About fifteen minutes ago I got off of the telephone with Governor Schwarzenegger.  He is spending some of his day today, in advance of an official 2 p.m. press event, making telephone calls to people about his controversial decision to hire Susan Kennedy as his Chief of Staff.
After a collegial minute or two (after all, the Governor is one of the friendliest people EVER), the conversation turned to his appointment.  We spoke about his choice for a few minutes – well, I let him do most of the talking.  I will paraphrase some of what we talked about so that you get the idea.

 I expressed to the Governor my concerns – that while I had never met Ms. Kennedy, I had reviewed her resume.  I told him that her resume was more partisan on the Democrat side than mine on the GOP side, which was hard to do,

The Governor said that he spoke with a lot of different Republican leaders in a search for the right candidate to be his Chief of Staff (yeah, he mentioned a few of them, but I’ll keep that secret, so that everyone out there who says they are his closest advisors can pretend he mentioned their name to me).  He said that this search proved fruitless, as he tried to find the right person for the job.  A very difficult job, he pointed out. 

He said that in the last couple of years, his dealings with Kennedy in her position as a member of the State Public Utilities Commission have been extremely positive.  He says that she is extremely pragmatic and that she has supported him at every turn.  He said he has been impressed with her presence in meetings, and her ability to present herself in an organized manner, making specific mention of her ability to prepare cogent briefings.

Clearly what was significant to the Governor is her style, her way of doing business.  That she is a “real pistol” and “straight shooter” – that she will able to make it in the “jungle” that is Sacramento. 

An important point that the Governor stressed is that he feels Kennedy will be 100% on board with his agenda, his programs and his vision for California.  That she actually expressed concern to him that her appointment would cause him grief.

I conveyed to the Governor that I appreciated his call, but that I still had a lot of concerns about someone with Kennedy’s Democrat credentials, and he acknowledged that he understands those concerns.  We left things that he will facilitate my coming to his office to meet and speak with Kennedy personally.

I’ll absorb our conversation a bit more before I ramble on here – look for more thoughts in my commentary tomorrow.  I will make two initial observations, though.  One is that I admire the Governor for calling me directly.  It shows respect for me as a person, and that is classy – and respect for this website!  The second is that I am thoroughly convinced, from the brief conversation, that the Governor is 100% behind this appointment, and feels that Kennedy will do a great job for him – that her qualifications as a professional operative, and her pledge of loyalty to him, totally mitigate her partisan background, and ties to Gray Davis.

 We will see how that plays itself out – but there is no doubt that this pick is a controversial one, and there are a lot of skeptics out there (trust me, I’ve gotten over 600 emails today alone,  not to mention my own concerns).  The Governor will hold a press conference in just a few minutes to try his hand at selling the media.  As a sign of the times, though, you are getting your first info not via the MSM (main stream media), but from the FlashReport!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 30th, 2005 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.