Posted on 12/01/2005 9:38:28 PM PST by nickcarraway
Arnold Schwarzenegger's selection of archliberal Susan Kennedy, a former Cabinet secretary to Gray Davis, as his new chief of staff "is the last straw for a lot of grassroots California Republicans," says California Republican Assembly president Mike Spence to TAS. Spence describes the appointment as the equivalent of "George Bush appointing Howard Dean to be his chief of staff."
Even the jaw of George Skelton (the Los Angeles Times columnist who has spent much of his career telling the California GOP to move left) dropped after the appointment of Kennedy, who is one of the state's leading abortion proponents, a high-profile lesbian activist, and a former aide to many prominent California Democrats. "There simply is no precedent -- at least in any current political lifetime -- for what Schwarzenegger did Wednesday. Appoint a hard-core, dedicated soldier from the enemy camp as his chief of staff. Not just an 'advisor' or 'counselor' -- but his No. 1, his alter ego," Skelton wrote.
The door behind which Schwarzenegger kept his de facto Democratic ideology has long been ajar and visible, but now he has kicked it wide open, and not even craven, win-at-all-costs Republicans can ignore it. Susan Kennedy herself blurted out the basic truth about Schwarzenegger: "I think a moderate Democrat and a moderate Republican -- there is not a lot of light between us."
This point had been made during the Recall, but California GOP officials, relying on the usual "Big Tent" song-and-dance and shallow pragmatic arguments, cast it aside. They were given a choice between a meaningful victory with real Republican Tom McClintock or a hollow victory with a de facto Democrat, and they chose the latter. One immediate problem was solved, but multiple new and longterm ones were created.
A conservative revolt is brewing and will likely upend the "French wing" of the California Republican Party, says Spence. He has been bombarded with calls and phone calls from seething California Republicans. They feel burned and view the Kennedy appointment as a point of no return. There is talk, he says, of drafting Tom McClintock to run against Schwarzenegger, and "Mel Gibson's name is being floated."
That a center-left Republican like Schwarzenegger will do more damage than a liberal Democrat is almost axiomatic at this point, and rank-and-file Republicans have been burned enough times to realize it. Because "moderate" Republicans appear less crazy than liberal Democrats and can neutralize Republican resistance through false promises and fake appeals to party unity, they can get away with all sorts of dubious things. Many of Schwarzenegger's "accomplishments" -- from his billions-for-cloning proposition to his gun and environmental laws to his routine appointment of Democrats to judgeships -- are moves that would have met stiff resistance had Gray Davis proposed them.
Schwarzenegger's selection of a former Gray Davis cabinet secretary as his chief of staff perfectly illustrates the lost opportunity of the Recall: instead of ending the Gray Davis agenda, the Recall extended it, and shrewd Democrats who let Davis twist in the wind knew it, seeing Schwarzenegger as a Trojan horse for liberalism and a far more effective proponent of the Davis agenda than Davis ever was or would be.
The California Republicans had a huge percentage of the Recall vote to work with, and they squandered it on a celebrity who just happened to have an R. after his name. Had Schwarzenegger not parachuted into the race on the Jay Leno show (which was one of many signs that California Republicans were about to be taken on a very silly ride) and so easily convinced GOP leaders to back him despite his obvious indifference to much of their stated platform, Tom McClintock would have won easily, and the direction of the state government would have changed substantially. Real debates, not the me-too debates into which Schwarzenegger has been consistently drawn, would have occurred, and the party would have grown through morale-boosting fights.
Schwarzenegger's chief-of-staff fiasco confirms that when the Republican Party forfeits its principles in order to win, it has no principles left once it does, leaving it in tatters, both philosophically and politically. Even the crassly political argument for blindly supporting Schwarzenegger -- that his glow would cause the ranks of the California Republican Party to swell -- has proven illusory. The state party is now viewed as a pitiful arm of the hybrid Schwarzenegger administration, wholly severed from the conservative movement and useless to propel its officeholders to victory.
Schwarzenegger hasn't enlarged or energized the Republican base, and his blatant giving away of the store is likely to undercut the chances of Republican officeholders across the board in the next election. The Kennedy appointment, plus Schwarzenegger's plan to give the Democrats much of what they want in the next budget, is expected to sap morale when the party's aspirants need it most.
"This is kind of the thing that can hurt all our state wide nominees," says Spence. "This is going to drag down the whole party."
George Neumayr is executive editor of The American Spectator.
Actually, the GOP won control of the U.S. Senate in the 1980 election (for the first time since the 50s) and the Reagan revolution caused a great number of southern and midwestern RAT congressmen to "crossover" and pass Reagan's agenda. There was a political cartoon back in early '81 with the caption "The new look of the Capitol building: All Right Wing"
Needless to say, Reagan's ablity to "Deliver" for the GOP was far more effective than any RINO governor recently touted by the "Only RINOs can WIN!" crowd here.
What have Arnold and the other dozen or so RINO governors "delivered" since they were shoved down our throats on the promise that they would "save" their state parties?
I see you're from Arizona, so if a person from Tennessee wants to comment on CA government, or any states government, does that make him unqualified? He is a hard worker for the Republican party, why can't he comment about ARNOLD?
I moved from CA six months ago...I was there for the last 15 years. Yes, anyone can comment on politics in another State, however ignorant it sounds.
California is a much different State made up of much different people than it was when Reagan won. I don't think anyone will disagree with me on that one.
Until the next last straw.
Coming soon!
Exhibit #1: Arnold
He'll think whatever is printed on his talking points memo faxed over from the RNC.
I have a serious question...so let's stop the name-calling please, ok? I'm sorry for all that went before. Here's my question...if there were RINO union shills and RINO's everywhere...how many actual Republicans, let alone Conservatives, do you really think there are in California? Isn't that the real problem?
Strange I thought the closet democrats were the party members that left him hanging out to dry.
I thought the closet tree hugging nancy pants liberals are the ones whom constantly kacetch about consevative purism and abandon anyone that doesn't pass their litmus test.
As a matter of fact, I know that the closet liberals are the cannibals and subversives that hang around her. Wagging their fingers and calling anything that moves a RINO or neocon.
Idiots.
The cannibals have been attacking Arnold all along. They've brought this on them selves.
As far as I'm concerned the lefty "true conservatives" are the one that have abandoned the party first.
You don't live in CA either & you don't have to foot the bill for Arnold's after school program, or his $60B stem cell research.
I voted for him because he seemed to have strong convictions. What happened?
I un-registered myself from the voter registration yesterday. Screw the jury duty crap also!
Now Arnold can take on Hillary in the Democrat primarys. :)
Just need that amendment first... :D
The inability to back our candidates, financially (the Democrats claim Republicans are the party of the rich, though somehow that money never makes it into campaign coffers in any great quantity) and with footsoldiers, coupled with the backstabbing of our candidates after we come out of a primary (e.g., Bill Simon via Gerry Parsky et al.)
Getting back to numbers, in the 2004 primary, actual registered Republicans are 5,364,832 vs 6,518,631 for the Democrats. In 1930 R's were more than 3-1 over D's, but in four years of depression and the emergence of FDR, by 1934 we trailed slightly and have never recovered.
For how many actual conservatives there are, that's hard to pin down. There are your more activist conservative Republicans, and you'll see them on central committees, walking precincts, etc.
Then you have your passive Republicans, those that may or may not show up at a poll for whatever reason. They don't follow the news that close, so they tend to get sucked in by campaign advertisement lies and fearmongering, or throw their arms up in the air and think it's all futile, those are the ones that are frustrating to get out to the polls. They may have just checked the box on the voter registration forms that felt somewhat close to their general views, or chose the "R" because their parents did, but they don't have the political knowledge and passion to try to stop the damage that the far left is inflicting. These type of Republicans don't post on message boards such as FR.
Then there are the leftists masquerading as Republicans in hoping to infiltrate and cause mischief within our ranks. Single-issue fringe groups like Republicans For Choice or the Log Cabin Republicans will fall into this group. They'll also get onto central committees and such. They want to tilt this nation politically to the left and if they can capture both major parties, it's over.
Independents are at 20% and climbing because they are frustrated with not having any confidence in the major parties, particularly the Republicans (shouts of "not a dimesworth of difference" can be heard from the rooftops). If they can't latch onto the Republican Party as a tool to stop the extremism of the Democrats, then we have failed as the alternative to the leftist agenda.
(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.")
(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.")
I think California Republicans have to face facts. Their state gave John Kerry, a guy who is more Dukakis than Dukakis, a significant victory margin. They aren't going to get a solid conservative Governor. They tried it in 2002 against ol' Gray and still lost. Short of San Francisco falling into the ocean, it is going to be that way for a long time.
Oh yeah, GOP 'moderates'.
In my worldview, these "conservatives" give "conservatism" a bad name.
And once they've abused the CA poster, they gather to have even more viscious fun to toss their rhetorical spears into what they consider the "corpse". They may not cuss like DUers, but their venom and abusive vitriol can be quite shocking.
Don't let it bother you. Just know that they do this. It's what they are here for. You seldom see them on any other threads, IME.
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.