Free Republic

Author Gertrude Stein famously observed that, in Oakland, “there’s no ‘there’ there.” Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s recent mad dash to the left recalls the saying — apropos California’s often mentioned but rarely observed political “center.” Defenders — tellingly, almost all Democrats — of Schwarzenegger’s recent game of “What would be different if Gray Davis were governor?” praise it as a move to the “center.” And the major media, as they do whenever a Republican abandons principle, have lavished congratulations on Arnold for throwing off “strident partisan rhetoric” and working with the Legislature to produce a “productive” legislative session. Admittedly not in...

But is California's governor really a closet Democrat? The question has been raised by journalists and conservative critics, who never tire of taking note of Schwarzenegger's politically assertive wife, his hiring of Democratic aides, his liberal social values, his championing of public works projects and, of late, his compromises with the Legislature's Democratic leadership on a minimum-wage hike, mandatory prescription drug discounts and a measure to fight global warming. To attempt to answer that question is not to end a conversation but to begin it. Schwarzenegger routinely sides with business and asserts quasi-libertarian views on individual freedom. When the governor...

SACRAMENTO — Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Legislature's Democratic majority leaders and analysts Friday said this year's session rose above political gridlock to become one of the most productive in decades. Some Republican lawmakers were not happy about the governor's cooperative, election-year attitude, saying he worked more with Democrats than with members of his own party. Damage to Democratic challenger Phil Angelides will be minimal, a campaign spokesman said, because voters won't care about the legislative session come Election Day on Nov. 7. Schwarzenegger declared it "an incredibly productive legislative session, one of the most productive in decades." The governor...

SACRAMENTO - If 2005 was the year that California government was too consumed by partisan warfare and futile ballot initiatives to accomplish much of anything, 2006 may be remembered as a period of exceptional productivity in Sacramento. The Legislature adjourned for the year early Friday, leaving in its wake a string of high-profile accomplishments on global warming, prescription drug costs and the minimum wage. Earlier in the year, lawmakers passed a timely budget for the first time in years and placed a $37-billion public works package on the November ballot. The dramatic election-year turnabout was made possible when Gov. Arnold...

SACRAMENTO Sealing a groundbreaking deal to combat global warming, California lawmakers on Thursday sent Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger a bill that would make the state the first in the nation to force its major industries to cut their carbon emissions. The legislation requires California businesses to begin reporting their emissions of greenhouse gases so the state can slash their output an estimated 25 percent by 2020. Schwarzenegger has said he would sign the bill, which incorporates guidelines he outlined last year in an executive order. Lawmakers approved the bill by a 47-31 vote, a day after it passed the Senate. "We...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan to cap California's greenhouse gas emissions is just the latest in a string of recent deals with the Democrats that could help him win back the moderate voters so vital to his re-election bid this fall. The deal announced Wednesday between the Republican governor and leaders of the Democratic-controlled Legislature would make California the first state to limit carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases from factories and other industrial sites. Earlier in the week, the two sides agreed to raise the state's minimum wage and create a prescription drug discount program. Democrats have...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - California would become the first state to impose a limit on all greenhouse gas emissions, including those from industrial plants, under a landmark deal reached Wednesday by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative Democrats. The agreement marks a clear break with the Bush administration and puts California on a path to reducing its emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases by an estimated 25 percent by 2020. The bill still needs lawmakers' approval, but that appears likely, given that Democrats control the Legislature. The deal gives Schwarzenegger a key environmental victory as he seeks re-election this fall....

Some day a great biography will be written about Arnold Schwarzenegger, a born-again American who proved able to remake himself in whatever ways proved necessary to succeed. Properly explored, however, there may be pathos in Mr. Schwarzenegger's story, as well as triumph. Because it begins to appear the story of the current governor of California -- or should that be "Kauli-fornia"? -- helps crystallize the story of the one place in the world where that success story was possible: America. Most of the story is well-known. With little else to work with, Mr. Schwarzenegger made his own body the tool...

The California Legislature has been on a one month hiatus after six months of session. I have often compared the legislative process to a roller coaster ride, and following that analogy, the first six months of session are sort of like the part of the roller coaster where the ride takes the riders higher and higher with the chain underneath. Everyone on the ride knows that the higher the ride goes, the wilder the ride will be when the car finally goes into free fall. This year the roller coaster ride had a couple of interesting dips, the largest being...

Arnold Schwarzenegger probably has stunk up his Sacramento smoking tent with more than a few celebratory cigars of late. Nine months ago, after a special election wipeout with few parallels in U.S. history, the governor looked like a political shooting star whose time had quickly come and gone. Nowadays, basking in the on-time passage of a generally lauded state budget and facing a charisma-challenged Democratic opponent with big weaknesses on both taxes and the environment, Schwarzenegger appears on a clear path to re-election. Hold your cheers. The conventional wisdom – sure, he punted on addressing that pesky structural deficit for...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has put himself in deep political trouble by promising more than he could deliver, is at it again. Schwarzenegger last week issued an ironclad pledge not to raise taxes to balance the budget if he is reelected to a second term. "I totally rule it out," the governor told The Sacramento Bee's editorial board. "I will not raise taxes." Schwarzenegger's pledge might help him in his race against Democrat Phil Angelides, who has proposed increasing taxes on the wealthy and on business to generate at least $5 billion for the state. The governor hopes to make...

Just six months ago it would have been almost inconceivable that the state's powerful prison-guards lobby would back Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's bid for re-election. The union had just finished spending $2.9 million to torpedo the governor's special-election agenda, lampooned Schwarzenegger's attempts at prison reform and was openly hostile to the state's top prison official, a Schwarzenegger appointee. "It was awful," says Ray McNally, the long-time political adviser of the California Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA). But the union's icy relations with the Republican governor have slowly thawed. That's no accident. This year, Schwarzenegger has launched an ambitious election-year outreach effort....

With California’s state budget hung up, at least for the moment, on the politics of illegal immigration and children’s health care, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is right in the middle between legislative Democrats and Republicans. It’s consistent with his evolution from supporter of the anti-illegal immigrant Proposition 187 in 1994 to his dramatic declaration in 2002 that he opposed any Prop 187-like measure. Schwarzenegger wants to add money for existing children’s health care programs at the county level, which service children who are here illegally. But he doesn’t want to start up a new program, which would begin the process of...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger distanced himself from his fellow Republicans on Thursday on one of the main issues holding up the state budget: whether the state should provide health care for all children, including those who are undocumented immigrants. Republicans in the Legislature say they won't vote for a spending plan if it includes about $22 million the governor is proposing for county health insurance programs that cover all children, including those who are undocumented. Republicans also oppose another $1.8 million Democrats added as a first step toward allowing all children to qualify for state health care programs that serve low-...

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger spoke yesterday at the annual conference of the Western Governors Association in Sedona, Arizona, where he pushed three resolutions on alternative energy and global warming. “We should fundamentally change our approach to energy,” he declared. “We've all seen the pictures of melting glaciers. We know the dangers of climate change. How the oceans are getting warmer, how they're rising. How agriculture can be threatened.” "We are long past the time when we can just talk about this problem," said the former action superstar, who is being challenged for re-election by Democrat Phil Angelides. "We must take action."...

Updated at 3:42 p.m. Thursday] ANTIOCH -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Thursday there is a possibility that he might endorse Democratic candidates in other statewide political races. "If I like someone, absolutely," the Republican governor said in response to a reporter's question inside the Veterans of Foreign Wars hall at a campaign even in the Delta town near the banks of the San Joaquin River. "Let's see. But right now, I'm just thinking about moving the state forward." Schwarzenegger's campaign manager, Steve Schmidt, said in an interview later, however, that the governor has endorsed all of the down-ticket Republican candidates...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is attempting a political comeback as he faces reelection this year, courting Democrats and independent voters by distancing himself from President Bush and pushing an expensive bond proposal to rebuild California's levees, schools and highways. Schwarzenegger, one of the nation's most prominent Republicans, has criticized Bush's plan to dispatch the National Guard to the Mexican border. He has appointed Democrats to key state jobs. In recent weeks, he helped engineer a bipartisan compromise to get the $37 billion bond proposal on the November ballot, traveling the state with Democratic legislative leaders to promote it. And he has...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Democratic leaders and union officials on Monday condemned a plan by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's political team to create a "phenomenon of anger" against public employee unions leading up to an expected special election. Some critics said the disclosure of the strategy is shocking but consistent with the increasingly bitter fight over Schwarzenegger's ballot proposals. "The idea of creating anger is so offensive," said Barbara Kerr, president of the California Teachers Association. "It's the worst kind of politics. I believe the people of California are smarter than the governor is giving them credit for and they will see...

April 23, 2006 — - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, R-Calif., celebrated Earth Day by issuing a global warming warning, extolling the virtues of fuel-efficient vehicles and blasting "outrageous" oil prices at the pumps in an exclusive interview on "This Week with George Stephanopoulos." "The science is in," the actor-turned-politician claimed. "The facts are there that we have created, man has, a self-inflicted wound that man has created through global warming." As to the government's role in combating global warming, Schwarzenegger continued, "I think that the federal government is doing things. But I think that they are not aggressive enough. And I...

It’s a Friday evening in the studios of KABC radio, and callers are lighting up the board on The Al Rantel Show. The immigration debate that has dominated state and national news for the past few weeks has been great stuff for the conservative Republican host and his listeners, and it’s an issue on which he’d like to hold Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s feet to the fire. The governor, he says during a commercial break, doesn’t want to look anti-immigrant. But Rantel’s show this night is challenging the notion that those who oppose amnesty for illegal immigrants or want tightened borders...