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Tuesday, August 12, 2003

STALKING ARNOLD & THE RETURN OF PUNK-ASS PETE

Arianna looked pretty bad on Saturday, filing at the same time and same place as Arnold, and looking for an opportunity to bumrush the photo opps. She knocked over the microphones in her haste to get in the frame with Arnold and Maria, and stole a hug from Maria a handshake from Arnold as the cameras were going off.

Most pointed question of her day was "Are you stalking Arnold"? She mumbled something about "by any means necessary" and "waging guerilla politics", but she kinda looked like the girl who comes to the prom without her date. Real John Hughes-ish. I felt really bad for her, but then again, she got her hummer-hybrid soundbite off and the national media is now treating her a front-runner, which they aren't going to be doing for Peter Camejo. (One lefty fills their quota.)

Now she must hone her message. She's bound to be relegated to the second page for the rest of the campaign, so she'll have to come up with stronger arrows than what kind of car one drives--important, but come on, this is California, diamond in the back sunroof top. As part of a larger platform, OK, but as your only soundbite? Let's redefine success.

Meanwhile, her best point--how Bush I & II have devastated the Cali economy is beginning to be taken by the Dems. Cali Dem party chair Art Torres--a good guy, I hasten to say, whom I worked a lot with many years ago--has begun slinging it in his daily slugfests. More importantly, he has seized on the return of Pete Wilson, now the chair of Arnie's campaign. Good shit!

If Gray is the most despised Cali politician since Nixon, Wilson is on a whole other level for communities of color and labor--up there with FDR for Japanese Americans and Ronald Reagan for African Americans. During Wilson's reign of terror, he unleashed an anti-immigrant backlash that culminated in Prop 187--an initiative so noxious it was overturned by the courts--and sponsored an initiative that attempted to take away most political organizing and lobbyiing power from the labor unions--which the unions then angrily trounced at the polls. Hiring Wilson and his blackboot goons back to run Arnie's campaign is about the dumbest thing they could have done. It's energized the Latino and labor base to a fever pitch. Last week, Arnie couldn't lose. Forget the polls showing him at 35%. Now he definitely can lose.

The strategy for Arnie has been shut up and be vague. As long as he is, everyone can read into him some barbarian-storming-the-citadel fantasy. Now he's doubly troubled--his message is that people will have to wait for his platform--this, in a campaign that's gonna be less than 2 months long! Worse, he's got Pete Wilson delivering that message. Meanwhile, Bill "Who Am I?" Simon and McClintock will be firing shots from the right. No doubt, this week will be pure pleasure for the Dems. Witness this exchange on MSNBC yesterday...

SEIGENTHALER: Governor Wilson, let me start with you. You're the co-chair of this campaign, you're supporting Arnold Schwarzenegger. When are we going to hear some specifics about what your candidate stands for?

Gov. WILSON: You're going to hear a lot of specifics, John. We have seven weeks to go, that is longer than general election campaigns in New York and probably most of the states in the country, longer than the British Parliamentary elections. We are going to make certain that the people do hear statements that are substantive, statements that define his positions, but we're obviously going do this on our own schedule. This is a tactical consideration, it's a adversarial process.

SEIGENTHALER: I--I understand that, but you've been in this business of politics for quite some time and you understand how it works. I mean, candidates sit down--before they decide to run, they decide what they stand for, where they stand on certain issues. We just don't seem to get that from Arnold Schwarzenegger. Has he not thought about it?

Gov. WILSON: Oh, you're going to get it. He's thought about it a good deal. As I say, this is a tactical decision. There are going to be times when we want the focus on a particular issue, other times it will be other issues. Through the seven weeks you're going to hear him on every major issue. I hope we'll hear as much from the others.

SEIGENTHALER: All right. Let me--let me st--ask you, Mr. Torres. We looked at this poll, let me show it to our viewers one more time. It shows that 59 percent of Californians want to recall Governor Davis. You've got a lieutenant governor who's a Democrat who's now in this race. It--it--it sounds as if Governor Davis is in serious trouble. How do you turn it around?

Mr. TORRES: Well, 64 percent Gallup Poll yesterday. So if we're going down, I think we're improving in terms of the--of the situation. The way we're going to test this...

SEIGENTHALER: That doesn't sound like much of an improvement if you look at that poll, I'll tell you.

Mr. TORRES: Well, 64 percent down to 59 is--I--I'll take that as an improvement. That's 5 points. I'll take it. And we're going to go down further, but we're going to concentrate on the issues. And I think Governor Wilson said it right, Arnold has to tell us where he stands on issues. But when he tells us that businesses are leaving California, our own statistics, the Department of Employment in California, tell us that in 2001 to 2002 businesses increased in California. Job loss was .2 between 2002 and 2003. So, our task as Democrats is not only to show the record of this governor, but also to rebut the urban legends that the Republican spinsters--spinesters, rather, are trying to put out to us.

SEIGENTHALER: Well, one thing that's not a legend is the $38 billion budget deficit, now down to $8 billion, but it's still a big problem for the state. Doesn't Governor Davis take some responsibility for this?

Mr. TORRES: Well, quite frankly, look at the numbers. Since 1959, Gray Davis has been the governor that has spent less increase in spending than any other governor in the history of this state.

SEIGENTHALER: So he takes no responsibility for it?

Mr. TORRES: Now, how does that jive with what you said. I'm sorry?

SEIGENTHALER: So, he takes no responsibility for it?

Mr. TORRES: Excuse me, he takes the responsibility for not spending as much as any other governor since 1959. He takes the responsibility for increasing the quality of the schools from 43rd to 23.

SEIGENTHALER: Whose fault is it, then?

Mr. TORRES: I'm sorry?

SEIGENTHALER: Whose fault is it, then?

Mr. TORRES: I think there are a number of factors that are playing into this scenario. And, quite frankly, some of it has to do with Washington in terms of their economic policies, with a $455 billion deficit. The other is the responsibility of trying to educate the voters. I don't think the governor's message has been out there as effective as it should be, and I think he takes the responsibility for that because there's a record to run on, a record that we're proud of.

SEIGENTHALER: And Governor Wilson, do you think that Arnold Schwarzenegger can simply win on the basis of criticizing Governor Davis' record?

Gov. WILSON: No, but I--I must say what just I heard from Art Torres is absurd.

Mr. TORRES: What is absurd, Pete?

Gov. WILSON: What you have said...

Mr. TORRES: What is?

Gov. WILSON: The absurd thing--the absurd thing--and I didn't interrupt you, Art, so don't interrupt me.

Mr. TORRES: I'll interrupt you when I think you're wrong, Pete.

Gov. WILSON: The absurd thing is the contention--I will interrupt you not at all, but the answer...

SEIGENTHALER: All right, gentlemen, let's just...

Gov. WILSON: The answer is that you're right, John, this--this governor is responsible, along with an irresponsible legislature. This is the third sham budget in a row, and the people of California were deceived last fall--they're talking about stealing the election. If anybody stole the election it was Gray Davis by deceiving the people of California, and then, after the election, letting the other shoe drop and discovering that it weighed $38 billion pounds. And to say that he has spent less than any governor since '59 is just absurd on its face. He's spent far more.

Mr. TORRES: No.

Gov. WILSON: And with a warning, the warning that he asked for and that I gave him, I said, 'When you come to office you need to understand that the only thing standing between you and an utterly irresponsible legislature and financial ruin for the state is your ability as governor to check their virtually limitless appetite for spending. They will spend right through the fat, multi-billion-dollar surplus that I have left you. They will spend through every penny of revenues that you have, and they'll spend money that you don't have.

SEIGENTHALER: Let me...

Gov. WILSON: That's exactly what's happened.

SEIGENTHALER: Let me give Mr. Torres a response, please.

Mr. TORRES: Well, quite frankly, I think that Pete Wilson deceived the voters when he pushed deregulation and gave us the energy crisis and Proposition 187. But the bottom line is--check my facts out, Pete--you will find...

Gov. WILSON: You're ducking the question, Art.

Mr. TORRES: Oh, no, not ducking the question. Check...

Gov. WILSON: Ducking the question.

Mr. TORRES: No.

Gov. WILSON: Yes, you are.

Mr. TORRES: No, you ducked the question when it came to the energy crisis. You ducked the question when you overrode Latinos in this state with Prop 187...

Gov. WILSON: Tell me why every...

Mr. TORRES: ...and quite frankly, that's why George Bush...

Gov. WILSON: Tell me why every member of the legislature...

Mr. TORRES: ...didn't campaign with you, Pete. Are you going to campaign with George Bush now?

Gov. WILSON: Pathetic?

Mr. TORRES: Are they letting you come out in public again?

Gov. WILSON: Are you going to explain why every member of the legislature, including Cruz Bustamante, voted for the energy bill that you now deride...

Mr. TORRES: Governor--governor...

Gov. WILSON: ...while Lieutenant Governor Gray Davis said nothing?

Mr. TORRES: Your--you increased spending by 37 percent when you were governor, sir.

Gov. WILSON: I--listen...

Mr. TORRES: Gray Davis, 32 percent.

SEIGENTHALER: Gentlemen...

Mr. TORRES: Check the facts, Pete.

Gov. WILSON: As you should remember...

SEIGENTHALER: Gentlemen, we're going to have to leave it there. This is a campaign...

Gov. WILSON: Pathetic.

SEIGENTHALER: ..that just beginning and it continues now, and it's going to be interesting.

Gov. WILSON: Guilt by association won't work. Sorry, John. Go ahead.

SEIGENTHALER: As are--it's going to be interesting as--as we've seen here tonight. It's good to have you both of you on the program. Thanks very much.

Mr. TORRES: Thank you, John.

Gov. WILSON: Thank you, John.

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