Meatheadgate (Rob Reiner's sagging political fortunes)

The Weekly Standard ^ | June 5, 2006 | Bill Whalen

[Brilliant]

I think Meathead ought to be personally liable if his party bankrupts the state of California.

[CounterCounterCulture]

[randog]

...First Five has spent some $230 million on advertising and public relations, with Reiner's friends and Democratic cronies being the chief beneficiaries. That would include the Washington, D.C.-based GMMB agency, which also happens to be Reiner's political media consulting firm...

Imagine that.

[kjo]

BOYCOTT HOLLYWOOD MOVIES!

Don't you get it? When we pay to see their terrible anti-American junk we are underwriting their treason.

[proudofthesouth]

I've been boycotting them for the last 20 years.

[Thebaddog]

I'm betting that there are financial irregularities up the wazzoo in this all in the family circle jerk. His best friend has to be Maria at this point.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Hollywood gets most of their revenues from the international market now. Boycotting them is fine but doesn't solve the real issues facing California.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Golden State BUMP

[ChadGore]

Love the graphic, BUMP

[GreenHornet]

Rob Reiner's sagging political fortunes

Using the name "Rob Reiner" and the word "sagging" in the same sentence is redundant.

[calcowgirl]

"He was either remarkably inattentive or he was well aware of what was going on. He controlled the commission, so it is hard to believe the former. He thought it was okay to use taxpayer funds to stimulate demand for more government spending. It's not."

Do you know the status of the multiple investigations that got launched?

[OldPossum]

This is strictly an aside but this caught my attention:

Steve Westly, a former eBay executive and Democratic candidate for governor, has spent $34.5 million of his own fortune in hopes of earning the right to face Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger this fall.

$34.5 million! I know that in the USA one can do what he chooses with his money but I think that someone who puts out that kind of money for a political office ought to have his head examined.

[SierraWasp]

Are you truly "Green?" Is it easy???

[Paleo Conservative]

Nor is Reiner's initiative a new approach to California policymaking. In the Golden State, the predictable liberal bromide is higher taxes for expanded government, one example being Proposition 63, approved in November 2004, which raised taxes on millionaires to expand state mental-health programs.

What a crazy idea.

[Arizona Carolyn]

Oh my lord Antonio Villaraigosa and Gavin Newsom. California is doomed.

[iowamark]

$34.5 million! I know that in the USA one can do what he chooses with his money but I think that someone who puts out that kind of money for a political office ought to have his head examined.

Not crazy at all. Think of the billions that politicians can steer to themselves and their friends.

What is crazy is that the public allows this plutocracy to continue.

Look at the Senate Democrat Caucus. It's the Billionaires Club: Rockefeller, Kennedy, Kerry, Feinstein, Dayton, Kohl, Boxer, Clinton, Cantwell, Landrieu, Lautenberg.

[mc6809e]

What is crazy is that the public allows this plutocracy to continue.

Look at the Senate Democrat Caucus. It's the Billionaires Club: Rockefeller, Kennedy, Kerry, Feinstein, Dayton, Kohl, Boxer, Clinton, Cantwell, Landrieu, Lautenberg.

Yeah. You notice though, when they talk about taxing the rich, they really mean high-income earners (the "pre-rich"). Hey, they already have their wealth. An income tax isn't going to hurt them much. And with trusts and shelters people like Teresa Heinz Kerry, for example, paid an effective tax of just 11.5% on an income of $5.1 million. She's worth over $500 million.

If the Republicans really wanted to stick it to the money base of the Democrats, they'd call Democrats' "tax the rich" bluff and start taxing based on total assets.

[L.N. Smithee]

The younger Reiner's mistake in allowing this "all in the family" approach to rewarding friends with taxpayer funds was compounded by his commission's use of those funds to advance the chairman's political agenda. While Reiner and his political team gathered signatures for Prop. 82 under the banner of "Preschool for All," First Five launched an advertising campaign to whet the public's appetite for preschool. That campaign's slogan was, oddly enough, "Preschool for All."

I've been pointing that out for years, and figured that everyone knew, but didn't do anything about it because they were all for it. I guess when Reiner was a potential obstacle to Angelides, who has bided his time as a CA Demo powerbroker for over a decade until he was ready to run for Governor, Reiner's use of public money to promote his pet project suddenly became important.

[OldPossum]

Re your post 17. What you say makes sense and no doubt occurs all the time.

What I was trying to say was that some of these people spend this money because they want to be "important" and have a title such as governor or senator. Egotism, pure and simple.