A year later, and nothing has changed except the name on the door and the level of debt. No conservatism in sight.
Arnold is depending upon a reviving economy to save him. So far, it's looking better, but not enough to cover his profligacy.
Agreed!
(You made me get out my dictionary again! LOL)
You know, I'm glad he won the governorship of California, but no way do I support an amendment to make him PRESIDENT. Gimme a break! What happens when some ass like George Soros decides he wants to rule our country?
I also don't believe that amendment would have a snowballs chance. And, I don't think Arnold should be president. He's about ego at this point.
And always has been.
Cool word, isn't it?
adj 1: recklessly wasteful; "prodigal in their expenditures" [syn: extravagant, prodigal, spendthrift] 2: unrestrained by convention or morality; "Congreve draws a debauched aristocratic society"; "deplorably dissipated and degraded"; "riotous living"; "fast women" [syn: debauched, degenerate, degraded, dissipated, dissolute, libertine, riotous, fast] n 1: a dissolute man in fashionable society [syn: rake, rip, blood, roue] 2: a recklessly extravagant consumer [syn: prodigal, squanderer]
Yep. Keep them coming! I sure learn a lot around here! :-)
profligate \PROF-luh-guht; -gayt\, adjective:
1. Openly and shamelessly immoral; dissipated; dissolute.
2. Recklessly wasteful.
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