Daniel Weintraub: Governor befuddles the left, right

Sacramento Bee ^ | 10/8/6 | Daniel Weintraub

[SmithL]

Much has been made about Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's leftward lean in this election year. Conservative Republican activists are afraid that the governor they helped elect three years ago is now little more than a closet Democrat. Liberal Democrats, meanwhile, have been saying the governor lacks core values and will likely return to the conservative fold once he is safely in office for another four years.

But a close look at the thousand-plus bills the governor signed and vetoed this year suggests that both sides are overreacting.

Schwarzenegger ran in 2003 as a cross-partisan hybrid, a pro-environment social liberal and a pragmatic economic conservative. And that's pretty much the way he has governed. Even this year.

Consider the environment. Exhibit A in the Schwarzenegger-is-now-a-liberal case was his signature on AB 32, the anti-global warming legislation to limit the amount of greenhouse gases the state's industries can emit. The bill was the top priority of just about every environmental group in the state, if not the nation.

But it was not the product of a Schwarzenegger conversion. It was the culmination of his own long-standing belief that global warming is real, that it is caused by human industrial activity, and that California can help lead the fight against it.

Last year, when the conventional wisdom had him tilting right, Schwarzenegger issued an executive order that laid the groundwork for the legislation he signed in September.

Schwarzenegger also signed another high profile environmental bill that will hold California utilities responsible for the greenhouse gases produced by out-of-state electricity generators who sell their juice to California. But he vetoed three of the top five bills promoted this year by the Sierra Club.

[goldstategop]

Arnold the centrist. If that's how a liberal is defined, no wonder it has such cachet.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus

[calcowgirl]

Schwarzenegger ran in 2003 as a cross-partisan hybrid, a pro-environment social liberal and a pragmatic economic conservative

Danny boy rewriting history, I see.

[goldstategop]

Moderate voters seem to like his blend of politics. Angelides shrill 60s in your face liberalism just turns them off.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus

[Amerigomag]

Danny boy rewriting history

Where did Dan get this portrait? Certainly not from his own archives.

While most in the press constantly reminded the electorate that Schwarzenegger was a fiscal conservative, few, including Dan, recognized the Austrian was an entrenched, social liberal.

Could Dan have been part of a larger, moderate left conspiracy to fleece the electorate into believing the Austrian a Republican from 2003 through 2005, to set up the hated Angelides in 2006, when the Austrian would, on cue, come out of the closet?

[goldstategop]

Dan Weintraub is right Arnold has not changed that much. He's always been on the left on social issues and veers towards the middle on economic issues. The only people befuddled by the Governor are partisans who think he has betrayed them. Let's face it, you can't betray people if you never were who other people think you are. Even Arnold has never claimed to be a conservative let alone a small government conservative. Far from being a hypocrite or a panderer his actions have been completely consistent in keep with his character and his lack of an ideological core. There's your moderate and either side can read into him what they want.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus