Posted on 02/04/2006 9:43:50 AM PST by Amerigomag
I don't think Susan Kennedy is a Communist sympathizer. I don't think she's a spy for Gray Davis or Phil Angelides. I don't know much about her politics, although it sounds like she's somewhere to the left of most Republicans and somewhere to the right of most Democrats. Which is pretty much where her boss is.
But after reading Friday's Los Angeles Times' story on the payment Kennedy received from the Schwarzenegger campaign committee, I have an entirely different set of concerns. My worry is less about ideology than it is about ethics. Or at least, the appearance of ethical questions in an administration that promised to clean up Sacramento when it came to power.
I don't believe the money influenced Kennedy's vote on any matters before the PUC. Further, the governor's spokespersons are right to point out that the criticisms are coming from an organization funded by his political opponents. And the payment to Kennedy appears to have been a completely legal transaction.
But it still looks lousy. Especially for a governor who came to office promising to clean up the state's fetid political swamp. Whether you support the policy agenda that Schwarzenegger has advocated since taking office or not, there hasn't been much cleaning up of anything lately. The efforts he's made in this direction have been half-hearted, sporadic, and unnecessarily partisanized. None of it measures up to the determination and commitment for change that we heard from him during the recall campaign.
An incumbent can't credibly run as an outsider. But there's still an opportunity for Arnold the reformer to re-emerge. All it takes is a renewed determination to lessen the stink that eminates from the State Capitol every day and an awareness that setting an agenda isn't any more important than setting an example.
(Excerpt) Read more at flashreport.org ...
Schnur is not part of "California's right". He was RINO Wilson's chief apologist and has been an outspoken RINO himself all these years.
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