Free Republic

As Arnold Schwarzenegger exited the governorship, he left behind a brief video showing himself chomping on a cigar and turning off his Capitol office lights. He also left behind a foul stench – and not from one his stogies. It came from a last-minute flurry of appointments of ex-legislators and other insiders to high-paying state boards and, most of all, from his indefensible decision to lower the prison sentence of former Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez's son for his role in a senseless slaying. The appointments were outrageous, giving out-of-work politicians seats requiring little work but paying over $100,000 a year...

WASHINGTON -- At some point after calming the threatening seas and sprinkling world peace around the globe, President Obama promised us he would find time to bring about a political truce in Washington. On the Seventh Day or thereabouts, the "post-racial" Obama would become the first "post-partisan" president. Of all his audacious promises, this was one of his most pedestrian. After all, his party firmly controlled the White House and both chambers of Congress, and his approval ratings were flying close to the sun. With absolute strength, Obama was perfectly positioned to work with conservatives and Republicans to govern from...

Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, is on TV explaining the (at this point the congregation shall fall to its knees and prostrate itself) “stimulus.” “How,” asks the lady from CBS, “does $335 million in STD prevention stimulate the economy?” “I’ll tell you how,” says Speaker Pelosi. “I’m a big believer in prevention. And we have, er, there is a part of the bill on the House side that is about prevention. It’s about it being less expensive to the states to do these measures.” Makes a lot of sense. If we have more STD prevention, it will be safer...

ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico (Reuters) – Republican nominee John McCain said in an interview aired on Sunday he would bring Democrats into his Cabinet and administration as part of his attempt to change the political atmosphere in Washington. "I don't know how many, but I can tell you, with all due respect to previous administrations, it is not going to be a single, 'Well, we have a Democrat now,"' McCain said on CBS' "Face the Nation." "It's going to be the best people in America, the smartest people in America," he said in an interview taped on Saturday. Both McCain and...

This Governor is in the habit of rolling out Judicial appointments in big batches. Until this week, his last batch of new Judges was announced back in May -- twenty of them. I have made no bones about that fact that it is galling to me that the Governor, who was elected with all of the support of the Republican Party, loves to appoint registrants of the party of Barack Obama to the bench. In that May batch, it was 9 Republicans and 8 Democrats. It is a very sad situation for GOP donors and activists that we have to...

Last week, Figgins and I decided to try a social-political experiment. We wrote an article on "... the passion-evoking, yet vacant, rhetoric of Barack Obama." Then we posted the same content on both a very conservative blog site and a very liberal blog site. Some of the results were pretty dramatic and some were to be expected but, in this process, we saw one aspect in a new light that was quite revealing and educational for us. As you might expect. there was a difference in the volume of responses from the respective sides. Since the theme was obviously more...

SACRAMENTO - Just as it appeared that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's vast 2007 agenda might be sputtering, legislative leaders rushed to his aid, approving a $7.4 billion prison-construction plan. It was a deal made under considerable duress - an attempt to dissuade federal judges from releasing inmates early to ease overcrowding at prisons in such areas as Chino, Norco and San Bernardino. Nonetheless, the bipartisan cooperation could create momentum heading into the next five months as lawmakers and the governor hope to pass a budget, agree to redraw the state's political map and vastly expand health-care coverage. There are certainly challenges...

There's a certain smug self-satisfaction emanating from Sacramento nowadays, one without recent precedent. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Green Giant of U.S. politics, beams from the cover of Newsweek. Democratic leaders, emboldened by polls showing state lawmakers' long-tiny popularity ratings are improving, aggressively push for a relaxation of term limits. The notion that the state is in an era of “post-partisan” productivity reigns over the land. In coming weeks – when the governor releases his revised 2007-08 spending plan in early May and begins the annual budget haggling in earnest – we'll find out if we really are in a new...

Arnold Schwarzenegger can't run for president, but he has injected himself into the 2008 presidential race. The Republican governor has taken to national airwaves to preach the gospel of "post-partisanship" around the country. But the events of the last week suggest that the governor could also be a convenient political foil for conservatives seeking votes in closed Republican primaries. Tongues wagged after the governor's appearance on the Today show Tuesday, when Schwarzenegger was asked about criticism from Rush Limbaugh, who harshly questioned Schwarzenegger's conservatism. "Rush Limbaugh is irrelevant. I am not his servant," the governor said. The next day, Schwarzenegger...

In the script Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger recited this week during his trip to Washington, D.C., California is a nirvana where political parties have put aside their differences for the good of the people. "We reformed prescription drug costs, passed the world's most comprehensive plan to reduce greenhouse gases and began rebuilding the state's infrastructure," the Republican governor told a rapt audience of jaded political reporters at the National Press Club while he was in town for the National Governors Association Conference. "We did this working together." By following California's "post-partisan" model, Schwarzenegger said, President Bush and Congress could stop bickering...

California Republicans have gotten used to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's relentless lectures about what they need to do to become a winning party. Now the governor has taken his shtick on the road, and has begun to tell Republicans nationwide about the keys to success. Give this governor – who campaigned for the recall on Republican themes but has since abandoned them in favor of Democratic ones – credit for gumption. During an interview Sunday on CBS' "Face the Nation," the governor said, "The ultimate goal should always be what is best for the state, or what is best for the...

Calling himself a proud Republican, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger defended his policies Friday in his first remarks to the Republican faithful since declaring his independence last month as a "post-partisan." Addressing the state Republican convention in Sacramento, Schwarzenegger gently broached the issue of his party allegiance. At last month's inauguration, he said that he's not beholden to any ideology and will freely choose policies from the left and the right. "I sometimes get asked about my Republican values," he said. "And I always say, without hesitation, I am a proud Republican." Given his eclectic positions, the governor's relationship with his party...

SACRAMENTO Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger faces members of his political party at the state Republican convention on Friday for the first time since he declared himself a "post-partisan" who does not need them. And they are not a happy bunch. The conservatives who dominate the convention are pushing a resolution against the governor's health care proposal. They accuse Schwarzenegger of violating an election-year pledge not to raise taxes by proposing "fees" to fund it. GOP activists also are nursing an assortment of grievances from the recent election. The party is $4.6 million in debt, after spending millions on a get-out-the-vote operation...

SACRAMENTO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's health care plan was molded by a team of staffers as politically varied as California itself - a fact that could accelerate the ambitious proposal's journey from idea to reality. While Schwarzenegger faces plenty of opponents a month after unveiling the plan, their tone has been more conciliatory than confrontational. This, analysts say, is no accident. By stuffing his health advisory team with staffers who represent the often conflicting interests of employers, medical associations, insurers, unions and patient-advocacy groups, the governor has been able to pre-empt a lot of the criticism that could have doomed...