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Analysis: Governor sounds upbeat as fingers point his way
Sacramento Bee ^ | 3/17/6 | Amy Chance and Andy Furillo

Posted on 03/17/2006 8:00:29 AM PST by SmithL

If he wanted it easy, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Thursday, he would have stayed on a Hollywood movie set.

"I would make my $20 million a movie, have my 40-foot trailer, have people serving me day and night and telling me that I am the greatest," he told reporters. "I didn't come to Sacramento because I expect things to be done easily."

But while Schwarzenegger sought at a Capitol press conference to put a relentlessly optimistic spin on a chaotic week of negotiations on bonds to build schools, roads, levees and other infrastructure, the fact remained that life in Sacramento is so difficult that he once again came up empty-handed.

For all his insistence that he still sees the glass as "half-full," he has failed to date on some of his biggest initiatives, including "blowing up the boxes" to streamline state government bureaucracy and his special election efforts to curb union influence and change the way the state spends money and draws political district lines.

California voters, who have approved billions worth of bonds in most statewide elections in the past decade, will have only a $600 million library bond to consider in June.

In the post-vote analysis, Republicans noted that the Democratic leaders, Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata of Oakland and Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez of Los Angeles, couldn't even agree on whether to offer voters a significantly scaled-down version of the bonds.

Democrats pointed to the fact that there never appeared to be a single Republican vote for the larger bond packages the governor supported.

But they also had plenty of criticism for Schwarzenegger, saying that he didn't turn his full attention to the negotiating process until the deadline was bearing down on him.

(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: California
KEYWORDS: bigbangbond; caelection; governator; strategicgrowthplan

1 posted on 03/17/2006 8:00:32 AM PST by SmithL
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To: SmithL

Please, Arnie, go back to your 40-foot trailer.


2 posted on 03/17/2006 8:22:32 AM PST by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: SmithL

He and be up beat or beat up as much as he likes...he's toast. You lie with dogs and you get fleas. When will Republicans learn to just talk directly to the people and send the left into hysterics. Marie would not have any of that.


3 posted on 03/17/2006 8:41:02 AM PST by Galveston Grl (Getting angry and abandoning power to the Democrats is not a choice.)
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To: SmithL

Any attempt to link affordable housing to CA's infrastructure needs requires a twisted mind. And he wonders why he's not getting support from the 'pubbies.


4 posted on 03/17/2006 8:48:12 AM PST by Godzilla (Gun control is not about guns; it's about control.)
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To: FOG724; SierraWasp; Carry_Okie; forester; NormsRevenge; Amerigomag; tubebender; Czar; Mojave
Republican political consultant Kevin Spillane said he thinks Democratic leaders could have gotten something done for the June ballot if they hadn't gotten greedy and added items such as mass transit and affordable housing to the mix.

Why isn't Arnold's campaign team reiterating this to the press, instead of painting Republicans as "religious" zealots?

Democrats, he said, failed to appreciate how difficult it was for GOP lawmakers to swallow such a large package of bonds, let alone one that contained so many Democratic priorities.

Affordable housing, soccer fields, billions for conservancies, billions more for environmental land grabs.

"Frankly, if Ronald Reagan was asking them to approve these bonds, I think they would have had trouble," he said. "The Republicans were making an effort because they were willing to support multibillion (dollar) bonds that they never would if they didn't have a Republican governor asking them to do that."

5 posted on 03/17/2006 10:42:00 AM PST by calcowgirl
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To: Godzilla
Any attempt to link affordable housing to CA's infrastructure needs requires a twisted mind. And he wonders why he's not getting support from the 'pubbies.

"Affordable Housing" = Slave quarters for billionaires, financed by the middle class taxpayer.

6 posted on 03/17/2006 12:21:09 PM PST by Carry_Okie (There are people in power who are truly evil.)
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To: SmithL
I love it when government does nothing. That's not a sign of failure; that's a sign of progress. It ought to be applauded.

(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.")

7 posted on 03/17/2006 1:12:16 PM PST by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives On In My Heart Forever)
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To: goldstategop
"I love it when government does nothing. That's not a sign of failure; that's a sign of progress. It ought to be applauded."

ME TOO!!!

Remember Rush Limbaugh's "Congress Insurance?"

8 posted on 03/17/2006 3:36:46 PM PST by SierraWasp (Without knowing the force of words, it is impossible to know man!!! (or especially Waspman!!!))
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To: SmithL
"...he has failed to date on some of his biggest initiatives, including "blowing up the boxes"..."

Hell, he created one of the biggest "boxes" ever seen in the State of CA... The 25 million acre Sierra-Nevada CONservancy box for whatever private property remains in 1/5th of eastern CA!!!

Git back in that trailer and wait for a tornado, or something... You're NOT making it anymore than your "Predator" co-star, Jesse Ventura!!!

I grow so danged weary of celebrities and their vain twitchings!!!

9 posted on 03/17/2006 3:44:33 PM PST by SierraWasp (Without knowing the force of words, it is impossible to know man!!! (or especially Waspman!!!))
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