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Kennedy Republicans (Closet Democrat Arnold Schwarzenegger has kicked the door wide open)
The American Prowler ^ | 12/2/2005 | George Neumayr

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.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Extended News; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: California
KEYWORDS: burned; cagop; calappointment; california; camilk; cra; frenchwing; georgeneumayr; gop; graydavis; kennedy; mikespence; neumayr; principles; republican; schwarzenegger; susankennedy; trojanhorse
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To: streetpreacher

Your comment was a shame. Too bad you delight in such things.


161 posted on 12/02/2005 4:43:58 PM PST by ladyinred (RIP dear Texas Cowboy, you will be missed.)
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To: Hildy
"I'm so glad I moved out of that drowning pool of a State."

So are we.

By the way, FR is a conservative site for conservatives.

162 posted on 12/02/2005 4:49:55 PM PST by Czar (StillFedUptotheTeeth@Washington)
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To: Hildy

"Why am I wasting my time responding to you. sigh...I lived in CA up to six months ago. My husband, 66 years old is a native...all our relatives live there....how many relatives you got living there, bud?"

Close to half my relatives, actually, including two of the most important ones, my school-age niece and nephew. And just to feed your paranoia, my half-sister's best friend and matron-of-honor at her wedding is Marsha Feinland. Feinland is a perennial candidate for President and a host of other offices on the neo-Marxist Peace & Freedom ticket and she is already a declared candidate against Feinstein next year.

"And by the way, aren't you the state that elected Al Gore several times?"

Yes, and we're also the one that kept him out of the White House in 2000. You owe me a BEEEEG "thank you." :-)


163 posted on 12/02/2005 4:54:22 PM PST by fieldmarshaldj (Cheney X -- Destroying the Liberal Democrat Traitors By Any Means Necessary -- Ya Dig ? Sho 'Nuff.)
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To: Hildy
Touche! Ya got me with that one!! I'm gittin tired of all this hate & discontent that I been helpin stir up anyways!!!

It's just been impossible for me to forgive the bum for slappin so many of his most ardent rural and Farm Bureau supporters with that damnable CONservancy clobbering!!!

I invested so much of my life in preventing such a goshe growth of government in the Sierran region that everytime I think of him the poison just rushes to my fevered brow!!!

164 posted on 12/02/2005 5:34:05 PM PST by SierraWasp (The only thing that can save CA is making eastern CA the 51st state called Sierra Republic!!!)
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To: BillyBoy

Very astute comments, BillyBoy!!! Especially that next-to-the-last one!!!


165 posted on 12/02/2005 6:05:20 PM PST by SierraWasp (The only thing that can save CA is making eastern CA the 51st state called Sierra Republic!!!)
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To: Condor51

It was that dip-stick Morman US Senator from Utah that has wimped out and sucked up to Teddy "The Swimmer" Kennedy all these years. Is he still on the Judiciary Committee with that other POS "moderate," Arlan Spector???


166 posted on 12/02/2005 6:13:00 PM PST by SierraWasp (The only thing that can save CA is making eastern CA the 51st state called Sierra Republic!!!)
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To: Alia
"...but their venom and abusive vitriol can be quite shocking."

They also know exactly how to "get your goat!" (they find out where you tied it!)

167 posted on 12/02/2005 6:15:33 PM PST by SierraWasp (The only thing that can save CA is making eastern CA the 51st state called Sierra Republic!!!)
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To: Alia

Why are you demonizing your fellow FReepers like this??? (I can't imagine why you have a "world view" when there are so many problems for you to clear up right here on FR)


168 posted on 12/02/2005 6:18:25 PM PST by SierraWasp (The only thing that can save CA is making eastern CA the 51st state called Sierra Republic!!!)
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To: Alia
You left out that some of them bayonette the wounded, didn't you???

Where were you when those you claim are giving conservatism a bad name were taking the exact same type of abuse during the CA Recall election campaign on here?

Payback is just a bich! That's how it is, Alia!!!

169 posted on 12/02/2005 6:21:30 PM PST by SierraWasp (The only thing that can save CA is making eastern CA the 51st state called Sierra Republic!!!)
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To: Lancey Howard
He may even have his new CoS working behind the scenes...

CoS? Church of Scientology? ;-)

170 posted on 12/02/2005 7:55:39 PM PST by calcowgirl
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To: staytrue
Arnold's special election initiatives were bold, daring and conservative.

Arnold's initiatives were anti-union, but not conservative. His "spending control" measure was weak, authorized more borrowing and did not reduce spending.

171 posted on 12/02/2005 7:59:01 PM PST by calcowgirl
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To: SierraWasp

LOL! Oh you crack me up. I can hear them wasp-wings of yours just buzzing and flapping. zzzzzZZZZZzzzzzzzZZZZZzzzz


172 posted on 12/02/2005 8:04:07 PM PST by Alia
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To: SierraWasp
Actuallly... I was busy doing a lot of other things helping to facilitate that Recall Election, dear.

I came onto FR, and bluntly put, I saw the Pro-Tom people just villifying and going personal at the Pro-Arnold people. And then I saw some coming at the Pro-Tom folks. It was the ugliest brawl I've personally witnessed in FR. I was way too busy at the start of the "TR ugly" in FR to see how it all started out ("who launched the first punch"). (I didn't dare enter the Schiavo threads much at all.)

173 posted on 12/02/2005 8:12:02 PM PST by Alia
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To: Hildy

Since you are obviously so repelled by Conservatives, why do you bother posting to a conservative website?

FYI, conservatives DID show up and support props 73-75, as evidenced by their strong support.

Arnold on the other hand, has failed to show any glimmer of conservatism, fiscal or otherwise. Big borrowing, big spending, more gun control, fewer than 50% republican judicial appointees, a GREEN environmental platform, etc.. Do you support these things? Why should any republican support those things? It isn't Arnold--it is his actions. Kennedy is not the first leftist appointee. We've seen Reiss, Tamminen (the treehugger), Henning (Red diaper boy), etc. If you support these things, I am relieved you are no longer a California voter.


174 posted on 12/02/2005 8:32:16 PM PST by calcowgirl
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To: Democratshavenobrains
>> 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. <<

How much of a margin the Presidential candidate wins by is irrelveant.

North Dakota votes ULTRA Republican for President yet they elected a LIBERAL Democrat Senator, Kent Conrad. He delivers socialism on the federal level and made sure his buddies, Byron Dorgan and Earl Polymony were elected, resulting in an all RAT congressional delegation in normally solid Republican North Dakota.

Mildly Republican Georgia elected DINO Zell Miller, and he stabbed the RATs in the back and "Delivered" an all GOP victory to the state in 2002.

Dem leaning Florida and Texas elected conservative GOP leaders in the 80s and early 90s, and those leaders turned the states SOLID Republican.

Moderate Democrat controlled (Gray Davis) California elected RINO Arnold, and since then the state has only drifted further leftward (just look who won the mayoral races in San Franciso and L.A.)

175 posted on 12/02/2005 8:46:11 PM PST by BillyBoy (Find out the TRUTH about the Chicago Democrat Machine's "Best Friend" in the GOP... www.nolahood.com)
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To: Alia

Your posts are too funny. H tells ccc to "go to hell" and you think ccc is ugly? ROFL.


176 posted on 12/02/2005 8:53:30 PM PST by calcowgirl
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To: SierraWasp
It was that dip-stick Morman US Senator from Utah that has wimped out

Here we go again. Orin Hatch is as fine a man as they come.

177 posted on 12/02/2005 10:26:18 PM PST by staytrue (MOONBAT conservatives are those who would rather lose to a liberal than support a moderate)
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To: Alia
I saw the Pro-Tom people just villifying and going personal at the Pro-Arnold people. And then I saw some coming at the Pro-Tom folks.

What you saw was the mcclintock people villifying while the arnold people saying they like mcclintock but he can't win. Mcclintock is a class act and supported arnold totally after the election. His supporters do not have his good common sense.

178 posted on 12/02/2005 10:29:50 PM PST by staytrue (MOONBAT conservatives are those who would rather lose to a liberal than support a moderate)
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To: BillyBoy

Is there a reason you chose to use the democrats winning the SF mayoral race as supporting evidence that CA is drifting to the left ?


179 posted on 12/02/2005 10:32:17 PM PST by staytrue (MOONBAT conservatives are those who would rather lose to a liberal than support a moderate)
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To: calcowgirl

I think CA is a lost cause...it will have to hit bottom before climbing back up, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Arizona did it in the early 80's and thrived after. But at this point, there's not rememption for CA, and that's why I left. When Arnold first ran, I said if I feel like we can turn this State around, I'll stay. But it was soon apparent no big changes would occur. So I took the investment property I had invested in Arizona and decided to live there instead. Other than marrying my husband, the best decision I've ever made.


180 posted on 12/02/2005 10:37:49 PM PST by Hildy (Keyboard warrior princess - typing away for truth, justice and the American way!)
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