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.
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie.Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
Yep. You have a great ability to summarize the salient points. Thank you.
"She embodies everything I have spent my life opposing. It obviously raises more problems and concerns about where he is headed next year," said Mike Spence, president of the California Republican Assembly. "There is a list of things now where it appears we would have been better off if Gray Davis were governor."
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie.Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
Sorry I missed it. Have not listened to Tom in years.
Could we be so lucky? Wonder which RINO the will foist on us next.
Outrageous appointment.
Californians, go to www.stopsusankennedy.com and sign
their petition !
Oh probably got my letters mixed up. Besides, these drugs have my brains, what's left of em, rattled.
dunnit
Thanks, "Doodle Lady." Conservatives don't have much clout with this guy, but we can't take it lying down, that's for sure.
I think Arnold's doing a fine job of turning off Republicans all by himself. He was pitched as a reformer throughout the recall, but where's the reform? Hell, we were even told that Schwarzenegger's victory in the recall would assure that California's electoral votes would go to Bush. What a load of bilge that was.
So where are we today? Schwarzenegger's been effective at very little apart from being a pushover for the Democrats. The best we've got from the guy has been only occasionally entertaining soundbites. Other than that, it's just been more borrowing, more spending, and more gun control.
We sent a RINO to do a conservative's job. Never again.
Conservative Republicans were flabbergasted by the appointment, calling it a betrayal of the platform on which Mr. Schwarzenegger had won office and an abandonment of his most loyal base.Dave Gilliard, a conservative and a leader of the movement to recall Governor Davis, said he was appalled. "It's not acceptable, it's indefensible," Mr. Gilliard said. "She was part of the administration that was thrown out and that Schwarzenegger replaced. She was part of the problem. It's an admission by the governor that he doesn't know what he is doing."
Mr. Gilliard said that Mr. Schwarzenegger had abandoned Republicans and that they would probably respond in kind next year.
"He hasn't given Republicans any reason to vote for him," Mr. Gilliard said. "To a certain degree it's healthier for the party to be the loyal opposition to the Democrats than to sit on your hands and watch everything you've worked for be sold out."
"Not that we're bitter or anything," he added.
Another prominent California conservative, Jon Fleischman, said that at first he could not believe the news. "I was shocked," said Mr. Fleischman, a former executive director of the California Republican Party. "How can a steadfast Republican look at her résumé and not react with anything but apprehension, anger and distrust, not because she's a bad person but because she's ideologically committed to ideas that are counter to the Republican Party."
(snip)
Jim Brulte, who left the Legislature last year after serving as Republican leader in the State Senate, also praised Ms. Kennedy and suggested that some of his more hotheaded Republican colleagues cool down. He said that unlike the hard-right Republicans who are criticizing the governor, Mr. Schwarzenegger closely reflects the political preferences of the majority of Californians.
"Arnold is California," Mr. Brulte said. "He's fiscally conservative, socially moderate and environmentally progressive. He better reflects what most Californians feel than just about anybody else in the Capitol."
Conservative Republicans slammed the move, labeling it a betrayal of the recall that brought Schwarzenegger to office.Assemblyman Ray Haynes, R-Murrieta, called the appointment of Kennedy "the biggest mistake the governor has made, without question."
"I didn't help start the recall so that the people who were in charge before the recall are in charge of the government again. I'm speechless," Haynes said, adding that he worries that Kennedy is in a position to undermine the governor's agenda.
State Sen. Bob Dutton, R-Rancho Cucamonga, said he also has concerns but will withhold judgment.
"She certainly wouldn't have been my first choice," Dutton said. "But I think people ought to keep an open mind right now."
Former Inland legislative leader Jim Brulte, meanwhile, spent the day trying to assuage fellow Republicans about Kennedy. Kennedy, he said, is "far more conservative than most conservatives know.
"Susan Kennedy's job is to implement Arnold Schwarzenegger's agenda, not the other way around," Brulte said. "Very few people understand what it takes to run and manage a governor's office, and Susan Kennedy is one ... who does."
I haven't kept up with the intracacies of California's politics, but I wonder if Kennedy is anything like Dick Morris --- a political mercenary. They KNOW politics from the inside out and their loyalties can be bought by whoever gives them the most power.
Yes, the Kennedy appointment is outrageous.
The Harriet Miers appointment was outrageous.
The Bush open border while Mexico invades the USA is outrageous.
Bush's Over $1 billion to tsunami nations was outrageous.
Republican Frist failing to pull the nuclear option earlier in the year when the time was perfect and ripe was outrageous.
Oh, the very, very long list of outrageous Republican moves not listed here is, . . . oh, it is outrageous.
The Democrats know that they can not beat the Republicans in a straight up fashion to win back the White House, the Senate and the House. So, they figured out a way to beat the Republicans and it is working. What they do is put extreme pressure with outrageous claims, lies and rhetoric to make the Republicans "reach across the aisle" and "act bipartisan" and all that other crap, and the end result is that conservative supporters of the GOP (what used to be the party of conservatives) become outraged.
The RATs figure the only way to beat the Republicans is to make the Republicans act so outrageous that the conservatives become outraged! Then, the Republican base stays home on election day and the RATs win. America is a conservative nation. THe RATs CANNOT WIN with all things being equal. So, they whine and cry and say the Republicans are "right-wing" and "conservative radicals" and other insane things and the Republicans, being the "bipartisan" and the "reach across the aisle" good-hearted souls they are, do outrageous things like Arnold just did, or like Bush does on a daily basis.
The more outrageous the Republicans act, the more conservatives stay home disgusted on election day. The RATs know this. They know that if the conservatives are not pissed off, the RATs lose and the Republicans maintain the House, the Senate and the White House.
The RATs are smart; slimy, but smart. They figured out the way to victory is to piss off the Republican base and get the weak kneed Republican officials to cave-in and do stupid "bipartisan things" to piss off the core base of the Republican party. It is impossible for the RATs to win elections because there just are not enough socialists and drug addicts and felons and scumbags in the voting ranks to win general elections. However, if they can get the Republican officials to "be bipartisan" and to "reach across that slime filled aisle" and do very stupid things, then they suppress the Republican vote and win the election that way because they would never win if the core base of the Republicans are pleased with the performance of the Republican officials.
That's it, fellow members. That's the RATs' strategy, and the Republicans are acting out the script the RATs have written for them. We are outraged, Arnold pulls this outrageous stunt, and Bush does his daily outrageous leftist stunts each day, and Frist caves-in, and we are outraged . . . and the RATs win in 2006 and 2008.
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie.Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
CO
I know another way I can help.
Repost and Bump your post to me (Thanks for the Education)
TT
I disagree, Arnold is trying to swim upstream, he may have misjudged how strong the current is, but I believe he appreciates the challenge.
Nonsense. You can't make that argument and justify his record.
* He supported a Sierra Nevada Conservancy that Gray Davis vetoed, authored by a socialist from Santa Cruz.
* He has a appointed member of the Sierra Club hierarchy to the CalEPA.
* His hydrogen fuels program is a thinly veiled corporate agricultural scam. He SAYS he supports the will of the people in Proposition 22, but he signs legislation that subverts marriage in all but name.
First there was AB205.
On September 19, 2004, Governor Schwarzenegger signed Assembly Bill 205, thereby enacting the California Domestic Partner Rights and Responsibilities Act of 2003 (“the Act”).
From another source:
Assembly Bill (AB) 205 marks a new twist in the fiery national battle over homosexual unions by bestowing hundreds of spousal duties and privileges on domestic partnerships registered in California. State records show about 5,000 new domestic partnerships were registered in the state in 2004. California's registry now contains the names of roughly 28,000 couples, including gays and heterosexual senior citizens.
Then there's AB 2208):
Governor Schwarzenegger signed another bill requiring insurance companies offering policies in the state to provide homosexual domestic partners with coverage equal to that of married spouses.
He didn't lift a finger to stop gay marriage and has signed "domestic partners" legislation that violates in spirit, if not in letter, Proposition 22.
* He continues to negotiate with Cedillo on drivers' licenses for illegals.
* The prison guards rolled him completely for a pittance now in return for more later.
* He "negotiated" minute concessions from the universities in return for more money later.
* He grabbed revenues from cities and counties with a promise to return it later.
* He "negotiated" a minute reduction in workman's comp premiums when all he had to do was copy Arizona's plan and put it on the ballot.
* He signed SB 50.
* He's raising more campaign money faster than Davis ever did, INCLUDING from the tribes he swore he would never solicit. In return for that he got a pittance compared to his the amount of gambling revenue he was boasting he would get. My bet is that the revenue won't even offset the direct cost of State social programs to deal with the results of gambling. Instead, he is well on his way to implementing organized gambling statewide.
* His planned "deregulation" of electrical rates has totally ignored the illegal contracts Davis' people negotiated under a conflict of interest.
* He used his popularity to foist a constitutional amendment that makes it possible for the State to balance a budget by borrowing and called it "cutting up the credit cards." From McClintock's analysis of 58 (http://republican.sen.ca.gov/web/mcclintock/article_detail.asp?PID=262):
"The second assumption is that Proposition 58 “tears up the credit cards” to assure the state never borrows to balance its budget again. Unfortunately, it doesn’t. Proposition 58 made no practical change in current law beyond suspending the oldest provision of the state constitution that for 154 years has prevented exactly the kind of borrowing that Proposition 57 now begins.
"Under the “Balanced Budget Amendment,” a balanced budget is whatever the legislature says it is. Every one of the budgets that got California into financial difficulty was defined by the legislature as “balanced.” California’s budget deficits are the result of uncontrolled spending and dishonest accounting -- and the short-term borrowing to cover them -- and Proposition 58 does nothing to change that."
* He opposed Prop 54 (Racial Privacy), calling Ward Connerly et al., "Right wing crazies."
* He didn't support the Save Our State initiative.
* He abandoned the spending cap.
* He dropped pension reform:
* He abandoned merit pay for teachers
* McPherson (R) magically says nothing cam be done about redistricting until 2006
* He’s backing away from controlling illegal (per SCOTUS decision: Communications Worker v. Beck) union confiscation of political funds
* He endorsed Proposition 68 supporting open primaries, a proposal similar to Louisiana's famously corrupt election system.
* He backed the $3 Billion Embryonic Stem Cell Research, Proposition 71
* He tried to co-optTed Costa's effort to give California a just reapportionment system with one of his own and then quietly dumped his highly publicized effort in favor of Costa’s.
* He appointed a socialist labor activist to run the State Employment Development Department
* He appointed a person who advocates tracking every mile you drive and charging you for it as head of the DMV.
* He called the flood of illegals a crisis and said America should, “close the borders,” and hasn’t DONE anything about it since!
* Now that he’s run up the interest payments on the debt, he threatens a tax increase if voters don’t authorize more borrowing!!!
On the plus side…
* He appointed a talented auditor, Donna Arduin, to be Finance Director, but then didn't listen to her.
* He killed the Consumer Power and Conservation Financing Authority.
* He appointed Tom Campbell to be Finance Director.
* He appointed Nancy Drinkard to the Board of Forestry (an outstanding candidate) but didn’t back her up.
* He appointed Andrea Hoch to the state Division of Workers’ Compensation.
* He replaced Tom Campbell with a conservative, Michael C. Genest.
* He endorsed Prop 75 paycheck protection, but only after it qualified for the ballot without his support.
* He endorsed Prop 73 parental notification on minor abortion, but only after it qualified for the ballot without his support.
* And the biggie… He signed a ban on subsidized Viagra for sex offenders!!! Now that’s moral courage.
Looks like it needs updating.
You are in California... WHAT have you done?
I've blown a cool half million bucks and seven years of work taking on our hopelessly corrupt environmental move-mint, of which Arnold is in it up to his cigar.
Top that.
It is the VOTERS in California, NOT Arnold, that have chosen the path to Socialism and Failure!
So California won't vote conservative? Consider the spate of recent ballot propositions:
Prop 227 English only education in public schools Passed
Prop 209 No more affirmative action in State hiring or education Passed
Prop 22 Heterosexual marriage only Passed
Prop 187 No benefits for illegal aliens Passed
Simon lost to Davis by only 325,000 votes after the most incompetent campaign in history and while being stabbed in the back by his own Party.
Don't give us ‘California is a liberal state’ until you know what you are talking about. The problem is a gerrymandered legislature, government unions, Hollywood, news mediots, and the universities, not the voters.
Let me know how I can help, short of moving from Texas (which has a bad habit of copying California)
Getting your facts straight would be much appreciated. Trading in truism has to stop.
Good post.
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