Free Republic

I don't think Susan Kennedy is a Communist sympathizer. I don't think she's a spy for Gray Davis or Phil Angelides. I don't know much about her politics, although it sounds like she's somewhere to the left of most Republicans and somewhere to the right of most Democrats. Which is pretty much where her boss is. But after reading Friday's Los Angeles Times' story on the payment Kennedy received from the Schwarzenegger campaign committee, I have an entirely different set of concerns. My worry is less about ideology than it is about ethics. Or at least, the appearance of ethical...

Political life since the Novemeber 2005 defeat of his “Year of Reform” special-election initiatives has been a whirlwind of change for Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has thoroughly revamped his political operation. The Weekly has learned that just before the upheaval began, the governor received an anonymous letter alleging serious financial mismanagement and improprieties in his political operation. The letter triggered an unprecedented round of questioning of the governor’s political consultants by his legal counsel. The “letter was a stupid smear and 1,000 percent bullshit,” said Mike Murphy, who until last month was the man in charge of Schwarzenegger’s political operation....

Schwarzenegger gave Susan Kennedy $25,000 after he received that amount from AT&T. Days later, she voted to OK its merger with SBC. SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger paid thousands of dollars in campaign money to a California Public Utilities commissioner three weeks after receiving contributions in the same amount from a company the commissioner regulated. Susan P. Kennedy, now the governor's chief of staff, received $25,000 from his campaign account 21 days after AT&T donated $25,000 to the fund.

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has supplemented the salaries of at least four of his top government aides with private campaign money, a practice that means a piece of their overall pay has come from donations by corporations and others that do business in the Capitol. Schwarzenegger set up a standing agreement in which three present and former aides received a monthly $5,000 check from his political accounts to moonlight as campaign aides, on top of what they earned in salary as government employees, the governor's office said. The combination boosted their overall annual compensation rates from the $120,000-to-$130,000 range...