Wall Street Journal Editorial Staff Writer John Fund has been a longtime friend of the FlashReport, back to the beginning of our e-newsletter in 2001. He’s been a personal friend of mine going back much further. John, a native Californian, keeps a remarkable finger on the pulse of California politics with a network of friends, operatives and contacts that would make many reporters who actually live in California quite envious. He has written two California stories today in the WSJ’s Political Diary (a subscription based publication, but John gave me permission to print these) — one on the Governor’s appointment today of Susan Kennedy, and the other most post-mortem on the Duke Cunningham debacle:
If you thought President Bush was capable of surprises when he nominated Harriett Miers for the Supreme Court, wait till you see who Arnold Schwarzenegger is set to pick as his new chief of staff, the most powerful administrative position in California’s state government.
It’s Susan Kennedy, a Democrat and deputy chief of staff and cabinet secretary to Gray Davis, the man California voters tossed out of office two years ago and replaced with Mr. Schwarzenegger in the midst of a budget meltdown. Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, a Democrat, says Mrs. Kennedy may be named as early as today. The reaction in Sacramento ranges from shock to stupefaction.
Following defeat of his reform initiatives in a special election earlier this month, the governor pledged to reach out to Democrats in a spirit of bipartisan cooperation. But no one expected him to woo Ms. Kennedy, much less accede to her demand that she be given sole authority over hiring in the governor’s office. The newsletter Capitol Weekly reports that the governor’s concession "spread anger among Republican insiders, who said they fear a major purge of GOP staffers among the governor’s inner circle."
Ms. Kennedy isn’t just any Democrat. She’s a highly skilled party operative who has spent much of her life working to defeat conservative causes. She has been executive director of the California Democratic Party, executive director of the California Abortion Rights Action League and communications director for Senator Dianne Feinstein. Jon Fleischman, a conservative activist, wryly told me: "As a former executive director of the California Republican Party, I expected that I might have a better chance to be considered than a former executive director of the California Democratic Party."
How bizarre is the Kennedy appointment? The Democratic Party chairman who hired her as the party’s executive director was none other than Phil Angelides, now the state’s treasurer and the current Democratic frontrunner for governor against Mr. Schwarzenegger. Talk about Fusion Government.
It’s common knowledge that Mr. Schwarzenegger has been pressured to trim his partisan sails by Maria Shriver, his wife, who earlier this year hired another former Gray Davis aide, Daniel Zingale, as her own chief of staff. The governor told the Sacramento Bee yesterday that he and his wife have both interviewed candidates for chief of staff. "When you have a great, valuable partner, you may as well use that partner," he said. Now that he appears to be following his wife’s recommendations, Mr. Schwarzenegger’s supporters are worried that the state budget spigots will once again be left wide open. "It’s not much of a secret in the Capitol that Schwarzenegger’s advisers are busily drafting a State of the State message and a new state budget for presentation in January that will spend money as if there’s no tomorrow," Dan Walters, a columnist for the Sacramento Bee, reported this past Monday. Who better to implement such a plan than the woman who was partly responsible for the massive overspending under Gray Davis that landed California in the fiscal soup?
It’s always possible that the governor’s latest move involves some brilliant plan that will surprise and delight his allies. But it’s far more likely this is his version of a Harriet Miers moment. The only difference is that the answer to the obvious question — "What was he thinking?" — is also obvious. It appears Governor Schwarzenegger has decided that if you can’t beat’em, join’em. Republicans can be excused if they react the same way many conservatives did when Mr. Bush nominated Harriet Miers — i.e. firmly demanding better.
— John Fund
Randy "Duke" Cunningham’s sudden decision to plead guilty to accepting bribes and resign as a member of Congress stunned his friends and supporters. Mr. Cunningham, who sold his home at an inflated price to a defense contractor for whom he apparently did favors, appears set to enter smaller quarters in federal public housing soon.
But in his resignation statement from Congress, Mr. Cunningham managed to summon a touch of eloquence in explaining his conduct. The former fighter ace wrote: "I learned in Vietnam that the true measure of a man is how he responds to adversity. I cannot undo what I have done. But I can atone. I am now almost 65 years of age. As I enter the twilight of my life, I intend to use the remaining time that God grants me to make amends. The first step in that journey is to admit fault and apologize. The next step is to face the consequences of my actions like a man. Today, I have taken the first step and, with God’s grace, I will soon take the second."
Mr. Cunningham’s resignation will trigger a special election next year in a solidly Republican district. The frontrunners are State Senator Bill Morrow and former Assemblyman Howard Kaloogian. Mr. Morrow is known as a competent legislative mechanic, while Mr. Kaloogian is a movement conservative who was active in efforts to recall Governor Gray Davis and to raise funds for Hillsdale College, a well-known conservative institution in Michigan. But the race could be turned on its head if Mark Wyland, the state assemblyman who took Mr. Kaloogian’s seat, reconsiders his decision not to seek the Congressional seat. A successful businessman with a personal net worth of some $50 million, Mr. Wyland would be a formidable contender. He would likely make illegal immigration his signature issue, given that he is co-sponsor of a measure on next year’s state ballot that would create a California Border Police.