Free Republic

Once, California was known as the "Golden State." No more. It's struggling with a fiscal crisis of epic proportions. And voters are so disgusted with the ineptitude and waste of a state legislature dominated by liberal Democrats that they are poised to vote down a $16 billion tax increase and a slew of propositions allegedly intended to beat back fiscal Armageddon. snip Similarly, if one is an illegal alien or in need of public aid, California works well, offering a panoply of health and other welfare services with few questions asked. Just last week, in fact, Democrats in the state...

More Davis than Reagan /Tom McClintock’s Blind (Personal) Ambition [Carol Platt Liebau] 9/22/03 Yesterday, ABC’s Sunday morning news program, This Week, focused on the upcoming release of Reagan: A Life in Letters, a collection of President Reagan’s writings over the years to family, friends, adversaries and ordinary Americans. The program was a tribute to one of the finest, most principled Americans of all time. It was followed by a local news update prominently featuring the recall. The juxtaposition of the two broadcasts suggests a question: What would Ronald Reagan think of the recall, and Republicans’ roles in it? Of course,...

Of course, everyone knew that Arnold Schwarzenegger was no Ronald Reagan. But for a while, if one donned the political equivalent of “beer goggles” and squinted hard, Schwarzenegger’s pitch about lower taxes, smaller government, and reform seemed pretty darned attractive, especially in California. But everything changed when Arnold’s “reform agenda” was unceremoniously defeated in last November’s special election. Now, there is a “new” Arnold Schwarzenegger, brought to heel by his Democratic adversaries, and he was on full display last night during California’s State of the State Address. In the wake of the special election, Arnold pledged more “bipartisan cooperation.” Obviously,...

A Marriage of Convenience Conservatives should accept Schwarzenegger to help rejuvenate state GOP [Carol Platt Liebau] 8/25/03 [Editor's note: This editorial was also published yesterday in the Orange County Register Sunday Commentary section.] John Kenneth Galbraith once observed that politics consists of choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable. Nothing could better summarize the reaction of many of California’s conservatives to the prospect of a liberal Republican like Arnold Schwarzenegger winning the recall election. From a conservative’s perspective, the good news about Arnold’s candidacy is that it puts the last nail in the coffin of the Gray Davis governorship. The...

It's been a week since Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger named Democratic operative, abortion rights activist and former Gray Davis aide Susan Kennedy as his new chief of staff, and Republican fury is unabated. Republican leaders in the state Senate and Assembly have criticized the choice; California Republican Party Chairman Duf Sundheim has scheduled a closed-door meeting with the Governor next week to express his concerns -- most notably, that a Democrat would be privy to confidential Republican strategies next year as the Governor runs for re-election.

In the wake of the voters’ stinging repudiation of all four ballot measures he backed in the costly and contentious Nov. 8 special election, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is working feverishly to regain his political footing. In a recent staff shake-up, the Governor’s chief of staff, Republican Pat Clarey, announced her resignation. But in choosing her successor, Governor Schwarzenegger has made one of the biggest mistakes of his political career. He has selected Susan Kennedy, a former top aide to recalled Governor Gray Davis and former executive director of the California Democratic Party and of the California Abortion Rights Action...

Needed: More Praying, Less Politics The Episcopal Church Is Slowly Driving Out Traditionalists [Carol Platt Liebau] 2/2/04    Increasingly, it’s becoming an anachronism to define oneself as a political conservative who is an Episcopalian. For a church that constantly proclaims the merits of “unity” and “inclusion,” too many clergymen are doing an excellent job of alienating those who disagree with them on the political issues of the day. As a result, their more traditional congregants are increasingly finding that, in a real sense, they are no longer welcome in the Church they love. When I moved from the Midwest to...