She could assimilate me, anytime.
Posted on 11/30/2005 6:12:08 PM PST by Amerigomag
The appointment of Susan Kennedy as Chief of Staff to the Governor is a betrayal of the hard working activists that supported the Governor during the recent special election. Kennedy has a track record as an active partisan Democrat that has worked contrary to Republican candidates and beliefs.
Those of us who supported the recall of Gray Davis now find one of his top operatives, Susan Kennedy as the leader of Schwarzenegger staff. Not only did she work for Davis, but Kennedy is plagued by her involvement in the Oracle scandal.
This is a dangerous false start for the Governor, not a fresh start.
The California Republican Assembly Board of Directors will be voting on a resolution calling for the California Republican Party's withdrawal of their pre-primary endorsement of the Governor.
I don't know about you, but I've grown to truly appreciate McClintock, and am looking forward to supporting his bid for Lt. Gov.
I'm hungry for a little more wonk. His radio ad for the props was really good ... I sure could get used to that voice.
Well said. Looking forward to '08, none of the potential candidates who might have a serious chance to win will be acceptable to the purists. George Allen currently is the leading candidate who might, but he made a mistake in running for reelection to the senate, in my opinion. He would have been much better off leaving the senate and running from outside Washington.
Rudy is the strongest candidate we have, and a Rudy/Rice ticket (if Condi could be persuaded to run) would be a smasher. But it would not be acceptable to the purists.
McCain? Hagel? A mainstreamer like me sure as heck could never support either of them. One of our governors? None have emerged, yet, as a candidate.
There certainly is no one of the caliber of RWR or GWB on the horizon right now, that's for sure.
I remember having a half hour conversation with someone at Duke Cunningham's office when he endorsed Schwarzenegger. I just wish I could call back now.
If McC runs, he has my full support, my vote, and best wishes (and also some campaign contributions). I have no problem with him and his knowledge of the issues. In fact, he's probably the best in the Legislature. I just think he's lacking in that indefinable leadership quality that I was referring to. I think we've all been spoiled by our devotion to Ronald Reagan. There will never be another Reagan, and in my mind, that means that any current or future leader among conservatives will always be second-tier.
You're from Los Gatos! We got to visit there just a few weeks ago. What a cute little town.
There doesn't need to be another Reagan. He admittedly made plenty of mistakes. I'm thinking principle over personality, and McClintock looks like a diamond to me.
I agree with you down the line. In order to win, we each need to (dare I say it?) "compromise" a bit, or at least show some flexibility. While not my ideal candidate, I would be willing to vote for Rudy -- he's supportive of Bush's foreign policy, the war on terror, I believe he would be a good administrator, fiscally responsible, and he considers Reagan as his prime example of leadership. Rice on the ticket would be a signal that Bush's foreign policy will continue to be pursued. I don't know enough about Allen to have a real opinion. He seems to be most conservatives' ideal "conservative," which would be fine, but does he have the appeal to stop Hillary in her tracks? Governors?...Who knows. Thank God Arnold can't run.
A lot can and will happen between now and '08. For the short term, I hope that Bush regains his form, that he can declare victory in Iraq over the next two years, and that the '08 election will be over whether to continue his policies on the WOT and foreign policy in general. The '08 election will also be about driving a stake through the heart of the Clinton dynasty. Again, it won't be as simple as "right-vs.-left."
Fair enough. I hope you're right.
It never is, because the majority of the public does not identify that way.
Re GWB regaining his form, as with most things in life, there are positives and negatives to the 22nd Amendment which term-limited presidents. On the negative side, they are automatically weaker in their 2nd terms precisely because they are working against a known deadline. Term-limiting the presidency without doing the same to the Congress upset the balance of power between the two branches.
Congress-critters and senators who must still face voters, and who may have presidential ambitions of their own, have every incentive to separate themselves from the president -- in fact, to use the president as a political punching bag in order to further their own agendas.
When a seditious, frequently anti-American, let alone anti-Republican mainstream media is factored into the equation, 2nd terms have become almost an exercise in futility. I'm tempted to say especially for Republicans, but we've only had one two-term Dem presidency since the 22nd Amendment was ratified, and Clinton's 2nd term was hardly a picnic for him or for us.
I am not happy about Arnold's appointment of an activist Dem as his Chief of Staff either.
But I think we have to be careful, to not throw out the baby with the bathwater.
Since Arnold became governor he had the Legislature repeal the drivers licenses for illegals bill, then when the Dems tried again, he actually vetoed it. He also reformed the Workman's Comp, which was sending business fleeing from CA. AND he held the line on taxes, despite Dem pressures, he also vetoed about one third of the useless bills the Dem Legislature sent him, many of which were very unfriendly to business.
Then he did a daring, very Republican thing of announcing a special election and putting on some very Republican propositions, which would significantly have curtailed the power of the public unions, and would have de-fanged Prop. 98, a major obstacle to creating a fiscally responsible budget. Just think how much money the unions and Dems spent on defeating those propositions. If those had been "leftist" propositions, they wouldn't have gone all out to defeat them. Unfortunately we do have a group of "cut-off-your-nose-to-spite-your-face" people, who claim to be conservatives, but as bottom line, they helped the Dems. The Dems wanted the props defeated, these so-called conservatives wanted the same thing, and either voted with the Dems, or didn't vote.
THAT's NOT Arnold's fault. He did almost everything humanly possible -- he made some mistakes in not campaigning early enough, but the bottom line is that CA would have been much better off, and on a path to more fiscal responsibility, if the props had passed and the conservatives are the ones who defeated them, by teaming up with the left against Arnold.
So please put the blame where it belongs and it's not on Arnold's shoulders.
I'm a voting member of the CRP and a member of a Assembly District Republican Central Committee and I am not happy with the Governor.
Pardoning Tookie will be the last straw. I will quit the Party and re-register "Deline to State".
I'm a voting member of the CRP and a member of a Assembly District Republican Central Committee and I am not happy with the Governor.
Pardoning Tookie will be the last straw. I will quit the Party and re-register "Decline to State".
I asked you to support your comments and you call me a liar? Classic!
Show me the threads that prove your statement. Link, please.
Yep, those "Big Tent" CA Republicans can really be proud of what their politicians have done lately. What an embarrassment they are to the rest of the Republican Party! All you need now is for Ahhnold to listen to this lib-les that he's just hired, and he'll commute the death sentence of a murdering gang member who has influenced hundreds of Crips to murder. Pathetic.
She could assimilate me, anytime.
Once an Arnold pr flack, always an Arnold pr flack.
Hate to tell you this FO, but your man Arnold is all done. With his [further] leftward sprint, he doesn't have a chance. Masquerading as a conservative (R) but governing as a RINO just won't hack it.
Good riddance.
Yes, it's a great town. Come again!
The Terminator is toast. His political career is over...
And one more thing:
Schwarzenegger appoints new finance director: Republican budget advisor M. Genest
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1532502/posts
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger Thursday appointed longtime Republican budget adviser Michael C. Genest to serve as his third finance director in little more than two years.
Genest, 58, spent five years as the head budget aide to Senate Republicans before joining Schwarzenegger's finance department in 2003 as chief deputy director. He has been the acting director of the Department of Finance since September.
Assemblyman John Laird, D-Santa Cruz, chair of the Assembly Budget Committee, described Genest as a "a strong conservative with a pragmatic streak."
People, not governor, are real losers in special election
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1527708/posts
So aren't the majority who voted for the dysfunctional status quo, and thus all of us, the big losers?
The dishonor roll of defeat
Californians voted down a measure designed to improve the quality of teachers and thus the effectiveness of public education simply by providing more time to adjudge new teachers before granting tenure, and making it easier to remove those who are no longer effective.
They voted down a proposition intended to rein in the government employee unions that in exchange for pay and benefit increases elect socialist Democrat legislators bent on spending more and taxing more.
They voted down a measure to give the governor greater ability to limit expenditures to revenues, and control the structural spending when revenues are lacking. This leads to a sizable deficit each year.
They voted to retain the gerrymandering for redistricting for state and national elected offices wherein the elected officials are able to define safe districts, choosing their voters rather than the voters choosing their representatives.
The big losers include:
• Income-tax payers and especially high earners who pay most of the taxes.
• Those who buy things subject to sales tax.
• Property owners who pay property taxes and all the fees attached to circumvent Proposition 13.
• Renters whose rents will increase due to property tax increases.
• Business owners, who will see a rise in their taxes and the minimum wage.
• Workers whose potential pay increases will be subsumed by business tax increases in the future.
• Union members whose dues were used for political purposes without their permission.
• Union members who also pay taxes, although they act as though they were exempt.
• Public schoolchildren whose education will not improve because it will remain difficult to find them better teachers.
• All levels of government -- city, county and state -- whose worker-pension and health-benefit costs will continue to increase beyond what's affordable.
• Owners and operators of motor vehicles whose fuel prices will stay high due to the reinforcing of the coalition of liberal socialist Democrat legislators and environmental extremists. It is they who prevent oil drilling and the construction of refineries and energy facilities.
• All who heat their homes and businesses with natural gas or fuel oil due to the above coalition, which prevents recovery of natural gas and building of liquefied natural gas import terminals.
This is really stretching it, you say. There were no propositions dealing with energy, housing, minimum wage, workers' pay, pensions and health benefits, sales and income taxes or business taxes.
True, but consider what voting for the status quo tells the controlling coalition. It tells them to keep on doing what they have been doing.
To see what they have been doing, examine the budget with its built-in deficits and the thousand bills the Legislature cranks out each year on all kinds of socialist spending and regulations, about half of which are rightfully vetoed.
The inability to solve major state issues is supposed to be the governor's fault because he did not negotiate compromise with the Democrats. Really? After they refused to consider his five proposals, the governor tried on three separate occasions to reach compromises with the Democrats, who not only refused to seriously negotiate but introduced measures for more spending and tax increases.
The only course left for the governor was the proposition route. After the governor's threat, citizens groups began petition drives as insurance against further failed negotiations, resulting in the government employee unions embarking on their $150 million-plus television, radio and mailer campaign of lies, distortions, obfuscation and personal attacks on Schwarzenegger, which killed the propositions.
No, the governor wasn't the big loser, and the unions weren't the big winner. All the people of California were the big losers, and the election likely was only the beginning of their losses.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.