Spending May Prove Costly to Governor

[Judi Lynn]

Spending May Prove Costly to Governor
Millions on public events and private jets. Thousands on top-tier catering and expense auditing. Well-funded foes could gain an edge.
By Robert Salladay, Times Staff Writer
March 19, 2006


SACRAMENTO — Almost everywhere Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger travels, he is shadowed by another sturdy Austrian: Dieter Rauter, his stunt double on "Terminator 3" and other films.

Rauter today is a member of the governor's vast and expensive political apparatus. When Schwarzenegger meets the public, Rauter's hand-held digital camera records the event for posterity, a service that has cost about $62,000 since Schwarzenegger entered politics about four years ago.

Another longtime Schwarzenegger friend gets $100,000 a year as a speech coach. A Hollywood acquaintance makes campaign jackets and T-shirts, a $69,000 expense so far.

Schwarzenegger hires scores of the best political operatives, travels exclusively by private jet and insists on a sought-after cinematographer to film his commercials — productions that involve casting agents, caterers, dry-cleaners. In flashiness and magnitude, his public appearances have exceeded anything else in modern California politics.
(snip/...)

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-me-spend19mar19,1,6321638.story?coll=la-headlines-frontpage

[saigon68]

1. Apparently a group of ASS-CLOWNS elected this Scum Bag

He is now apparently going for the gold like RayGun

[AndyTiedye]

18. I Never Did Figure Out Where All the Schwartzengroper Voters Are

I haven't met anyone who will admit to having voted for the Groper.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

25. They're in the voting machine software.

[WhiteTara]

32. of Riverside County n/t

[salin]

2. bwahahaha

all show and no substance - sad that anyone thought it would be anything else.

[Toots]

3. Californians should really be proud of themselves.

They can piss their money away almost as fast as Bush* does ours.

[Le Taz Hot]

8. Woah!

Um, there were millions of us who worked diligently to see that he wasn't elected. Could we not paint all 33 MILLION OF US with the same broad brush? Thanks so much. :eyes:

[Cleita]

9. Come on now. We didn't want him. The Pukes took advantage of

a flaw in our system to shoehorn him in. I'm theorizing that the idea was to get him in to get rid of our Secretary of State and install a RW political hack, which he did, to rig our elections for those all important electoral votes in 2008.

The neo-cons appealed to Arnold's ego and need for power by hinting that they could change the ammendment in the Constitution that says only American born citizens can run for President. Yes, they led Arnold to believe he could run for President after being Governor of California just like Reagan.

Of course he's too stupid to see that he is being used as a tool by the Washington neo-cons.

[Carla in Ca]

20. You got it...

A set up from start to finish. Blame the energy fiasco on Davis. Out he goes, so Shelley can be replaced. The least the thugs hope will happen is the Dem candidate will have to spend more time and money here. The best is that they can just count votes the way they want to.

I am still seething over this debacle. To use someone with 'star power' so people will vote for him, qualifications be damned, makes me ashamed. Oh sure, I've heard many now say they wish they hadn't, but it may be too late.

And, the last time Diane Feinstein was here in OC, what did she do? She toured Bluebird Canyon, assuring Federal dollars so residents can rebuild their multi-million dollar homes.

One bright spot: The Legislature didn't vote on Arnold's budget so it won't be on the June ballot. It leaves him little or nothing to campaign on.

What You Do With Nothing to Run On
posted by Julia Rosen on Friday, Mar.17, 2006.
Face it Arnold, you have gotten nothing accomplished in the last two years. You can’t even get your fellow Republicans in DC to help us fix our levees. The voters rejected your broken promises and power grabs last year. This year, the failure to get bonds passed by the legislature rests solely on your shoulders. There was plenty of motivation by the legislators to get something done, but your lack of coherent leadership and strategic blunders doomed the proposals. So what now? How the heck can you face the voters and tell them they should re-elect someone who appears incompetent?
---------------------------------------

Oh, and here is a picture of the Gov trying, but failing, to get levee repair dollars. The caption contest run by Alliance For A Better California had entries such as:

"What do you mean my request doesn't hold water?" and "Get out, ABBA"s not touring anymore!"

[Cleita]

26. That's good news. Buh bye Arnold.n/t

[Trajan]

11. Ah .... The 'I Hate Californians' contingient is alive and well ....

Funny thing about groups of people .... they NEVER can agree 100% on ANYTHING ....

How many Californians voted FOR Herr Grubbelpuffer, and how many against ?

Its like when people condemn 'The South', as if the whole of the South didnt contain a single liberal ...

[Toots]

12. Okay I should have said the MAJORITY of Californians should be proud

The Hate California Crowd :rofl: :rofl: sensitive are we?

[Trajan]

14. Spend some time in the midwest ....

BTW ? .... I live in Oregon ....

[Cleita]

15. Yeah, the California hatred is really bad the minute you

cross into the next state. Even in Oregon, which is fairly liberal, I saw signs like: "Don't Californicate Oregon."

The hatred was especially bad in Texas. Since our residence at the time we were Snowbirding was in Idaho, we had Idaho plates on our vehicles, so the locals were quite free in expressing their hatred of anyone with California plates or anything that was a giveaway.

Hubby and I kept a low profile and did the when in Rome thing but it sure was an eye opener that there is so much regional hatred going on.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

23. Not really....

...I just dislike haters that post crap like yours on DU.

Maybe you should read up on election fraud...you might learn a few things before you launch another unwarranted attack on another segment of the American population.

[Toots]

28. I dislike haters that post crap as well

:shrug:

[Media_Lies_Daily]

30. Why don't you stop doing so? We'll all feel better, won't we?

[Toots]

31. Who's we, you have worms in your pocket

Get bent......

[Gormy Cuss]

29. Technicality here: the majority didn't vote for Schwarzenegger

He only received a plurality of votes in a crowded field of serious candidates (serious as opposed to the other 90 people who made it on the ballot.)

[Media_Lies_Daily]

22. Sounds like the same stuff coming from the "I Hate the South" club.

[AndyTiedye]

27. California Has San Francisco, Santa Cruz, & Berkeley,But Also FreeRepublic

and the folks in the southern part of the state have a bad habit of voting for movie actors.

[WhiteTara]

33. the Boobengroper spends our money

we certainly don't. He got here by fraud just like *

[Jane Austin]

4. He has a SPEECH COACH???

That he PAYS???

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[Cleita]

13. That guy should be fired. n/t

[AlCzervik]

5. Why did i know this about Gropenfuher before i read the post?

[Cleita]

6. Proves that you can't put lipstick on a pig.

I hope he doesn't plan on running again. He won't win unless they get away with rigging the election like they are trying to. His special initiatives election getting shot down was the handwriting on the wall. The only reason he became Governor this time was because of the peculiarities of our recall system that allowed a man to become governor with less votes than would have been necessary in a regular election. When we get a real governor that is the will of the majority of Californians I hope they address this recall problem so that this never happens again.

[AlCzervik]

7. my own theory on which i have nothing to back it up except my

gut feeling is that he won't run again and he'll say it's because of health reasons.

[Cleita]

10. Oh, please let it be true.

Thanking God for this favor if it happens. I think he would be a fool to run again considering how badly his special initiative election got shot down. He also has canceled three fund raisers to date a sign he may be considering this flogging a dead horse.

[AndyTiedye]

19. That's Why McBlackwellson Let In the DIEBOLD REPUBLICAN ELECTING MACHINEZ

He knew that the public hearings would go very badly for him, so he didn't hold any.

They all know that the elections will go very badly for them unless they can steal
millions of votes. They aim to make California like Ohio, where they can steal as
many votes as they need to "win", no matter how far behind they are. Compare the
results of the referenda last fall in California and Ohio. In California, the
Republican agenda went down in flames as expected. It was a little closer than it
should have been, but they couldn't steal enough votes to tip any of the questions
their way. In Ohio, there were referenda to bring about fair elections in Ohio.
Those were leading 2-1, but somehow they "lost" by a 2-1 margin, a shift of over
30% of the entire statewide vote. That is their model for the rest of the country.

[xxqqqzme]

21. yep, I m afraid California is about

2 B florhio-ed. I am still pissed that Shelley was forced out by rumors ONLY and not ONE democrat stood up for him - not one!

[MichiganVote]

16. Ass grabber

[MisterP]

17. how much spent on invitations to the "Minutemen"?

and who the hell hires their ex-stunt double?

[pinniped]

24. The Enron scam got this bozo (s)elected.

I saw his commercials and fell ill. Goebbels must have directed it.

[tanyev]

34. Oh, Maria. Why did you marry this lout?

:banghead: