Posted on 12/03/2005 11:25:15 AM PST by Kenny Bunk
Top California Republicans are wondering if Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is moving left politically following his appointment to chief of staff of Susan Kennedy – a leading liberal activist and former aide to Democrat Gov. Gray Davis.
"We're not moving anywhere," Schwarzenegger says, insisting that he is continuing to go "in the same direction."
Some of his Republican colleagues wonder what direction that may be.
"I'm getting more e-mails off of this [the Kennedy appointment] than I do for Viagra," said Mike Spence, president of the California Republican Assembly, in an interview with the L.A. Times newspaper.
"Since the special election, where we were very loyal [to Schwarzenegger], all we've heard about was a $50 billion bond and looking at clemency for [convicted murderer and gang leader Stanley] Tookie Williams." Asking if there isn't "even one Republican in the state to be qualified as chief of staff?" Spence said. "I think the Kennedy thing was just the last straw."
What especially irks GOP leaders is Kennedy’s popular standing among California liberals. She is a former executive director of the state's ultra-left-wing Democratic Party, a former top member of former Gov. Gray Davis’ staff and - to the chagrin of advocates of traditional values - an abortion supporter and admitted lesbian who recently "married” her lover in a Hawaiian civil union ceremony.
GOP officials aren't alone in their criticism of the appointment, as Schwarzenegger discovered during a radio talk-show appearance with conservative host Roger Hedgecock on San Diego's KOGO radio station.
Said Hedgecock "You have once again stirred up everyone in the whole state with this announcement. This woman seems completely incompatible with any Republican principles."
Not so, said the governor, who described Kennedy as a pro-business moderate who had supported him on all of his doomed special-election ballot initiatives, including one which was fiercely opposed by Democrats because it would have put a limit on spending.
"All of the things that I have done in the last two years she believes in and actually said many times to me during the last two years that she has become a big fan of mine because of the things that I do," he told Hedgecock.
While admitting that some Republicans will be "up in arms about" the Kennedy appointment, Schwarzenegger told his host "but I have to pick someone that I feel comfortable with. And I talked to a lot of people for this job, and she was the one who I felt most comfortable with." Not every Republican is appalled at the Governor's choice. Pat Dando, president and chief executive officer of the San Jose-Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce told the San Jose Mercury News:
"I would hope that they would look at her as an individual with qualifications that are important to do the job of chief of staff." He added that Schwarzenegger "appears to be more interested in finding well-qualified individuals to work with him on both sides of the aisle than sticking to a party line, and I think that's healthy."
Looking back, Arnold had left many signs and tracks pointing to what we now know he really is. Neither the MSM nor any of the rest of us paid much attention to those signs and tracks.
Here you go SW. I think this is where it started. You owe me! lol
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1485765/posts?page=12#12
(snip)
By the way!!! I saw on the noon news that Parsky and Issa are running on the CA Republican Primary ticket for Governor against the SCHWARTZENRENEGGER STEAMROLLER!!!
(snip)
12 posted on 09/16/2005 3:53:58 PM PDT by SierraWasp
I beg your pardon. On Aug 7, 2003 I replied to Chi-townChief:
Arnold's pronouncements of cradle to grave government care and "we got to bring business back to support government programs" at his press conference yesterday sure startled this listener.
This was my initial reaction to the Austrian when he announced his run for governor on the steps of the Santa Monica Courthouse on August 6, 2003. I was not alone in my suspicions.
Ten day later I posted the foillowing reply to D1:
This is the no spin zone. The last thing Arnie did politically was to champion a part of the cradle to grave system. An after school program for kids. Arnie may be a registered Republican but he is NOT a conservative.
Some saw the signs, many didn't. Many more chose to ignore them, including
the MSM who was mesmerized by the sensationalism of the campaign.
Is California even governable anymore?
The economy, thanks primarily to CONgress and the POTUS with a more Reaganesque tax/economic stimulus have redeemed CA and Arnold, yet, the more things change... The more they stay the same!!!
Google and E-Bay are probably leading a somewhat revived high-tech boomlet that is swelling state coffers, but the basicly flawed formula for taxing only the rich and the booming corporations is gonna drop us right back into the same deep fryer at the next economic slowdown!!!
Meanwhile, we have allowed this macho moviestar muscle head to wreak some heavy damage on an institution he claims to be a member of and on many of the guiding conservative principles formally adopted by that institution in it's platform/mission statement!!!
That's what made many of us on here so angry at the others who were eager to throw all that over the side just to have a champion that claimed to be a member of our favorite institution. We could see his claim was obviously false.
Now, in looking back after an abjectly failed populist so-called "reform," we see wreckage in the form of a Governor who has recklessly insulted and alienated the most powerful and organized forces arrayed against conservatives and Republicans alike in the entire state!!!
Furthermore he has insulted and alienated many others in his heavy handed back handing of rural CA organizations like the Farm Bureau and the Grange who looked to him early to pull us out of the Gray Davis boiling soup, but instead signed an economic Sierra suffocator while boasting about boxes he was going to "blow up!"
Instead of being the champion that so many here on FR dreamed of, he fell into a terrible pattern of belicose bluster of what he was going to do... Then totally flinched nearly every time in deafening silence. The silence here on FR was palpable each time, too.
As Rush Limbaugh said when the MSM started howling about the President's pick of Harriet, the Party isn't cracking up! It's getting ready to crack down! And that's exactly what happened to be sure!!!
In CA, I think it's time for the CAGOP to "crack down!" This needs to happen quickly, before we really do crack up!!! Does anyone share this opinion with me???
Yeah....the same excuse they used for Bloomberg & Pataki. "Because the can win." This is why the party is being destroyed-from within.
Yup! Expecially since I been cleanin the leaves up all danged day and I'm pooped already!!!
Now GVgranny... You know the rules... We must now have a retirement ceremony for the "GVgirl" name as you are not allowed to have more than one scream name on FR at a time, right? I too am proud that you have joined the ranks of us proud grandparents, but just because you're in the ranks, doesn't mean you are to become "rank!" (if you do, we'll have to spank)(Great Scott that sounds kinky!)
I should expect to be brought up short when I paint with too broad a brush. No offense intended to you, Amerigomag, or to any of the others who saw Arnold's many defects to a much more detailed level than some of the rest of us.
Sometimes I hate it when I'm right, don't you? The one time I was wrong, was the silly episode where I thought I was wrong!!!
Like the old country tune... "Oh Lord it's hard to be humble, when you're perfect in every way!"
More than anything else, I believe this is what has done him in.
That's OK by me. The first person who can create the appropriate emoticon gets the prize! (This time, I'm the judge!)
Few on this forum initially, publicly worried about the facts and their implications. With time, two groups developed.
A dogged few, assembling many small and oft times obscure pieces of the puzzle while most were just thankful for a champion that sounded like their savior. They listened politely but were unpersuaded.
By early 2004, after the Austrian's initial budget proposal, a third group emerged. Deeply loyal partisans who absolutely refused to accept the growing evidence. They ignored the facts and attacked the messengers. Their's was a policy of savvy politics; tolerating the bad to salvage a little good. Political compromise. This group still survives today having shifted their attitudes on slightly.
To the credit of the initial believers in an imported savior, as the Austrian continued his conservative rhetoric but practiced liberal policies their faith wained. It would appear that hiring one of Davis' chief strategist, the suspected architect of one of his most heinous grafts, trading an estimated $41M in taxpayer monies for a $250,000 campaign donation was the final straw. As a matter of fact, when the scheme was uncovered, it was the final straw for many Democrats in the legislature and Kennedy was forced to testify before them. Those hearings sealed Davis' fate.
Arnie's Army = Bushbots
Oh yeah, let's just shoot our friends Arnold and Dick by calling them stupid.
Arnold's efforts in the special election were bold, brave and conservative, and all he gets is crap from the conservative moonbats here.
Criticizing Cheney is just stupid.
LOL. I'm so glad the cognitive resources are still intact.
Keep it up moonbats. Keep bashing the best conservatives in the country. Why don't you take a shot at Limbaugh while you are at it.
Before Arnold came, the Republican Party in CA was doing oh so swell (sarcasm off).
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.