On 3/11/07, Doug Henwood <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Yes, and he's getting worse (though I can't stop checking him out now > & then - ok, more often than now & then). Almost every night he's got > a segment on sex offenders - and immigrants, who are almost as bad, > in his estimation. From watching Fox it seems that the right is > getting crazier and angrier.
I don't watch FOX news, but then again I don't watch ANY news on TV, since it makes me nauseous. I'd rather watch "2 and a Half Men" or "Law & Order" re-runs. if the right wing is getting crazier and angrier, it's possible that it might go the way of the GOP here in California. The GOP has run rough-shod over the citizens and non-citizens for a long time, but its stridency and extremism eventually got it into a situation where it's a permanent minority. (Not literally permanent, since the Demoncrats might easily f*ck up.) It's true that Our Beloved Governator is a GOP member, but the GOP _hates_ him. They think he's "gone over to the other side" (i.e., the Dems). There's a story in today's LAT. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-arnold11mar11,1,151765.story?coll=la-headlines-california Governor may be selling an illusion of unity ANALYSIS: Schwarzenegger touts his 'post-partisan' style, but GOP critics say there's no magic: He just joined the other side. By Peter Nicholas Times Staff Writer March 11, 2007 SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has plunged into the debate over the nation's future with his call for a new, "post-partisan" governing style aimed at ending political gridlock. But the Republican governor, who intends to take his message to Iowa, New Hampshire and other critical states as the presidential campaign proceeds, is selling something that may be illusory. Schwarzenegger used raw political muscle to forge the big legislative victories of his first term, allying with the Democrats, who dominate California's Capitol. Along the way, Republicans felt quashed. Post-partisanship, said a rueful state Sen. Tom McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks) "is the process by which Arnold sits down with Democratic leaders and gets them to do exactly what they wanted to do all along." Schwarzenegger repeatedly cites three achievements on his watch: a multibillion-dollar public works project, a plan for cutting prescription drug prices and a program to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. "We did this working together," he said in a speech last month to the National Press Club in Washington. What he doesn't say is that Republican opposition was nearly unanimous on the prescription drug and environmental bills. Democrats didn't need GOP votes for either and passed both without them. On the public works plan, lawmakers reached a deal only when Schwarzenegger withdrew from negotiations that had collapsed. And the final borrowing package was about half the size the governor had wanted. "A lot of the large goals accomplished last year didn't feel bipartisan to us," said Michael Villines (R-Clovis), leader of the Assembly's Republicans. "It just felt like we got steamrolled." None of that troubles Schwarzenegger, who first employed the "post-partisan" slogan in his inaugural speech in January and road-tested it on his recent trip east. "I will travel around the country with our message: working together and being inclusive; serving the people and not party or ideology," Schwarzenegger told reporters in Washington. He may well find a receptive audience, said Mark Baldassare, president of the Public Policy Institute of California, a nonpartisan think tank. "The issue of post-partisanship has provided the governor a national political platform," Baldassare said. "He has credibility, and that's why people have to listen to him. His own political career was reborn, and he achieved success at a difficult time," in a decisive 2006 reelection victory while Republicans nationally fared poorly. But national political analysts said Schwarzenegger's style could be tough to export. Few Republicans elected in classic "red" states see the need to accommodate Democrats in ways that Schwarzenegger has felt necessary in his "blue" state. "If you're in a solid red state, I don't think you have to do that," said G. Terry Madonna, a political science professor at Franklin & Marshall College in Pennsylvania. Little has changed in Sacramento since Schwarzenegger took office in 2003. Democrats control 48 seats in the Assembly, Republicans 32. In the Senate, Democrats enjoy a 25-15 margin. Because the Legislature has carved voting districts that tend to protect incumbents, the partisan complexion remains largely the same year to year. Even as Schwarzenegger makes his case that Sacramento is an oasis of political collaboration, there are fresh outbreaks of partisanship. Not one of Schwarzenegger's fellow Republicans in the Assembly on Tuesday voted for a bill to advance the state's presidential primary from June to February. Republicans said they couldn't support it because there were no assurances that counties would be reimbursed for election costs. Unmoved, Schwarzenegger plans to sign the bill into law. Moreover, no bipartisan consensus exists on the centerpiece of Schwarzenegger's 2007 agenda, which has garnered national headlines: an overhaul of California's healthcare system. The leaders of both houses, anticipating a sweeping proposal from the governor, announced separate plans before Schwarzenegger unveiled his. At least one other Democrat, casting Schwarzenegger's program as a bonanza for insurers, has proposed a government-run approach instead. Schwarzenegger dislikes that concept. -- Jim Devine / "The truth is more important than the facts." -- Frank Lloyd Wright
