Schwarzenegger is still posing for the crowd … do little other than flexing his mouth as he assumes a pose as the Governor of California – using Hollywood smoke and mirrors to hide the fact that he has done very little of note for the citizens of California and that playing tough guy with your own party is often a losing proposition.

According to the Los Angeles Times … 

“Governor reveals tricks of the trade on '60 Minutes'”

Unfortunately the tricks that were played on the public by the governor and the legislature have led California from the Golden State to potential ruin.

The people elected Arnold Schwarzenegger to eliminate the waste, fraud and corruption in California government. To help hold the legislature’s profligate spending in check before the State was forced into bankruptcy.

They did not expect that Schwarzenegger would all but ignore his own party and spend more time courting liberal democrats, thus earning him the sobriquet: “RINO” (Republican In Name Only). That he would quickly learn to surpass his predecessor, Gray Davis, who was widely acknowledged as a master 24/7 fund-raiser. That he would learn how to manipulate private foundations to finance his travel and expenses – while initially hiding their contributors.  That he would learn the tricks of papering over budgetary deficits using borrowed money from Wall Street and intra-account borrowing.  And worst of all, using Hollywood smoke and mirrors to pretend he is a post-partisan politician: working for the people.

“Schwarzenegger says that without his acting experience, his job in Sacramento would have been much more difficult. He also says he'd be interested in becoming president if it were possible.”

Reporting from Sacramento -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger hasn't said whether he would pursue another job in politics after his final term ends in two years. But there's at least one position he might be interested in, if he were eligible for it: president.
"Yeah, absolutely," Schwarzenegger said in an interview airing tonight on "60 Minutes" on CBS, when asked by correspondent Scott Pelley if he would like to be president. ‘I think that I am always a person that looks for the next big goal. And I love challenges. I always set goals that are so high, that are almost impossible to achieve.’"

Is this a diversionary ploy to allow him to continue his fundraising activities with an eye to becoming a Senator in 2010?

“At the moment, becoming president would be impossible. Schwarzenegger, who was born in Austria and became a U.S. citizen in 1983, is not a ‘natural born citizen’ of the United States, as required by the Constitution.”

“Talk of amending the Constitution was a hot topic in California and Washington during Schwarzenegger's first couple of years in office, when some of his backers waged an "Amend for Arnold" campaign and members of Congress proposed changing the rule. Schwarzenegger has said he would welcome such a move but has mostly joked about running when asked about it publicly.”

Many a truth is spoken in jest. Personally, I think that the possibility of a foreign born President, especially one with a Eurocentric background, might expose America to great danger.

Matt David, his spokesman, noted that on "60 Minutes," the governor was responding to a theoretical question.

In the interview, the governor also lifted the veil on some of his tricks of the trade, both in his cinematic and political careers. With Pelley lifting weights as they spoke, Schwarzenegger said that when he played a muscle man in the movies, he just pretended to lift 300 pounds.
"I mean, when you do it for the cameras you only do 50, so you take it easy," he said. "You don't kill yourself."
He described a scene in the movie "Stay Hungry" with actress Sally Field in which he had to lift 225 pounds over and over.
"I learned very quickly: Put on wooden plates," Schwarzenegger said.
His governing style apparently involves some acting as well.

"People think show business was in Hollywood, but I think [ Ronald] Reagan was absolutely right," Schwarzenegger said, referring to the former California governor and president. "If he wouldn't have the training in acting, this would have been a very difficult job."

It angers me that Schwarzenegger even mentions Ronald Reagan. Yes, Reagan was an actor that became the California Governor and then went on to the presidency. But where Reagan had a core fundamental values and honed his political philosophy of conservatism, Schwarzenegger seems to be a pragmatic opportunist. Using what ever tools are at his disposal for his own self-interests.

A review of Schwarzenegger’s past performance as governor reveals numerous opportunities to appoint qualified Republicans to positions of power – and yet, it appears that he would appoint democrats to the positions to achieve some unknown political benefit to himself.

Global Warming …

And now it appears that Schwarzenegger has adopted the religion of global warming as his new vehicle to propel him upward on the political food chain.  Knowing full well that no results might be measurable until long after he has played the celestial stage. Which may be indicative of his current philosophy of trying to kick the budgetary can once more beyond 2010.

60 minutes interview …

One interesting item is how Schwarzenegger sets almost impossible goals and then having achieved them, moves on to the next goal. It seems to me that, having achieved the position of Governor of the State of California, he would make a success out of the position before even thinking about moving on.

Another interesting fact that nobody mentioned is that the $40 billion dollar deficit that is mentioned is the projected deficit in the next 18 months – long after Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the current budget into law. Either he signed a bogus budget or something is going radically wrong on his watch. Or perhaps a little bit of both. For more on Schwarzenegger and the California budget, see my previous blog entry.

“Schwarzenegger and the Legislature: Tiptoeing thru the tulips while California plunges into a deeper recession ...”

The Schwarzenegger solution …

“Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is asking state employees to take time off work- without pay - as he looks to solve the state's budget crisis.”

“The governor issued an executive order Friday. It calls for a state hiring freeze, asks state agencies to cut payrolls by 10 percent, and orders state employees to take two days off a month without pay.” <Source>

Like every other organization caught up in the current economic crisis, Schwarzenegger should be eliminating thousands of state employees who serve little or no real purpose other than to satisfy the bureaucratic need to shuffle paper. Consider everyone who does not fulfill a critical public safety position and then start cutting. Start with the political appointees in high paying positions. Eliminate the media spokesmen and public relations counsel first.

Of course, being somewhat a left-leaning liberal democrat in Republican clothing, Schwarzenegger is afraid to anger the unions in cutting back infrastructure jobs -- as he has threatened the citizens while he stands by the 405 freeway which is under construction -- as he will require their support in his 2010 bid for the Senate. Imagine that: the tough guy turns out to be a girly man when it comes to making the hard decisions and acting like a man.

What can YOU do?

Keep Schwarzenegger out of the Senate. We do not need another phony politician to pose as “a man of the people” and do nothing except fundraise and court the media.

Demand that Schwarzenegger clean up the mess he has made in the State by curtailing waste, fraud and corruption as well as rein in legislative spending using his veto pen.

Demand that Schwarzenegger give up the Republican designation and stop taking money under false pretenses unless he attempts to re-build the party he has so often turned his back on. 

Realize that if someone should prove that Barack Obama was not a natural citizen, then Schwarzenegger might have an actual chance at the presidency via a “backdoor” electoral process. Heaven forbid.

Elect a conservative Republican to serve as our next governor – one that does not come out of the San Francisco/Silicon Valley sphere of influence.

-- steve

A reminder from OneCitizenSpeaking.com: a large improvement can result from a small change…

The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane. -- Marcus Aurelius

Reference Links:

Governor reveals tricks of the trade on '60 Minutes' - Los Angeles Times

The Times Modifies its story on Schwarzenegger