Posted on 09/25/2003 2:54:50 PM PDT by ambrose
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| from the September 26, 2003 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0926/p01s03-uspo.html
California recall: Does one man hold key?Tom McClintock, top GOP conservative, could tilt race for or against Arnold Schwarzenegger.By Daniel B. Wood | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
BURBANK, CALIF. - Republican candidate Tom McClintock laughs from deep in the belly when asked if he will be the "spoiler" in the great populist revolution/experiment/circus of California's gubernatorial recall election.
"My opponents say I'm the Ross Perot of this campaign, possibly siphoning off enough votes to hand the election to Democrats," he says, settling onto a shady park bench for an interview. "I say, 'Wait a minute.... Ross Perot was an idle millionaire, with no public-policy experience who one day on a whim entered the presidential race.' That sounds like another candidate in this race ... not me," he says, referring to muscleman/millionaire Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Once a mere asterisk in the con- fused calculus of California's 135-candidate recall election, Mr. McClintock has gradually emerged as the strong, third-place vote getter in polls - rising (at 14-to-18 points) while the two leaders - fellow Republican Schwarzenegger (26 points) and Democratic Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante (28 points) - tread water.
As the race enters its final stretch, McClintock's motives and acts are becoming paramount for two reasons. One, splitting the Republican vote, he could cost the party its best chance in a decade of high, statewide office. Two, his candidacy could drag down the success of the recall itself by forcing Republican partisans to reconsider driving Gov. Gray Davis from office because of fear that they could hand the office to a more liberal Democrat, Mr. Bustamante.
Ever since McClintock leaped from 4 percent voter support to double-digits about three weeks ago, the pressure has risen for him to stop offering himself as an alternative to Arnold Schwarzen-egger that could hand the election to Democrats. But as more voters get to know him, his poll numbers have continued to rise, while Schwarzenegger's are flat.
More conservative than Schwarzenegger on social issues - abortion, gay marriage, gun control - he is also far more experienced in fiscal matters, with California's sagging economy the No. 1 issue.
"He is by far the most studied and experienced of all the candidates in fiscal issues and how to implement public policy," says Jack Pitney, political scientist at Claremont McKenna College. "If the election were a college SAT test, McClintock would be the next governor hands down."
Even though he is widely acknowledged as the more knowledgeable, the more articulate, and the more detailed idea-man, 25-year government veteran McClintock does not have the millions of dollars of his chief Republican rival, nor his name recognition. Therein lies one of the chief ironies of the recall: Does he/should he/will he step aside to allow the neophyte challenger - and the Republican party - to gain its best chance of victory?
"He is a man who stands on his word and his principles while claiming time and again that he is in this to the last," says Doug Jeffe, a longtime California political consultant. "If he did get out, it would be totally uncharacteristic of him."
Now, with Schwarzenegger and Bustamante in a near dead heat, one leading Republican, Darrell Issa, the millionaire who bankrolled the signature gathering to oust Davis, has said that if Schwarzenegger or McClintock don't back off, Republicans should vote "no" on the recall. Polls show that if Arnold backed out, McClintock could not win.
But McClintock rejects a widespread analysis that conservative candidates have brought Republican fortunes to their low ebb. He feels the current crisis is the perfect storm for their historic comeback.
"Great parties are built on great principles," says McClintock, referring to the pillars of conservative policy: holding down taxes, cutting waste, standing up for the unborn, and resisting government approval of gay unions. "This is not a time to change our principles."
While such comments win kudos from some for adherence to principle, they strike others as bullheaded.
"McClintock's constant megaphoning of conservative social agendas is presenting a real problem for Republicans who really like him for his fiscal experience," says William Schneider, a pollster and political analyst. "They know Tom has the smarts to get this state out of economic problems and they worry about Arnold's lack of experience and specificity. But they don't think Tom can win and can't resist the fact that Arnold could."
As a child, McClintock campaigned for Barry Goldwater at age 8. In high school he organized classmates into a statewide GOP group. A political-science graduate of UCLA, he became a syndicated columnist railing about former Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown, lauding the character of John Wayne. Hired by a former L.A. police chief-cum-state senator (Ed Davis), McClintock began a 25-year career in Sacramento, marked by opposition to Republican governors George Deukmejian and Pete Wilson over tax hikes and spending waste.
Despite his conservative stances, he was the top GOP vote-getter in the state, running for controller, in the 2002 election.
"I got very little from the state GOP and was outspent by my opponent by 5 to 1," says McClintock. "Despite all that, I lost by less than 1 percent of the vote."
A man who often quotes Reagan and Shakespeare, McClintock is considered a legislative loner with few legislative friends for his near two-decade pursuit of shrinking the state payroll.
In his favorite stump speech he tells why cutting is so important. As a child, he came home from school to find his mother crying over an unexpectedly high tax bill. The moment has lived in his imagination ever since that government takes too much from citizens and delivers too little.
Full HTML version of this story which may include photos, graphics, and related links
www.csmonitor.com | Copyright © 2003 The Christian Science Monitor. All rights reserved.
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Exaclty. Character counts. You may have the right spin on the issues, but if all you do is pontificate about them, you belong in a think tank, not in a leadership position.
"Conservatives were wary of Schwarzenegger even before Tax 'em and Kill 'em Buffett joined the campaign. Schwarzenegger claims to be a fiscal conservative and a liberal on social issues. Historically, that means: "liberal."" - Ann Coulter
"Here me now and believe me later, my friends: all these conservative orgasms over Arnold Schwarzenegger are – like the 'Gorbasms' liberals experienced over Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev – fake. I know that 'R' next to Schwarzenegger's name excites the White House, but his own words prove he's not a conservative. I call this 'The Hollywood Syndrome,' and it happens every time some actor-type says anything even remotely conservative. I'm not trying to cold shower anybody here, but don't look to anyone in Hollywood to validate your political ideas." - Rush Limbaugh
Just what are those views that prove that Arnold is a liberal? Here they are again:
A liberal by any other name is still a liberal. A Republican who does not believe in Republican values is still a RINO. You can paint a liberal in moderate colors, put an (R) after his name, but he's still a liberal.
- Pro Gun Control
"I'm for gun control. I'm a peace-loving guy." - Time magazine cover story Aug 18, 2003. When interviewed on the issues by Sean Hannity on August 27th, Schwarzenegger admitted that he is for gun control. He said he supported both the Brady Bill and the ban on so-called "assault weapons." He said "also I would like to close the loophole of the gun shows." When asked by the Sacramento Bee to detail his positions on gun issues (scroll down), Arnold stated that he supports legislation to ban .50-caliber rifles, force gun buyers to pass a state-defined test in order to purchase a handgun, and require load indicators or magazine safety disconnects on new semiauto handguns.- Pro Abortion
Schwarzenegger appeared on FoxNews' "Bill O'Reilly" program in May 2001 and said he disagreed with President Bush's pro-life position. "I'm for choice," Schwarzenegger said on the program. "The women should have the choice. The women should decide what they want to do with their bodies. I'm all for that." When interviewed on the issues by Sean Hannity on August 27th, Schwarzenegger admitted again that he is "pro-choice".- Pro Gay Agenda
From Cosmopolitan magazine, "I have no sexual standards in my head that say this is good or this is bad. Homosexual-that only means to me that he enjoys sex with a man and I enjoy sex with a woman. It's all legitimate to me." He also supports gay adoption, despite the fact that both conservative Republicans and moderate Democrats voted by a 61 percent margin for Proposition 22, the Defense of Marriage Initiative, which defined marriage as that between a man and a woman. Newsmax, 28 July 2003 When interviewed on the issues by Sean Hannity on August 27th, Schwarzenegger admitted that he is for legalized "domestic partnerships" which would give gay couples the same benefits as marriage.- Pro Big Government Programs
Regarding the passage of Proposition 49, a big government social scheme providing funds for after school programs: "Every California child deserves access to a proven, quality, life-changing afterschool program, and now they will have it. My hope is that, as goes California, so goes the rest of our nation." When interviewed on the issues by Sean Hannity on August 27th, Schwarzenegger said that he believes that social programs should be focused on children. He said, "I think the important thing, again, is that we work on education and really make sure that the kids have the first run at our treasury." In the same interview with Hannity, Schwarzenegger said that he supports big government programs to buy back leases as a measure to protect the environment. He said, "I think that our state government and our federal government should negotiate to buy back the leases [from the oil companies.]"- Pro Environmentalist Agenda
When a reporter asked him in early August to detail his positions on the environment, he said "I will fight for the environment. Nothing to worry about." When interviewed on the issues by Sean Hannity on August 27th, Schwarzenegger said he did not support offshore oil drilling. He said, "No, absolutely not. I think that we should stop the oil drilling and I think that our state government and our federal government should negotiate to buy back the leases [from the oil companies.]"- Pro Clinton/Anti Impeachment
In 1999 Schwarzenegger told George magazine of his bitterness about the frenzy over Monica Lewinsky and Bill Clinton and the waste of time and energy it represented. "That was another thing I will never forgive the Republican party for," he said. "I was ashamed to call myself a Republican during that period."- Soft on Illegal Immigration
In a radio interview with KABC radio host Larry Elder on August 27th, Schwarzenegger said that allowing illegal immigrants to stay in the United States is "the right thing to do." Last year, while campaigning for his Prop. 49 after-school programs initiative, Schwarzenegger...declared in answer to a question from the audience: "I would never stand in the way of any child going to school, whether he or she is here legally or illegally, it does not matter." - Sacramento Bee, 24 August.
Oh, Arnold may not be quite as liberal as the liberal extremists you saw on stage with him last night, but nevertheless he holds a majority of liberal positions and is therefore a liberal.
I know you and others don't like the fact that he is a liberal. But, he is.
He's certainly no conservative. That argument died here log ago after I and other posters started posting his very unconservative views. Now the prevailing argument here is that Arnold is a "moderate" or "centrist" or not as liberal as the other liberals. Well, actually the prevailing argument is "McClintock is unelectable", but if you get an Arniebot to go further than that (which is rare) he'll argume the former points as if they are even laudable.
ONLY YOU and other TomBots think that you keepers of the flame. but you're not. You are not the arbitor of conservatism. Get used to it.
The dirty little fact the "unelectable" propagandist do not want you to know
Liberal republican that controlled party money pulled it to sink conservatives in 2002
Well, well stated... thank you!
When? Where? I never saw it. Even so, it doesn't change the fact that she considers his positions be liberal.
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