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."
It's time to have another recall.......
"I'm getting more e-mails off of this [the Kennedy appointment] than I do for Viagra,"
LOL, that's a funny line.
Angry?!?
Arnold's lost his mind. His political career is over.
Huh? What is balderdash/nonsense? Panetta has been Schwarzenegger's guy on more than this issue.
Imagine the transformation possible in LA with a few solid Republicans on the bench. What the hell is this muscle-bound Austrian thinking? In my state, once the Democrats took over, they replaced everyone with Democrat party members, from the dogcatcher on down to the judges.
Now I know what the Shi'a in Iraq went through when everyone in authority was Sunni! Maybe Ahnolt should face a little insurgency of his own out there in LALA Land.
That quote is from August. The two current announcements I posted on the thread would up that to 14 of 19 being Democrats. I'm not sure if there were more in the interim. A transformation in Los Angeles is happening--it's just moving the wrong way. Another opportunity lost.
This guy you trust? How do you ever hope to get rid of Boxer and Feinstein, if a Republican staffs up with supporters of these two mental midgets from Hell?
Well the night talk host on CA's leading Capitol radio station was not very encouraging on the clemency front, pointing out that Arnold roomed with the guy down on Venice Beach in 1976 amongst all the pumping iron crowd!
Now he's having a secret clemency hearing with Tookie to see if he should save the bastard murder's worthless life!!! Pathetic!!!
Just think of all the lives this gang punk has ordered snuffed out with drive by shootings that have included small children as collateral damage! Now Arnold has a distinct CONFLICT OF INTEREST because Tookie is/was one of his iron pumping buddies... Good Lord!!!
This bad actor should NEVER have been elected to ANY office with his lack of ANY sense of ANY solemnity, or gravity of being the Governor of America's most glorious state in the recent past!!!
He's been nothing but a ridiculous sock-puppet for CA's leftists while spitting on his own supposed Party that he is totally undermining.
Have any of you EVER heard him bring up the CA Republican Party's PLATFORM???
Mr. Universe found that too heavy to lift!!!
Nope. Not a bit. And many have tried to point out for two years now that there is little "Republican" about this governor or his administration. His actions have been highlighted over and over, but the media and the FR operatives continuously try to paint it as "Arnold haters". It has little to do with the man--but much to do with the man's actions and his alliances. In the meantime, things like appointing predominantly leftist judges keep going under the radar.
Am I the only one who finds it strange that a person on the right would complain about someone not being right enough to the LA Times?
The point is well taken, but why should someone on the right lend credibility to the LA Times by granting an interview in the first place? When they call, just say no!
The right really needs to quit lending credibility to the left by granting them interviews. The left is only going to spin what you have to say, or use it to their own ends.
I don't agree with Schwawrzenegger's appointment, but why give the LA Times fodder that will be used to trash Scwarzenegger before the election next year?
We should be spending our efforts trying to force a primary, not whining to the LA Times of all places.
Well, er, uh, um...
Bustamante!!!
Ohhhhh.... maaaaaaaaaaaaaan! I knew they had met, and that Tookie was a body builder, but I didn't know they were roomies.
What a nightmare!
What's there to wonder about? Schwarzenegger isn't a conservative. Wow, who would have thunk it?
If the top California Republicans could pull their heads out long enough to make some of these observations, it's really too bad they couldn't keep their heads out long enough to do something about it, namely force a primary election on the right for next spring.
Policy was never the issue for them. Only the letter behind the name.
Prepare to be creeped out.
Ex-Crips founder and four-time convicted murderer Stanley “Tookie” Williams once wrote about an afternoon in 1976 when he met a young Arnold Schwarzenegger on the Venice Beach boardwalk, and the awestruck future Governor gushed “that Williams’ biceps were as big as thighs.”
Schwartzenegger continues to make the ultimate political mistake of claiming to be a "fiscal" conservative while pushing far left "social" values.
To me, conservatism IS traditional social values and in general they are:
love of Judeo-Christian families, opposition to libs who push homo agenda's, opposition to gay marriage, pro Life, support of a strong military, opposition to illegal immigration, opposition to "multi culturalism" (which in reality is anti American traditions), self reliance, etc.
Schwartznegger aint no more a Republican than my aunt Millie's hemeroid.
(My former congressdude, Rep. Greenwood (Bucks, Pa.) used to claim he was a "social liberal but fiscal conservative" but could never point to one thing concrete he did to claim the mantel of a Republican. (He even overturned his vote of the Clinton impeachment in the US House)
Go away, Arnold.
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