A Culture Of Corruption
the california edition
By streiff Posted in Archived — Comments (37) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
I'm not a Schwarzenegger fan. Other than it is a good promo having a nominal R in Sacramento I really don't much care whether he sinks or swims. Let's face it. Schwarzenegger makes Linc Chafee look like a Tom DeLay.
While Schwarzenegger looked to be on track to win reelection it looks like he may have picked up some unexpected help from his opponent.
The campaign of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's Democratic rival acknowledged Tuesday that it downloaded - and leaked to the media - a recording of a private meeting in which the governor described a Hispanic legislator as having a "very hot" personality.
But Cathy Calfo, campaign manager for Democrat Phil Angelides, said the campaign had done nothing wrong because the file was available publicly on the governor's Web site.
...
Schwarzenegger's legal affairs secretary, Andrea Lynn Hoch, said the sound file was stored in a password-protected area. She said she forwarded the Internet Protocol address used to download the file to the California Highway Patrol, which is investigating.
At a minimum the Angelides campaign will spend the next few weeks talking about something other than their agenda.
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And if memory serves those documents were far more offensive and did not reside behind any password authentication. They were simply on the Dems' side of the Senate LAN server, Senate documents (aka public) on a Senate server.
Compare Arnold to that that chump Chafee. Arnold is more of a Republican than Giuliani, Hagel, or McCain, just to name a few, and those are just the ones trying to be President.
Arnold is great. Do you think if he was President that he would be laying down for all this crap the Libs are flinging at Bush?
Arnold would personally crush the skull of every liberal crybaby in Washington that dared call our troops "Nazis" or "Occupiers" or whatever. He is 100 times better than Chafee, or Collins or Snowe for that matter.
He will be a great Senator one day too. Hopefully he ousts that Commie Boxer next time around.
Let's take a look at the case against the Governor. He...
* Refers to conservatives and the religious right as 'crazies'
* Says he'd raise taxes if polls supported it
* Refers to the impeachment of President who lied under oath, and conspired to bribe witnesses against him, as an 'embarassment'
* Raised the minimum wage
* Pushed massive new state borrowing two years ago as a one-shot deal to get our fiscal house in order, but now is pushing for more massive new borrowing this year.
* Promised voters he'd order investigations into charges against him for sexual assault, but then once in office turned Clinton and dismissed his promise as 'old news'
* Has never had to face a conservative or religious rightist in a seriously contested primary
* Is pro-abortion
Need I go on? He's a RINO and a liar.
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If you're seeing shades of gray, it's because you're not looking close enough to see the black and white dots.
he's about as good as it gets. That's just the way it is in the land of fruits and nuts. Want some more Gray Davis?
In Vino Veritas
I'd rather the head of our party in this state be an honest man and a mainstream Republican, instead of a dishonest man who's a RINO.
Our party needs all the help it can get, and the last thing we need is the kind of disunity that a guy like the Governor brings us.
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If you're seeing shades of gray, it's because you're not looking close enough to see the black and white dots.
...that choice. What they're offering is either the quote-unquote RiNO or the Democrat.
The Fuzzy Puppy of the VRWC.
Angelides doesn't get to use that old Democratic staple here, abortion, to pummel the Governor with, so he actually have to find a way to win on his own merits.
So I'll just have to cross my fingers the next four years and hope that the Republicans in the Assembly and the Senate can hold on, not letting Schwarzenegger undermine them too much.
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If you're seeing shades of gray, it's because you're not looking close enough to see the black and white dots.
Bro, you are just wrong about Arnold. I mean, I could see you calling the Clintons liars. I could see you calling many politicians liars. But Arnold?
Why would he lie?
He makes $30 Million per flick.
Why would he need to lie about anything?
He is more powerful as an actor than as a politician.
He is obviously serving because he honestly wants to do something positive.
At least he isn't out there whining about how we are being too mean to the terrorists at GITMO and how we should surrender and capitulate to the terrorists in Iraq like Chuck Hagel is NEARLY EVERY DAY.
I have donated my time, money, and best efforts to conservative candidates over the years, including Bush-Cheney in Florida in 2000. I am pro-life, pro-gun, pro-marriage, pro-family, pro-Jesus, and I unequivacly support and have served in both Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. Basically, you do not find a more Conservative Republican than me, and I support Arnold 100%.
He came here with nothing but ambition and made something of himself and is an inspiration to atheltes all over the world. Because of that, not only is he a great American; he represents all that is right and good about America and the American dream and I wish that a lot of our own NATURAL-BORN citizens were even HALF as patriotic, productive, and hard-working as he is.
God Bless him as he tries his best to right the ills of that great state that has been overrun with Godless Hedonists who seek to drive away business and God-Fearing people with their Communistic views.
And, yes, I know if you follow that back far enough, you'll find Jerry Rubin, Abbie Hoffman, or somebody like that.
He's an R; he hires Rs, he gives government contracts to Rs, he lends the authority of the government to Rs. You take what you can get! There is abso-effen-lutely NO-way a hard conservative could be elected to anything statewide in Mexifornia. The Gubernator is as good as it gets there unless the Ds help us with a ritual suicide.
In Vino Veritas
Actually he hires Ds.
Meanwhile I'll keep voting for the Lungrens and the McClintocks against the Riordans and the Schwarzeneggers, and shake my head at the luck this guy has had, getting to ride Davis' blackout meltdown to two terms as this state's chief executive.
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If you're seeing shades of gray, it's because you're not looking close enough to see the black and white dots.
for hiring Ds; they do know how to run a government. You may not like what they do, but they do know how to make a government run. He had a bunch of Rs and left-over Wilson people and they led him down the almost suicidal path of the iniatiatives. If I wanted to live a little longer politically after something like that, I might look for some different advice too.
In Vino Veritas
Its just that the unions spent a couple hundred million, IIRC, to defeat them.
I'd suggest more initiatives until the unions are bled white.
any fool would know they'd do that, so why give them the opportunity. Frontal assaults don't work any better in politics than they did in WWI. I know some of the people in the CA government, and some who WERE in the CA gov't. It was a stupid move with a predictable result; only ideologues fight battles that are at best a forlorn hope.
In Vino Veritas
there are other and much better ways to do that; a little constitutional challenge to their dues structure and accounting would cost them more and have a better likelihood of success.
In Vino Veritas
I suspect that the CA courts and the Ninth Circus will have some input on that constitutional challenge. Nor can I see the Kennedy SC being much help.
to get elected in California?
I admit I am not anywhere near up close and personal with regard to California politics, but I am under the impression that RINO's are the only guys who have a chance. Even Reagan wasn't quite the Reagan who ran for president, when he was governor of California.
Although, I think Arnold tends to defer a bit too much to the legislature, but then the legislature in California seems to be where a conservative GOP presence in larger numbers is needed. And at least Arnold has found the veto pen on a few occassions, something I wish Bush could do a little more often.
Gray Davis honest??? Give me a break, Neil. If you're going to argue to extremes at least use examples that don't make your premise ridiculous on its face.
I said I want the head of OUR PARTY to be honest. Last I checked, if Gray Davis were still governor, that'd have no bearing on who's at the Republican Party bully pulpit.
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If you're seeing shades of gray, it's because you're not looking close enough to see the black and white dots.
if you want to support the absolutely ridiculous notion that a corrupt dem is better than a Republican who you call a liar, that's fine with me.
It doesn't make your arguement less ludicrous or more worthy of a second reading.
If you're going to argue against me without reading what I say, I'll just stand back and let you have at it, since I'd just get in the way.
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If you're seeing shades of gray, it's because you're not looking close enough to see the black and white dots.
who cut taxes and spending. That's about as Republican as you get in my book on the economic front. Last I checked, Arnold wasn't a big social conservative but I'll give you the he would put up with getting sand kicked in his face everyday and do nothing.
You'd think the White House and the rest of the Beltway GOP would learn unanswered insult leads to injury.
It pains me to write this, as I am not much of an Arnold fan (at least politically), but surely you can't really think who holds the governorship of the most populus state in the Union is unimportant. Either that or you are simply unaware of the political situation in our state.
Our legislature is dominated by liberal Democrats. However, they don't have veto-proof majorities. The threat (and use) of the veto is the only thing that stops the insane bills the legislature passes. Angelides is a hard-core liberal who is unlikely to veto much of anything that comes out of that place.
Arnold is fairly conservative on economic issues and at least vetoes the worst of the Dems' social policies. While Arnold may not be great, Angelides would be a disaster.
Think of Arnold as Feinstein's successor in the Senate. On issues like the War on Terror, he'd be huge. And he'd vote the right way too.
Feinstein's not going anywhere. She loves being in the Senate.
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If you're seeing shades of gray, it's because you're not looking close enough to see the black and white dots.
The pro-abortion majority here loves Sen. Feinstein, and will send her back as long as she asks to return.
This state's too big for the Daily Kos crowd to come in and agitate over the war.
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If you're seeing shades of gray, it's because you're not looking close enough to see the black and white dots.
Remember that Reagan guy?
Neil, I like the purity of your adherance to principle; I'm just a much more cynical guy. I'll put them in the W column however I can and then work with what I got. It is really, really hard to like the kind of person who can actually get elected to office in today's world; you take the best ones you can get and try to get them to do the right thing some of the time.
In Vino Veritas
I wouldn't MIND him in the Senate too much, because at least there he wouldn't be a leader. I don't think he'd be a McCain and get too outspoken against us on select issues, if only because he can't run for President.
As Governor, though, he's in a position to do damage to our state's party.
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If you're seeing shades of gray, it's because you're not looking close enough to see the black and white dots.
Well it's true that as long as we have "real" Republicans like Bill Simon leading California Republicans to statewide shutouts against even the weakest Democratic candidates, then we can blame everything that goes wrong on the Democrats. Like if a Republican ever wins any statewide office, then voters might get mad at him for doing something they don't like, and that could damage our party.
Before Schwarzenegger messed up the scheme by actually beating a Democrat in a statewide election, we had deviously managed to manipulate things so no Republicans hold any California executive position, and we could just sit back watching California go to hell while smugly saying "I didn't vote for that Democrat."
California is not going to politically become Oklahoma in our lifetimes, and I don't buy the idea that half a loaf (or quarter loaf...) is worse than none. A moderate is usually as far right as we're going to win an election with today's California electorate.
Occasionally there's an exceptional conservative who can push the Californa envelope, and I'd be willing to take that gamble on McClintock. But most of the characters that ideologically pure California Republicans like to nominate, like Simon & Lungren, are hopeless doofuses who guarantee Democratic victories. (Democratic Gov. Davis agreed, spending money to help Simon defeat the moderate in the 2002 Republican primary.)
to have enough conservative influence in your state to have it stop trying to buy a third Senator in mine!
In Vino Veritas
I'd rather see him OUST Boxer than succeed Feinstein. I mean Feinstein is a Liberal, but Boxer is a Wack-Job.
Feinstein is almost as liberal as you can get while still being at least semi-rational. Boxer isn't constrained by petty things like sanity.
I'll play for a bit.
I don't care who the governor of California is any more than I care who any other governor of a state where I don't live is. Sure I like having more of the country governed the way I'd prefer it to be governed, but Schwartzenegger isn't doing anything a typical dem wouldn't do. Hence my lack of concern over his fate.
How California democrats passing crazy laws does anything but help the national Republican party is beyond me.
"Let's face it. Schwarzenegger makes Linc Chafee look like a Tom DeLay."
I couldn't disagree more. Chafee is really flaky, I agree with that - but Arnold doesn't deserve that same distinction. I will vote for Arnold Schwarzenegger this November because he's a huge improvement over Gray Davis and over what Phil Angelides would be.
Consider the following:
- Arnold has unflichingly supported the death penalty, even when the MSM and world launched a huge 'save Tookie' campaign (would Davis or Angelides have done this?)
- Arnold supported the teen parental notification law on the CA ballot in 2005.
- Arnold vetoed the gay marriage bill (and promised to do it again), which Angelides has vowed to sign if he were to become Gov.
- Arnold has said he would veto legislation in favor of euthanasia.
- Arnold recently vetoed a bill that would have homosexualised California textbooks.
- Arnold has generally opposed tax increases.
- Arnold appointed a registered Republican to the CA Supreme Court and she has generally sided with the more conservative wing of the court on controversial rulings.
All in all, I know Arnold isn't Mr. Conservative, but, as a conservative Republican, I will be voting for him without hesitation. Consider the alternatives. We're talking about California.
the reaction to the GOP staffers who downloaded unprotected damaging Dem info regarding marching orders on minority judicial nominees or whatever it was.