CA: Davis should feel at home for gov.'s oath (Gub's administration recalls that of his predecessor)

LA Times ^ | 1/5/07 | Peter Nicholas

[NormsRevenge]

SACRAMENTO — He was booted out of the Capitol three years ago, but when former Gov. Gray Davis returns today to watch the man who replaced him sworn in for a second term, he'll find an eerie resemblance to what he left behind.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has entrusted onetime Davis aides with his administration's success, appointing them to top jobs. He has embraced policies that Davis favored and settled into a similar governing style.

The Republican incumbent is even beginning to sound a bit like his Democratic predecessor.

--snip--

"If you look at where I come down on issues and where Arnold comes down on issues, there's not much space there," Davis, now a corporate lawyer, said in an interview in his Century City office.

Davis said he bumps into Schwarzenegger about once a month — mostly at parties and California promotional events. In December, he and his wife, Sharon, were invited to First Lady Maria Shriver's launch of a new California Hall of Fame in Sacramento.

The former governor seems fond of Schwarzenegger.

--snip--

During the 2003 recall campaign, Schwarzenegger accused Davis of "terminating" jobs and dreams. But later, as Schwarzenegger's approval ratings collapsed, he began hiring Davis aides in a dramatic bid to turn things around.

When she was Davis' Cabinet secretary, Susan Kennedy essentially ran the government day-to-day. Now, as Schwarzenegger's chief of staff, Kennedy is an even more influential force.

Another Davis official, Daniel Zingale, was hired in 2005 as Shriver's chief of staff. Schwarzenegger recently added to Zingale's duties, making him senior advisor to the governor.

In May, Schwarzenegger named former Davis aide Linda S. Adams as chief of environmental protection

"I'm the only guy left who he hasn't brought on board," joked Garry South, the campaign strategist who helped Davis become governor in 1998.

[NormsRevenge]

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has entrusted onetime Davis aides with his administration's success, appointing them to top jobs. He has embraced policies that Davis favored and settled into a similar governing style. The Republican incumbent is even beginning to sound a bit like his Democratic predecessor.

[television is just wrong]

wow,all that money spent on a recall election, and we have the same thing? weird.

[NormsRevenge]

Excerpts from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's inaugural address:

AP

http://www.dailycomet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070105/APN/701054315

"Every day has been an adventure. As a matter of fact, my escapes have been more hair-raising than anything I did in the movies."

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"... The California historian Kevin Starr says that we must think of ourselves as belonging not just to the Republican Party or the Democratic Party but to the Party of California because California is a collective ideal worth preserving. The Party of California is beyond ideology and one to which all of us belong."

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"Some pundits said that I won re-election because I co-opted the Democratic agenda. Some said that the Democratic Legislature, by working with me to increase the minimum wage or reform prescription drug costs, abandoned the Democratic nominee for governor. This is the kind of partisan thinking that frustrates the voters and diminishes our democracy. The people are disgusted with a mindset that would rather get nothing done than accomplish something through compromise."

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"We don't need Republican roads or Democratic roads. We need roads. We don't need Republican health care or Democratic health care. We need health care. We don't need Republican clean air or Democratic clean air. We all breathe the same air."

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"I believe we have the opportunity to move past partisanship ... to move past bipartisanship ... to post-partisanship. Post-partisanship is not simply Republicans and Democrats each bringing their proposals to the table and working out differences. Post-partisanship is Republicans and Democrats actively giving birth to new ideas together."

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"Centrist does not mean weak. It does not mean watered down or warmed over. It means well-balanced and well-grounded. The American people are instinctively centrist, so should be our government."