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Tom McClintock - The conscience of a conservative?
MensNewsDaily ^ | Sept. 19, 2003 | Bob Chandra

Posted on 09/19/2003 8:56:57 PM PDT by FairOpinion

In recent days, Tom McClintock, the "other Republican" in California's recall race, has accepted a million dollars spent on his behalf by a left-wing special interest group. He has claimed that a Democrat victory in the recall election would be desirable, as it would better his chances in 2006. And he has joined with Democrat Cruz Bustamante in a boycott against fellow Republican, Arnold Schwarzenegger. This is the man we're supposed to believe represents the conscience of conservatism? At the end of the day, Tom McClintock's Faustian Pact with the Left has made one thing clear - it's all about Tom McClintock.

The $1 million to be spent on McClintock's behalf is by Indian gambling interests, a staunch Democratic special interest. I wrote about the possibility of left-wing special interests backing McClintock in order to divide Republicans several weeks back. Now it is a reality. The Sacramento Bee has announced that the Morongo tribe is spending $1 million to boost McClintock's candidacy and it's not because they want him to win. The money spent on McClintock is meant to split the Republican vote so their loyal servant, Democrat Cruz Bustamante, can emerge the winner. With enough left- wing money, McClintock can steal enough votes from Arnold to make that happen. Tom's win-at-any-cost mindset has him collaborating with leftist groups who want nothing more than a divided Right to throw the election to Bustamante. Does McClintock see that the Left is using him? Maybe there's a reason it's called "blind" ambition.

McClintock's partnership with the liberal special interests raises serious questions about his loyalty to the GOP. McClintock has said he puts his personal "principles" before the party. But there's a deeper reason McClintock doesn't care that his spoiler candidacy will doom Republicans in the recall race.

In a conversation with US Congressman Dan Burton, Tom McClintock said the following: he (McClintock) didn't mind it if Democrats win the gubernatorial race because it could improve his own chances in 2006. According to the Los Angeles Times, "Burton, one of the more conservative members of Congress, also said McClintock had seemed to suggest that it would be acceptable for a Democrat to hold the governor's office, because he might create a clamor for a Republican in 2006.". So that's what this is really about. If McClintock can't win, he can at least prevent the Republicans from winning so he has a better shot in 2006. Aren't we glad he's playing for our team?

McClintock is now collaborating with Cruz Bustamante to boycott the California Broadcasters Association's debate on the 24th as a means of showing up Arnold Schwarzenegger. Bustamante led the boycott charge on October 17th with McClintock soon followed his lead. When you see a Republican siding with a Democrat against a fellow Republican, you know something is wrong with the picture. Don't adjust your set- this is Tom McClintock, the self-styled conscience of conservatism.

As if things couldn't get any worse, McClintock is justifying his candidacy on a poll strategically conducted by the left-wing Los Angeles Times, which wants nothing more than to keep him in the race. That Times' poll has been debunked by Field and even invalidated by the Times' own reporting. It added 6% more self-identified conservatives than other polls and naturally gave McClintock an artificial 5% bump. But McClintock is clinging to this cooked poll, another leftist ploy, because it serves his interests.

What kind of a conservative lets left-wing interests drive his candidacy like this? The answer is a candidate who is so blind with ambition that he does not see how the Left is using him to their own ends. Thus far, McClintock has claimed he stands for principle, but it is obvious that his hopeless candidacy is based on personal ambition. It's no longer appropriate to view McClintock as merely a misguided crusader. He is a bigger threat to Republican victory on Election Day than Cruz Bustamante. Up until now, McClintock has responded to arguments for stepping aside with denial, delusion, and arrogance. Given his collaboration with the Left, Republicans must get serious with him. McClintock's "stalking horse" candidacy must come to an end.


TOPICS: Editorial; Extended News; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: California
KEYWORDS: bustamante; california; contribution; indian; mcclintock; recall; schwarzenegger
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To: nopardons
seems mccluckcluck is going chicken on us... too chicken to debate.
161 posted on 09/20/2003 1:48:49 AM PDT by Robert_Paulson2 (robert the rino...)
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To: bootyist-monk
A true conservative has confidence in his own ideas. Winning Republican candidates have the ability to articulate these ideas and persuade majorities. This is the only consistently winning formula the GOP has.

The politics of pandering to leftists is a losing game, because the Democrats will always do that better.

Reagan understood this. The Reagan Democrats stood solidly behind him, but not because he pandered to them - it's because he explained his ideas to them.

The proposed (R)nold Democrat who theoretically could give (R)nold a majority is part of the liberal establishment. These are not people who can be relied on to produce the majorities needed to govern effectively. That is, if (R)nold showed any sign of understanding what it takes to govern effectively, which, by his public behavior and his known circle of advisors, he doesn't.

Conservatives want the government to move in a conservative direction. (R)nold guarantees it will be 7 years before that happens, should he win. Otherwise, conservatives are looking at 3 years until the next chance, and they look to be in excellent position to do so. For a conservative, enduring 3 more years of a financially and constitutionally constrained Democrat - then having a chance to elect a real conservative in 2006 - is better than waiting 7 years before the possibility of positive change.
162 posted on 09/20/2003 1:49:44 AM PDT by thoughtomator (It's time for Arnold supporters to go to a LIBERAL and SOCIALIST website - where they belong!)
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To: bootyist-monk
I'm posting from the city where your candidate comes for cash, and where your next governor will need to come for bond money. Need a loan?
163 posted on 09/20/2003 1:52:21 AM PDT by thoughtomator (It's time for Arnold supporters to go to a LIBERAL and SOCIALIST website - where they belong!)
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To: thoughtomator
Ah... another Right Coaster willing to sacrifice us Californians for the greater good. Not so different than another import from New York, Gray Davis.
164 posted on 09/20/2003 1:52:31 AM PDT by bootyist-monk (Thunder makes all the noise; lightning gets the job done)
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To: Roscoe
are you and I the only ones up tonight?
well that does it... even no pardons and YOU are agreeing not to fight tonight... what a dissappointment...

go arnold... and tom cannot win... is that what I was supposed to say??? Oh yes, now I remember... you are a "statist"... and I am a "rnold bot"... and "tom takes money from indians" and "arnolds dad is from austria... which proves he is a tax raising socialist" or something...

nothing really new to joust about is there? DRAT.

Anything else interesting going on in the world?
Arafat dead yet? If not, then I am going... to sleep.

Have a good night Roscoe... you ole "mcclintockbot..."

:-)





165 posted on 09/20/2003 1:55:28 AM PDT by Robert_Paulson2 (robert the rino...)
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Comment #166 Removed by Moderator

To: Roscoe
I guess none of the Arnold groupies are up to speed yet.


either that or they all went to bed early.
not a big news night....
167 posted on 09/20/2003 1:56:27 AM PDT by Robert_Paulson2 (robert the rino...)
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To: nopardons
You're the one who talked about Eastern Europe.The Hungarian Revolution was CRUSHED in '56 and they NEVER tried another. Most of the other statalites ( excluding Poland, of cousre, and Czechoslovakia ) never even attempted to extricate themselves from neath the heel of USSR's big boot. GOD only knows what you're basing your erronious, spurious statements on, but it most assuredly is NOT historical fact! And, you said that given enough misery, under Communism, the people would overthrow it. Now, just WHO was talking drivel ? Not I, I assure you. :-)

I said communism would collapse under the weight of its own failures. I also said that the comparison between California and the USSR ended at Californians' right to vote out the left. I also said that the people who suffered under Soviet communism never had that choice until the 1990's (after Reagan is what I actually said).

You're the one who talked about Eastern Europe.The Hungarian Revolution was CRUSHED in '56 and they NEVER tried another. Most of the other statalites ( excluding Poland, of cousre, and Czechoslovakia ) never even attempted to extricate themselves from neath the heel of USSR's big boot. GOD only knows what you're basing your erronious, spurious statements on, but it most assuredly is NOT historical fact! And, you said that given enough misery, under Communism, the people would overthrow it. Now, just WHO was talking drivel ? Not I, I assure you. :-)

Except for Poland and Czecholslovakia? Why don't they count? Didn't a broken, failed form of government give rise to a revolutionary force (Solidarity) that, at least in some part, contributed to change? Didn't I say Eastern Europe?

I never suggested that California would be under military rule. I said that liberals would create conditions so abysmal, as they have everywhere they've ever governed, that Californians would finally rebel against it -- as some under communism have, and others could only dream about. Again, I said a few thousand words back that the analogy ended at Californians' right to vote.

Want to stop fraud and corruption?

No. I want to defeat socialism.

Oh yes, and don't sit out elections and do NOT vote for unelectable fringers, or even those in a more than one GOP candidate circus, who can NOT win.

A simple "VOTE FOR ARNOLD" would've worked just as well.

168 posted on 09/20/2003 1:57:09 AM PDT by WhistlingPastTheGraveyard
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To: bootyist-monk
another Right Coaster willing to sacrifice us Californians for the greater good.

You got it. Actually, I look at the Tombots' "consideration" for the well-being of the people of California as an update of the old Vietnam saying "We had to destroy the village in order to save it."

169 posted on 09/20/2003 1:57:28 AM PDT by strela ("Piffle, dear, I don't have morals, just customs." Hilda Burroughs)
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To: thoughtomator
You are deranged.

First, a personal attack.

The voters of California have already killed the state. Now you want to blame that on McClintock ...

Then blaming the victim.

Thank you for confirming in print that you believe that the people of California are "idiots". You've probably given Schwarzenegger another percentage point at least.

170 posted on 09/20/2003 2:00:20 AM PDT by strela ("Piffle, dear, I don't have morals, just customs." Hilda Burroughs)
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To: bootyist-monk
...willing to sacrifice us Californians for the greater good.

You are a socialist! This is exactly the woe-is-me victim mentality that got you into this mess in the first place!

Conservatives don't think that way. Conservatives don't blame the other guy for the mess they got themselves in.

Since you are advocating a liberal and think like a socialist, I don't see that your whining has any more place on this conservative news forum than any other collection of leftist half-truths.

171 posted on 09/20/2003 2:01:47 AM PDT by thoughtomator (It's time for Arnold supporters to go to a LIBERAL and SOCIALIST website - where they belong!)
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To: FairOpinion; Roscoe; strela
Lie #2: In recent days, Tom McClintock, the "other Republican" in California's recall race, has accepted a million dollars spent on his behalf by a left-wing special interest group.

...

The $1 million to be spent on McClintock's behalf is by Indian gambling interests, a staunch Democratic special interest.... The Sacramento Bee has announced that the Morongo tribe is spending $1 million to boost McClintock's candidacy...
___________________________________________________________________

    From the San Francisco Chronicle, p. A19, Friday, 9/19/03...

    No other special-interest group has donated more in the recall campaign than California's Indian tribes. They have donated $3.25 million to help Bustamante's campaign, while pumping another $2 million into indpendent expenditure committees, according to an Associated Press review of campaign finance records.

    The Morongo Band of Mission Indians has spent $29,000 preparing a TV ad supporting McClintock and will begin a TV campaign today that could cost between $1 million and $2 million a week, the Sacramento Bee reported.

    The Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation from the San Diego area also donated $50,000 to an independent expenditure committee, Tax Fighters for Tom McClintock for Governor, and the maximum $21,200 to his own campaign.

Clearly, McClintock has not "accepted" $1 million from any of the tribes. According to the SF Chronicle article cited above, McClintock accepted $21,200, which is the maximum he can accept from this source. The rest of the Indian money has gone to independent expenditure committees, not McClintock or McClintock's campaign.

From the same SF Chronicle article...

    When he announced his candidacy on the "Tonight Show" with Jay Leno, Schwarzenegger said he did not "need to take money from anybody" and vowed to come to Sacramento to rid it of special-interest politics...

    "It was Schwarzenegger who made the promise he wouldn't raise any outside money, and he has accepted millions of dollars from some of the biggest corporate interests in California," McClintock said.

So if somebody spends $1 million of their own money to put out ads promoting McClintock's candidacy, what is he supposed to do? Get a restraining order from a judge to stop them from spending their money to say nice things about him? He can't very well "return" what he never received or "accepted," as the author of this thread's article claims. However, Arnold could certainly return the millions of dollars in special-interest contributions he said he "didn't need."

172 posted on 09/20/2003 2:02:47 AM PDT by Bonaparte
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To: strela
Blaming the victim??? If the "victim" has been banging his head on the wall for a decade and comes to me complaining his head is bleeding, should I blame the wall? Outrageous! What are you going to ask for next, a subsidy to cope with your "victim" status?

More and more liberal all the time... amazing.
173 posted on 09/20/2003 2:04:05 AM PDT by thoughtomator (It's time for Arnold supporters to go to a LIBERAL and SOCIALIST website - where they belong!)
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To: thoughtomator
Blaming the victim???

Yup. Again, Schwarzenegger thanks you - referring to your own voter base as idiots usually causes them to vote for the other guy.

174 posted on 09/20/2003 2:06:23 AM PDT by strela ("Piffle, dear, I don't have morals, just customs." Hilda Burroughs)
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To: strela
Well, that certainly explains why McClintock's support is so solid... how many weeks on end have (R)nold supporters been calling McClintock supporters idiots?
175 posted on 09/20/2003 2:08:28 AM PDT by thoughtomator (It's time for Arnold supporters to go to a LIBERAL and SOCIALIST website - where they belong!)
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To: strela; Roscoe
strela [to Roscoe]: "We're talking about McClintock taking money from guys who donated heavily to Gray Davis."

So not only does Schwarzenegger apparently not know CRP policy toward the tribes, but strela apparently does not know that, in politics, the same corporation will generally contribute to more than one candidate in the same race to hedge its bet. Common sense might have told him this, since that corporation would presumably want to have the ear of whoever winds up winning.

176 posted on 09/20/2003 2:11:17 AM PDT by Bonaparte
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To: Bonaparte
It's obvious we're not going to be able to have a debate on the facts, since the facts all favor McClintock to be the choice of the conservative voter.

What we're dealing with here is the same machine mindset that the Democrats are so good at - keep repeating the same thing over and over until people believe it.

I came to this realization a couple of weeks ago. The task now is to fight off the liberals and the socialists who are trying to shove (R)nold down conservatives' throats.
177 posted on 09/20/2003 2:16:35 AM PDT by thoughtomator (It's time for Arnold supporters to go to a LIBERAL and SOCIALIST website - where they belong!)
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To: thoughtomator
Wow. Getting under you New Yorker's skin is way too easy. Make it a little more of a challenge, would ya? Tear apart your nonsensical "conservatives are of the opinion" theories and you fold like a warm tortilla (that's a piece of Mexican flatbread).

You advocate "shut up and take it" for Californians, which of course, is easy for you, since you won't do one, and don't have to do the other.

If standing up for a better California rather than submitting to Bustamecha (your plan) makes me a socialist in the eyes of an ill-informed New Yorker (who's so-called deep conservative thought is countered by his own statements), then it is a label I'll wear with pride.

Those of us that are in this fight intend to win it. We certainly expected that fools sitting on the sidelines (wearing sweaters, no doubt) would know what's best for California, and you, New Yorker, have not dissappointed.

178 posted on 09/20/2003 2:31:26 AM PDT by bootyist-monk (Thunder makes all the noise; lightning gets the job done)
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To: strela
While it is true that they gave money to Davis, they have also been one of McClintock's largets donors for years. It is amazing how much money they, and other tribes, give to politicians not only in California but across the nation and yet the reservations stand in ruins.
179 posted on 09/20/2003 2:35:19 AM PDT by BookmanTheJanitor
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To: bootyist-monk
Well, good luck borrowing more money to finance your delusions. Cheers
180 posted on 09/20/2003 2:35:22 AM PDT by thoughtomator (It's time for Arnold supporters to go to a LIBERAL and SOCIALIST website - where they belong!)
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