Arnold's Gray Zone

By Jan Frel, AlterNet. Posted December 19, 2005.

Two days after watching all of the initiatives he backed rejected by California voters in the special election November 8, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced he was placing the blame squarely on his own hulking shoulders.

"I take full responsibility for this special election. I take full responsibility for its failure. I take full responsibility for everything," Schwarzenegger said. He promised that while he would make amends with the Democrats in Sacramento and the labor groups he had pilloried for months, he wouldn't make any blood sacrifices within his own staff.

"I'm not that kind of a guy. I don't blame or point fingers at anybody. In fact, I want to do the opposite. I want to say thank-you to my team."

Two weeks later, Schwarzenegger thanked his chief of staff, Patricia Clarey, with a pink slip. Then he dipped into the pockets of the man he deposed in the recall election two years before, hiring former Gray Davis aide Susan Kennedy as Clarey's replacement. Schwarzenegger started speaking the politics of his predecessor as well, pushing for a state bond of at least $50 billion to spend on schools, roads and other public infrastructure. The bond "could be much, much bigger," he told the press.

More recently, Schwarzenegger replaced the arch-conservative California Supreme Court Judge Janice Rogers Brown -- over whom George Bush had fought with Democrats in the Senate for years to place on a circuit court -- with a moderate appellate judge, Carol Corrigan. Sacramento Democrats were cooing, and the media took these events and broadcast Schwarzenegger's conversion to "moderate" and "centrist" politics. It was morning in California.

Meanwhile, leaders and activists in his own party were hopping mad at the hiring of Kennedy, an openly gay former director of the California Democratic Party and California Abortion Rights Action League. Ed Laning, the California Republican Party's Vice-Chairman for the Inland Region, a heavily conservative area of Southern California, swore he would resign if Schwarzenegger didn't rescind the appointment, and soon after made good on his promise.

Mark Bucher, treasurer and spokesman for the powerful Orange County Republican Party said of the Kennedy appointment, "I am very concerned. It's not something I'd expect of Republican officeholders."

Bucher said there was a lot of dismay among party members and activists across Southern California. Asked whether he viewed the Kennedy appointment as more significant than Schwarzenegger's recent proposals to finance California infrastructure projects with bonds, Bucher replied, "People are policy."

Bucher and other Republicans interviewed for this article who had strongly backed Schwarzenegger's initiatives were disappointed that they didn't pass, but they didn't hold it against him for trying. What they took issue with was his hiring of Kennedy.

Mike Spence, president of the 10,000 activist member California Republican Assembly, which organizes voters and spends money on running very conservative candidates for open seats and against more moderate GOP incumbents, was equally dismayed about Schwarzenegger's pick.

"She's an operative," he said, "a pure Gray Davis Democrat, and that's what Schwarzenegger is quickly becoming himself. This stuff with the bonds is irresponsible -- just pulling out another credit card and charging on it." Asked whether it was Susan Kennedy's sexual orientation that so angered California conservatives, Spence said, "That's a small part of it. If it were that by itself, I don't think there would be so much anger. It's her political resume that's the problem."

Mike Spence, and two other directors of Republican organizations -- the Young Republican Federation of California, and the California Republican Lawyers -- co-authored an article against Schwarzenegger's bond proposals warning him not to "terminate his base": "Can you hear that? That rumbling is the sound of over five million registered Republicans growing increasingly concerned about the conduct of a Governor they helped elect." Later in the article they concluded, "This bond measure is yet another symptom of the illness that has beset the Governor. It will alienate the millions of California Republicans that make up his base. It is lunacy to imply that the Governor can simply cast aside the opinion of 35% of the electorate."

Faced with a backlash from his own party, Schwarzenegger delivered an unflinching and slopplily argued denial-of-clemency letter on Monday for Stanley Tookie Williams as a sop to his Republican base. While Schwarzenegger's decision reflected a wide majority of the California populace's opinion on the death penalty, the tone of the letter gave every indication of being a show of enthusiasm for his hard-right base; sincerely yours, desperate Gov. Schwarzenegger. The political undercurrents in the Williams execution were transparent; former Republican Governor Pete Wilson openly remarked that Schwarzenegger "reached a conclusion that is very supported."

Jan Frel is an AlterNet staff writer.

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