John Fund and Brendan Miniter weigh in from Manhattan with their talented pens…

December 1, 2005

In today’s Political Diary: Darn It, He Just Can’t Resist Anyone Named Kennedy

An episode of the TV political drama "The West Wing" could never top the bizarre appointment Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has made as his new chief of staff, the top administrative post in his government. Susan Kennedy is the former deputy chief of staff to Gray Davis, the discredited, spendthrift governor whom Mr. Schwarzenegger replaced after a… Read More

OK – the headline should have read: RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman, speaking at the RGA Meeting in San Diego County, criticizes anti-war Dems.

It would be nice if Chairman Mehlman would explain why the RNC raised so much money out of California but made no transfers of cash (that I know of) to the Caliornia GOP to assist with GOTV efforts in our statewide election. The RNC shares a portion of the responsibilty for that defeat. But I guess that will be a different speech on a different trip. He will give that one flanked by the only nine Republicans in California who opposed redistricting reform (coincidentally, all Members of Congress!).

Ok…ok… Back to Mehlman and the Republican Governor’s Association meeting. The GOP Governors are meeting at the posh La Costa Resort and Spa near Carlsbad for a few… Read More

A relatively peaceful balance of power has existed in North San Diego County for some time, with general cooperation between Supervisor Bill Horn, Assemblyman Mark Wyland, Assemblyman George Plescia, State Senator Bill Morrow, Congressman Darrell Issa, and Congressman Duke Cunningham. With seats opening rarely in this solid GOP turf, there was little reason for the party organization and the elected officials to concentrate on anything but cleaning out pockets of local Democrat officeholders, or running up the region’s vote tally with solid GOTV programs. But like in WWI, the Duke (I guess the historical figure was actually an Arch Duke) is gone. This is combined with various partisan seats which were opening regardless, and a challenge to the sitting Supervisor from a former legislative member. Meaning: Flanders (no Probolsky, not Homer Simpson’s neighbor) and the Somme are yet to come, and the political graveyards are… Read More

About fifteen minutes ago I got off of the telephone with Governor Schwarzenegger. He is spending some of his day today, in advance of an official 2 p.m. press event, making telephone calls to people about his controversial decision to hire Susan Kennedy as his Chief of Staff. After a collegial minute or two (after all, the Governor is one of the friendliest people EVER), the conversation turned to his appointment. We spoke about his choice for a few minutes – well, I let him do most of the talking. I will paraphrase some of what we talked about so that you get the idea.

I expressed to the Governor my concerns – that while I had never met Ms. Kennedy, I had reviewed her resume. I told him that her resume was more partisan on the Democrat side than mine on the GOP side, which was hard to do,

The… Read More

And with one release, Schwarzenegger is hip deep in GOP alligators, and Kennedy is persona non grata with the Dems….

You’ll find this release here, but Probably not at this site: StopSusanKennedy.com

Governor Schwarzenegger Appoints Susan Kennedy Chief of Staff Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today announced the appointment of Susan Kennedy as chief of staff. "Susan is a hands-on, action-oriented person who gets things done. She is a leader with incredible institutional knowledge about state government and a deep understanding of the public policy process. We have had incredible accomplishments throughout my administration and I look forward to working with Susan to build upon that foundation and make California once again the golden dream by the sea." "Pat has worked … Read More

Should Arnold Schwarzenegger run for re-election as an Independent?

Schwarzenegger has always had an uneasy relationship with the Republican Party’s base. Susan Kennedy’s hiring has only intensified the tensions that have existed since he first announced plans for a ballot initiative to fund after school programs.

Schwarzenegger is a centrist. He’s conservative on economic issues and immigration issues, moderate on cultural and environmental matters. As I’ve written before, that ideological balance is what allowed him to attract the support of swing voters in the recall election. But it has also kept him from forming a stronger relationship with his own party.

Most successful politicians figure out away to balance the needs of their base with the demands of the political center. Bill Clinton did it by calling himself a “New Democrat”. George W. Bush accomplished the same goal by presenting himself as a “compassionate conservative”. Arnold didn’t come up with quite as catchy a turn of phrase for himself, but a governor who repeals the car tax and opposes drivers’ licenses for… Read More

I think most of California’s political community is scratching their heads over the Susan Kennedy COS appointment. Even if you are a liberal, sorry progressive Democrat you have to wonder how it all happened.

We Republicans especially are searching for answers. I have identified a few reasons, thoughts and some options, some rational, some not.

>"It is 99% Maria and 1% desperation," says Probolsky [Note to media, feel free to use this as long as you attribute to me and Flasreport.org]. -Call me vain for quoting myself, but I think this is the best explanation. It is no secret the insider pull the Governor’s wife has. If Maria trusts someone, and I gather there are few people she trusts, they have a pretty good shot at becoming [fill in high level government job here]. > "Some would suggest it… Read More

THE FISCAL FUTURE OF CALIFORNIA This week, the FlashReport has been featuring some great original columns from folks we think are experts on California’s finances, and have very real concerns about where we should go from here. On Monday we featured a great piece from Jon Coupal, President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, on why the idea of massive infrastructure bonds right now are a poor public policy choice for California. Today, we have a piece from State Senator (and soon to be Congressman) John Campbell, that look as where we should be going, in terms of fiscal policy, after the defeat at the polls of Proposition 76. Campbell, too, opposes a massive bond-obligation scheme without meaningful (and unlikely) fiscal reforms. Tomorrow we will be featured yet another piece from a prominent authority on why the borrowing scheme is a bad one, with some constructive input on handling California’s infrastructure… Read More