Posted on 09/19/2003 8:52:17 PM PDT by FairOpinion
American Indians who are supporting Democrat front-runner Cruz Bustamante in California are also promoting Republican state Sen. Tom McClintock, and GOP front-runner Arnold Schwarzenegger is furious.
"I think that as far as Tom McClintock is concerned, I think the question I have for him is, what side is he on?" Schwarzenegger said Thursday. "Is he on the side of the Republicans? Does he represent the Republicans, or does he represent Bustamante?"
Schwarzenegger suggested that the tribes were abetting Bustamante by trying to split the Republican vote.
"They are financing his commercials and TV spots and all that," said Schwarzenegger, who doesn't take money from Indian tribes. "He knows they're financing him not because they want him to be governor. They just want to interfere with the process so that Bustamante wins. He has to decide which side is he on, the Republicans' or Bustamante's."
McClintock called Schwarzenegger's comments "a ridiculous statement by a man who obviously hasn't paid much attention to California public affairs. ... For 20 years, I have fought to protect sovereignty on reservation lands, well before there was gaming.
"If they wanted to hurt Schwarzenegger, they would be making an independent expenditure to hurt Schwarzenegger, and Lord knows there's plenty they could hurt him with."
Assemblyman John Benoit, R-Palm Desert, a Schwarzenegger supporter, told the Riverside Press-Enterprise: "I think the idea of divide and conquer is a tried and true tactic. I can't speak for the Indians, but if there was somebody looking to help Bustamante, this would be the way to do it."
I'll answer. Because I haven't seen any evidence of it.
Now let me ask you a question: Would you support Arnold if he was a Democrat? Same stands on the issues but different party.
Arnie ain't gotta pay me, I'm like his bud. As his bud I trust him. Arnie is the people's bud. The people are going to trust him. Trust, honor, faith, hope, unity, success, Arnie is my man!
Good stuff, especially in light of the current recall election campaign and the candidacy of conservative Republican Tom McClintock.
Hey grunt-- incoming!
This story is taken from election at sacbee.com.
He's vowed to "clean up Sacramento," but Arnold Schwarzenegger has hired a handful of campaign consultants who were heavily involved in the scandal that drove disgraced state Insurance Commissioner Chuck Quackenbush from office.
One Quackenbush consultant hired by Schwarzenegger's gubernatorial campaign, Jeff Randle, co-wrote a memo outlining how Quackenbush could enhance his image with money from insurance firms that mishandled Northridge earthquake claims.
Another, Don Sipple, produced controversial TV ads featuring Quackenbush and paid for with insurance company money. A third consultant, Marty Wilson, used money from insurers to do political polling for Quackenbush designed to gauge his chances for higher office. A fourth, Quackenbush political consultant Joe Shumate -- who a legislative report said played a "central role" in the plan -- is discussing a position with the Schwarzenegger campaign.
On a day Schwarzenegger touted a prized recruit -- renowned investor Warren Buffett as a senior financial and economic adviser -- critics Wednesday slammed his hiring of the former Quackenbush consultants.
"I cannot believe he is going to squander his opportunity to establish himself as the outsider he says he is," said consumer activist Harvey Rosenfield, who supports the recall of Gov. Gray Davis.
"Nothing could be more inside the political structure that has so offended Californians than to hire Chuck Quackenbush's political consultants. This is a strategic blunder of monumental proportions. It makes me wonder whether he's up to the task."
Art Torres, head of the state Democratic Party, said Schwarzenegger's hiring the consultants represents either "incredible arrogance or incredible naivete."
"I don't think he gets it," Torres said of the Republican movie star making his first run for office. "I don't think he reads the newspaper except for the (entertainment) section. How can he not know about these guys and their baggage?"
Schwarzenegger, who gave $1 million to his campaign on Tuesday, called Buffett "my mentor and my hero" at the same time that his aides scoffed at the criticism over the appointment of the former Quackenbush consultants.
"This is yet another sad and pathetic attempt by the Democrats to throw lawn chairs in front of the freight train that is the Schwarzenegger campaign," spokesman Sean Walsh said of the Quackenbush issue.
"The roles that will be played by some of the individuals the Democrats are mentioning are organizational ones, and the overall drive of the campaign is with Arnold and individuals like Warren Buffett."
Once considered a rising star in California's Republican Party, Quackenbush resigned in July 2000 rather than face impeachment proceedings after disclosures that he allowed insurance companies to funnel money into foundations promoting his political future instead of paying much higher fines for improperly handling Northridge earthquake claims.
As the program unraveled in a series of legislative hearings, it was disclosed that Shumate, Sipple, Randle and Wilson or their firms each received six-figure payments from the foundations -- money that typically would have gone to the state's general fund -- for their work on Quackenbush's behalf.
None of the men was ever charged with a crime, but a scathing report put out in August 2000 by the Assembly Insurance Committee left little doubt about the propriety of the strategy or the roles played by the consultants now working for Schwarzenegger.
"The (Department of Insurance), working with a group of longtime associates and consultants, then used the foundations to serve (Quackenbush's) political agenda and financially benefit personal friends of top department officials," the report said.
"In pursuit of these objectives, the needs of California consumers and representations made in agreements with insurers largely were ignored."
Former Assemblyman Fred Keeley, a Boulder Creek Democrat who was a key member of the investigating committee, said he was surprised to learn Schwarzenegger hired people so closely enmeshed in the Quackenbush scandal.
"The folks who advised Mr. Quackenbush to enter into a scheme that ultimately led to his resignation as a constitutional officer would not be the people that I would want to surround myself with if I was seeking a state constitutional office," said Keeley. "That would be especially true if I was trying to make the case I was going to be a new broom to sweep the capital clean."
Wilson, Sipple and Randle could not be reached for comment. Shumate said he has been talking with the campaign about coming to work as a consultant but that no agreement has been reached.
"They may hire me, but nothing's been resolved," he said.
All four had helped former Gov. Pete Wilson, Schwarzenegger's campaign co-chairman, with his political efforts. Shumate, Marty Wilson and Randle each served as a deputy chief of staff in the Pete Wilson administration.
Walsh said Sipple is working as a campaign advertising consultant, Wilson is helping run internal campaign operations and Randle will be working with various constituencies that support Schwarzenegger.
"They're quite good at designing campaigns and campaign strategies," said Keeley, who now heads the Planning and Conservation League, a statewide environmental group. "The problem with Quackenbush was not that they designed a strategy but that they designed a strategy that was wholly unethical."
Campaign spokesman Walsh said the consultants who worked for Quackenbush are not setting policy but only trying to get the candidate elected. Although he has not spelled out how he intends to do it, Schwarzenegger remains committed to reforming state government, Walsh said.
"When you bring in Warren Buffett, we're going to clean economic house in Sacramento," Walsh said. "The people in that town have never seen the type of force and personality these folks bring to bear. When the people we're bringing into the campaign come on board, you're going to see things jumping and you're going to see things changing."
But Rosenfield, the consumer activist whose group passed an initiative overhauling the Department of Insurance and making the commissioner's post an elected one, isn't buying it.
"Right now the entire state is up in arms looking for a cartoon hero to catapult into Sacramento and knock everyone's head together and clean the place up," he said.
"If Arnold becomes just another candidate surrounded by the Republican establishment just as Davis and (Lt. Gov. Cruz) Bustamante are by the Democratic establishment, people are going to say, 'My God, we had a recall and we've got the same old thing.' "
About the Writer
---------------------------
The Bee's Gary Delsohn can be reached at (916) 326-5545 or gdelsohn@sacbee.com.
Are you asserting this? If so, cite please?
Since when is a question an assertion?
For the record, this the tribal review bill is State Senate Bill 18, and as near as I can tell, McClintock did not bother to vote on it.
Are Republicans who supported Prop 1A traitors? I never said that. However, they have very poor judgement and have essentially shot themselves in the foot. Indian tribes are now giving tens of millions to Rat causes and are using this largess to solidify their political power base.
Final question. If they are "soveriegn nations" why are they allowed to participate in our political process?
There are others, MANY others, who DO make our electoral decisions based on demonstrated competence to hold the office and whether the funding source for said candidate is the same one as their political enemy's or not. And, McWampum has not demonstrated the ability to organize a Friday Night poker game for 4 while at the same time sucking campaign funds from the same trough as Gray Davis does. And, there are more of us than there are of you.
Schwarzenkennedy is a lyin RINO / DemoRat. If elected, he will side with the far-left demoRat libs every time!
Arnie doesn't even have the *alls to face McClintock in a debate because:
A. He is an empty-headed fool, or
B. He would have to lay out his to-the-left-of-Gray Davis, plans for California.
A vote for Arnie the Infant Terminator is a vote for the lavender agenda, a vote for infanticide, a vote for a gun-grabbing hater of the second amendment, a vote for higher property taxes, a vote for a friend of illegal immigration, and a vote for Warren Buffet and Teddy Kennedy!
They hate "right-wing crazies" just like their sock-puppet Arnold!
Yes, EV is desperately trying to change the subject. He or she doesn't want you to notice the fact that McWampum is sucking campaign funds out of the exact same trough as Gray Davis does. Inconvenient facts like that aren't on Massa Bustamante's script that they must all follow.
You don't see the complete irony in that statement, do you? Arnold is a political novice, while Tom has held office honorably as a conservative leader for over twenty years.
...and whether the funding source for said candidate is the same one as their political enemy's or not.
When you begin to criticize Arnold for taking money and advice from his 'close friend and mentor' Warren Buffett, Hillary-supporter, then maybe you will have some credibility to talk about Indians giving Tom money.
And, McWampum has not demonstrated the ability to organize a Friday Night poker game for 4 while at the same time sucking campaign funds from the same trough as Gray Davis does.
Then what the hell are you worried about?
And, there are more of us than there are of you.
Well, that's why we have elections, to figure that out...
Here, let me help. Here's some evidence:
From Steve Wampler's column of October 29, 2002:
"During the 1998 election, the Morongo Indians were part of a political action committee that donated more than $500,000 to (Gray) Davis. In 2000-01, the Morongo Indians added $170,000 more. In April 2000, Davis released a transportation-congestion relief plan that gave him more control over state projects. One of the projects in the plan was a $30 million freeway interchange that leads directly to the Morongo Indians' casino. As GOP state Sen. Ray Haynes puts it: "(Davis) says it's congestion relief, but it's more like contributor relief. It always helps to be a contributor to Gray Davis, and Gray Davis makes it well-known."
McWampum is accepting campaign funding from the Morongo Indians, the same place that Gray Davis gets his.
And Arnold is getting his money from Warren Buffett, the same place Hillary and Planned Barrenhood gets theirs.
And then there is Dickie Riordon...
Ronald Reagan was a "political novice" as well, and Teddy Kennedy has "held office" for more than 20 years.
When you begin to criticize Arnold for taking money and advice from his 'close friend and mentor' Warren Buffett, Hillary-supporter, then maybe you will have some credibility to talk about Indians giving Tom money.
No - it is you Tombots who are holding him up as the "pure", incorruptable "warrior" to everybody who will listen. Now the burden's on you to explain why he is suddenly taking money from the same source that Gray Davis gets his.
Then what the hell are you worried about?
Not a thing. Just confronting illogic and hypocrisy when I see it.
Hope he can cater the next pizza party with those Indian megabucks he's getting. Maybe even upgrade to hamburgers and non-generic soda pop. What will the Morongo tribe want for their contribution to McWampum's dwindling coffers though?
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