Posted on 06/08/2006 5:22:12 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
Arnold's ability to compartmentalize the way he parses words is absolutely Clintonian. It's the developed skill to deliberately phrase words in such a manner that one can believe what one is saying while knowing that the listener will walk away with a false impression.
I wonder what his position is going to be TOMORROW.
Ain't that the truth???!!!
(snip)
"Like most Californians, he thinks Dianne Feinstein is a great senator," Schmidt said of the governor.
The governor himself, after conservative bloggers began repeating his comments on their Web sites, later backtracked, suggesting to reporters at a stop on his campaign tour down Highway 99 between Modesto and Fresno that it is highly unlikely he would back any candidates from the rival party.
"No, I have no intentions, I was saying, that I'm endorsing Democrats," Schwarzenegger said. "Someone just said, 'Would you endorse a Democrat?' I said … I'd have to know who it is."
Schwarzenegger added that no Democrats have sought his endorsement, "so it's not even an issue. And you know, I think if someone comes along, I would then look at it, but that's not my intentions, (that) I am going out now and endorsing Democrats."
Asked if he would endorse Richard Mountjoy, the Republican former lawmaker who will face Feinstein in the November general election, Schwarzenegger said, "I have not been asked to do that and I have no intention to go there. So I mean, like I said, as those things come up, we will deal with it, and as soon as we do, I will let you know."
Mountjoy took the possibility that Schwarzenegger would endorse his opponent in stride.
"It wouldn't surprise me if he did," Mountjoy said, noting that Schwarzenegger's chief of staff, Susan Kennedy, once worked for Feinstein. "At this stage in the game, Republicans generally support Republicans. I haven't talked to him about it."
Mountjoy said he hasn't asked for Schwarzenegger's endorsement but said he might just give him a call now.
"He'd have to tell me what his problem is with me," Mountjoy said. "I pretty much stick to the Republican platform, so he might be going against the Republican platform."
GOP consultant Wayne Johnson said a Feinstein endorsement "would be a mistake."
"We have a two-party system with two broad philosophies about government, and you need to be on one side or another," he said.
Johnson characterized the governor's statement as a trial balloon.
"He's testing the water, and I think he'll find it's going to be chilly," he said.
(snip)
A simple YES would have sufficed. Clintonian, indeed.
Mountjoy said he hasn't asked for Schwarzenegger's endorsement but said he might just give him a call now.
LOL. I think every Republican candidate should send a 'request for endorsement' form with only two choices from which to choose: Yes or No.
a trial balloon
BLAM!
It appears that the Governor, in an unguarded moment, while out on the campaign trail talking to a reporter said that he might endorse a Democrat for statewide office. Then later in the day, he endorsed the entire Republican ticket. In the hours in between, there were a lot of explanations from his handlers and backtracking from the Arnold himself. This led to quite a bit of consternation amongst conservatives in the blogosphere and elsewhere.
Not a great start for the idea of the Governor talking to folks out on the campaign trail and mixing it up without a script in hand. Here is take one of the scene and what ended up after his producers left a bit on the cutting room floor.
“Schwarzenegger won't rule out endorsing a Democrat” read the headline in the Sacramento Bee. The Governator was quoted as saying, in answer to a question of whether he might endorse a Democrat for statewide office: “If I like someone, absolutely. Let's see. But right now, I'm just thinking about moving the state forward."
Next, the Governor’s campaign manager, Steve Schmidt, said that Arnold had endorsed the entire down ticket set of candidates for statewide office. It is also said that he likes Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein.
Then the Governor is quoted as explaining his remarks, saying “I’d have to know who it is.” Doesn’t he know who is running? When questions started flying about whether he was endorsing Feinstein, it was stated that he had not been contacted by Richard Mountjoy, the Republican who is running against her.
You can read all of this in the Bee’s article.
Mountjoy and presumably other Republicans across the state are now beating a path to the Governor’s bus or office.
So, it came as hot news to the FlashReport, written by Jon Fleischman, a former executive director of the state Republican party that Arnold has endorsed the Republican ticket. In a post, The Endorsinator, he says:
FYI - I just got a release from the State GOP Victory Program announcing the Governor's endorsement of the entire GOP ticket. Even the awkward Claude Parrish.More comments, consternation, and angst will echo in the Republican blogosphere. This is all part of the problems that the Governor is encountering as he deals with the stark campaign realities of being a Republican in a Democratic state. Some are suggesting that this saga be named “Governator III.”
Well, well, well, slamming them already I see.
The principal thing that is "awkward" about Claude Parish is that he has the goods on Arnold's $250,000,000 malfeasance with New York bond houses.
LOL Ha Ha Ha!!! Hoot!!! Howling with laughter!!! Hoot!!! Falling down laughin, etc., yada, yada, yada... Phhhhhhht!!!
Democrat journalist Jill Stewart slammed Parrish too, extolling the virtues of the "rational" "centrist" Keith Richman and chalking it up to "freaky" voters who "actually prefer emotional, partisan, gridlock".
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/06/09/EDGDOILMAL1.DTL&type=politics
The truly strange voters who participated on Tuesday chose the right guy, nevertheless. Because California is so heavily Democratic, come November the Democrat always has the best chance of winning a statewide job like controller. The aggressive trial lawyer Joe Dunn would have been a disastrous victory. Now, Chiang will face former Republican legislator Tony Strickland; either one will be an OK controller.
On the other hand, thanks to freaky voters, a really smart Republican centrist, Assemblyman Keith Richman, lost very big in his bid to represent the GOP against Bill Lockyer for treasurer. Oddball GOP voters chose unknown Claude Parrish, who has no hope of beating household name Lockyer. The moderate Richman stood a chance.
But in primaries, the more rational candidates such as Richman do poorly because voters drawn to the polls tend to be partisans who actually prefer emotional, partisan, gridlock-oriented candidates. That's why we've been gradually strapped with an extremist Legislature -- so extreme that this week the Associated Press described anti-business liberal Jerome Horton, an outgoing assemblyman, as a "moderate to conservative Democrat."
Not in any normal world.
I guess that means I'm freaky.
Guess we can all relax then...
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