I think that the Governor may be carrying ‘bipartisan’ a bit too far – or, he needs to think more carefully about how what he says at the microphone is going to be received by the people who read it — in this case, his core Republican supporters.
The State’s top Republican elected official is in Mexico on a trade mission.
The Associated Press is reporting that the Governor on his trade-mission, "hailed the Democratic takeover of Congress as heathy for Democracy, saying ‘Washington was stuck.’"
Apparently the Governor said, "I think this is good that we have new blood coming to Washington, that we have new people with new ideas coming to Washington."
Newsflash: The Democrats are not bringing NEW IDEAS to Washington, they are bringing OLD IDEAS about how to increase the role of government in the lives of Americans.
Don’t get me wrong, many Republicans have called for change in Washington, D.C., but our version of change was for Republicans in Congress and the President to get their act together and pass meaningful spending cuts, return tax dollars to working families, and insitute real immigration reform measures for America.
This change is not ‘good’ for America — it is bad. Liberals like Nancy Pelosi have a view of the role of government in America that would truly take Arnold Schwarzenegger back to the Austria of his youth – where liberty and freedom were stifled. The problem in Washington, D.C., was not that policies were too conservative — the reality is that, scandals and criminal activities by a few put aside, Republicans were presiding over an increasing federal bureaucracy.
This is bad change. Now, the only ‘good’ that might come from it, in terms of the GOP, is that this will give our Republican Party a chance to reflect on what went wrong, and how the actual public policy agenda of the Republican Party mutated into the "Republicans grow government" approach, which demoralized core GOP voters and helped to propel Pelosi and company into the majority.
I guess none of us can blame Arnold Schwarzenegger for having been frustrated with the Republican Congress — they really did drop the ball. But that said, it would be swell if the Governor would simply clarify his comments, and say that as a Republican, he is disappointed that his Party has lost their majority in Washington, D.C. How about a statement like, "I will be working hard in 2008 to elect a Republican President, and to help Republicans regain control of Congress."
If he wants to go on to give his ten cents about why the GOP lost their majority — join the club!
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Oh yeah, while in Mexico, the Governor is apparently taking the opportunity to make the case for amnesty* for criminal aliens in the United States… Again.
* In Arnold-speaque, "amnesty" means when you place someone on the track to citizenship who came into the country illegally. In FlashReport-speague, "amnesty" is when you forgive someone for coming into the country illegally, in violation of the laws of our nation, and let them stay. To be fair, the Arnold definition of amnesty is also used by President Bush. Hey, maybe Maviglio’s right, it’s a Bush/Arnold plot…