One of the first people I ever met in my early days of the political game, back in the late 1980’s was 
a flamboyant land developer from Newport Beach by the name of Buck Johns. Blessed with a high-octane personality and an Arkansas accent that sounds a bit like Ross Perot, Buck is a hard charger — in business, as a dad, and in politics. He’s been a leader in GOP politics in Orange County for a generation, still serving on the board of the Lincoln Club. Most Orange County politicians can point to Buck’s support as critical to their efforts. And there are a bunch of people running around "The OC" who didn’t quite make it into Buck’s good graces, or into public office.
As a pretty conservative fellow, Buck is prepared to cut the Governor a lot of slack, as evidenced by an interview he gave to Los Angeles Times columnist Dana Parson.
Parsons’ column begins:
‘B-Minus’ Governor Still a GOP Plus
January 22, 2006
When in need of an Orange County Republican weathervane, my go-to guy is Buck Johns. The young man (64) keeps his ear to the ground, knows what he’s talking about and, best of all, is happy to spill it — whether things are going his way or not.
When we last talked, in August 2003, things were going his way. He and other conservative Republicans had decided to get smart and rally around a single candidate in the governor’s recall election — a guy named Arnold Schwarzenegger. He wasn’t exactly Johns’ cup of tea — Johns would prefer that his candidates not be sleeping with someone with Kennedy family connections — but he made it clear that Schwarzenegger was plenty good enough.
Schwarzenegger won, returning a Republican to the governor’s chair in Sacramento. Now, not yet 2 1/2 years later, the natives are restless. There’s a movement afoot to whip the governor into shape, with some conservative activists in the state Republican Party saying they’ll try to strip Schwarzenegger of the party’s endorsement at the state convention next month unless he dumps his new Democratic chief of staff. And, in general, starts acting more like a Republican.
Sounded like a good time to dial up Buck Johns, a longtime board member of Orange County’s influential Lincoln Club, to find out if he rued the day he cast his lot with Schwarzenegger.
"No, no, no," says the irrepressible Johns. "He’s added a wonderful and delightful dimension to Republican politics in California."
No translation necessary: Schwarzenegger is the state’s most magnetic personality — the man can still sell tickets — and he’s a Republican. "All the things we wanted to do to add excitement and vitality, he’s done that in spades," Johns says.
I suggest that sounds like he’s giving Schwarzenegger a B+. "Maybe a B-minus," Johns says, adding that he agrees with much of the criticisms. The difference seems to be that Johns is mellower about them and hasn’t lost faith that Arnold is the man.
So, I ask, is all this governor-bashing just political posturing? "Make no mistake," Johns says. "This is a big deal. He’s making fundamental errors and hurting himself and the party by doing these things."
Read the entire column right here.