EARLY THIS MORNING I WOKE UP RESTLESS…MY THOUGHTS WERE ABOUT 1992…. AND A FINE, WONDERFUL MAN NAMED BRUCE HERSCHENSOHN… OUR REPUBLICAN NOMINEE AGAINST BARBARA BOXER… I KEEP THINKING ABOUT THE ROLE IN THAT OF SUSAN KENNEDY… READ ON…
Since even before the recall, I have had many opportunities to meet and get to know Arnold Schwarzenegger. I’ve come to know the Governor as a man of principle, integrity and honesty. 
There is a demeanor about him that I am not always sure how to describe – it is a mix of aggressiveness, intelligence and optimism As someone who is a lot more ideologically conservative than Schwarzenegger, I have accepted the fact that the he and I are going to agree strongly in some areas, and disagree in others. To be honest, my opportunities to work with and for him (I serve as a commission appointee) as well as with some of his team members has allowed me to grow as a person, and realize that you don’t have to agree with someone on everything to achieve a common goal. Especially when that person is someone you can admire. For his political courage (especially this year), for his tireless energy spent pursuing what he feels is in the best interests of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger has earned my respect.
On Tuesday, when he telephoned me to talk about his selection of Susan Kennedy as his Chief of
Staff, he began by laying out on the table that he knew that I and some other staunch Republicans would have trouble with her background. The Governor went on to talk about his reasons for choosing her. To make a longer story short, that chat ended with a discussion about my coming to Sacramento to meet Kennedy, and we agreed that we would work to make this happen. I really appreciated his call. To me, that call was a sign of respect, and made me feel appreciated.
A lot of times I take flack from people because they feel that the FlashReport promotes the Governor too much. Well, to that criticism I would say that when he does something worthy of praise, I do speak to it – and I also post the news every day. Guess what – he gets a lot of coverage! Besides, I have, at times, disagreed with him on policy decisions right here in this report – two examples that come to mind are the poor deal the taxpayers got out of this year’s budget, and another would be this strange social engineering program to artificially cause Californian’s to shift to a reliance on solar energy. Lord knows he and I don’t agree on the sanctity of life and a significant number of other social issues. Still, those are policy disagreements.
Since I received word this decision about Kennedy, I have gone through a number of emotions, running the gambit from disbelief, anger, concern, dejection, and depression. I certainly think it is and was a mistake for a Republican Governor to hire someone with Kennedy’s Democrat operative credentials. So how do I grapple with this situation? Clearly, in my opinion, the Governor has made a poor choice. But, I know (and could tell on the call) that he feels it was the best choice for him. As now as a friend and political supporter of the Governor, I am forced into the extremely awkward position of wanting to support the Governor personally, but not this choice of Susan Kennedy as his top aide.
Well, I woke up this morning at 3 a.m., and believe it or not, I was thinking about this situation. Let me share with you a story, and it goes to the heart of my angst, and why I am having such trouble swallowing that this Governor has tapped Kennedy as his Chief of Staff…
BRUCE HERSCHENSOHN FOR U.S. SENATE — 1992.
In 1992, at the ripe age of 24, I had the good fortune to be a volunteer leader with the campaign of
then-ABC News Commentator Bruce Herschensohn for United States Senate. Now, many of you reading do not know Bruce, and may not remember that campaign. Let me say that there is no more of a gentleman than Bruce Herschensohn. Talk about a great combination of intellectual might, candor, humility and appreciation for the good in all people – this is what Herschensohn campaign was all about. There was a spirited three way primary, which Bruce won. I remember seeing something unique that you don’t see too often… You see one of Bruce’s primary opponents
was none other than Sonny Bono. Over the course of that primary, Bruce and Sonny developed a great friendship, and in the general election, I think Sonny traveled more across this great state on Bruce’s behalf than maybe Bruce did himself. We were all proud when Sonny won his own seat in Congress years later. The contrast between Bruce Herschensohn and Barbara Boxer could not have been starker. They both had two very different visions for this country and its future, Bruce the conservative and Barbara Boxer the liberal.
For me, as a young activist involved with YAF, College Republicans and the California Republican Assembly, it was great to see the energy and vitality. I believed so hard in Bruce…this was the campaign that really developed in my mind how Republicans can work together as a team!
Well, going into the last week of that campaign, Bruce was holding a slim lead over Boxer when the nastiest of dirty tricks was played on Bruce, that I think cost him the election… and it was perpetrated by three operatives of the Democrat State Party – it’s Chairman Phil Angelides, its hired henchman Bob Mulholland, and its Executive Director Susan Kennedy!
In the final days of the election, Kennedy unleashed Mulholland to confront Herschensohn at a
public event and accuse him of being a regular patron of a ‘strip club’ in Hollywood. (The truth, Bruce did live in Hollywood and he did in fact meet some friends at a bar near his home for drinks one time.) The stunt was shockingly successful, the liberal media seized upon the opportunity to mercilessly attack Herschensohn, being that he was campaigning as a very conservative candidate.
The trick was so dirty that Boxer’s campaign had to publicly distance themselves from it, and Susan Kennedy went through the motions of chastising Mulholland, suspending his employment (without pay). But then, just days after the election, praising his abilities, Kennedy reinstates him. Thanks to the ability to search the internet, I found this quote from a 2001 article in the San Francisco Chronicle (11/4/01):
Darius Anderson, a corporate lobbyist in Sacramento and one of Kennedy’s closest friends, said he watched Kennedy run a statewide campaign in 1992 that "was unbelievably ruthless in having to succeed and could not take failure as an answer."
It was during the 1992 race that Democratic Party political director Bob Mulholland exposed GOP Senate candidate Bruce Herschensohn for visiting a strip club. Kennedy and party Chairman Phil Angelides, who is now state treasurer, immediately fired Mulholland. But the last-minute revelation sank Herschensohn, who ran on a platform of morality and values.
"There was something about her very aggressive style that appealed to me," said Anderson, who introduced Kennedy to cigars. "She’s a triple threat because she’s got an organizational mind, she’s political and she’s operational."
An excerpt from the San Francisco Examiner (11/18/92) that ran in National Journal’s Hotline:
a campaign appearance and accused him of being a regular patron of a strip joint and adult book store. CA Dem chair Phil Angelides and other party officials "had known about Mulholland’s research into Herschensohn’s visit to the club, but had not
wanted to use the information" on behalf of Barbara Boxer (D). CA Dem exec. director Susan Kennedy: "Bob broke an organizational rule but he did not tell any lies. Had he not told the truth he would have been gone. … He is a brilliant strategist." During the campaign, Boxer immediate denied any knowledge of Mulholland’s actions. Boxer manager Rose Kapolczynski: "I thought the suspension was necessary and appropriate. I will not second guess Phil Angelides managing his staff to decide whether
this was the appropriate length of time for suspension, but I hope Bob learned that this was not an appropriate thing to do." Herschensohn manager Ken Khachigian called the reinstatement "an outrage": "They (Democrats) perpetrated the one verifiable,
identifiable, dirty trick of the 1992 campaign … a planned, orchestrated, calculated smear on Bruce." Khachigian called Mulholland the "walking stink bomb" of the CA Dem Party and "said Mulholland had effectively made the private lives of Democratic
candidates issues for Republicans in elections to come."
Herschensohn narrowly was defeated by Boxer. But it was worse; Bruce suffered so much humiliation over the story that even the irrepressible Sonny Bono couldn’t get Bruce to break a smile. It was horrible.
And for this starry-eyed kid, I watched possibly my first real ‘hero’ go down in defeat, to be beaten by perhaps the most left-wing ideologue in the United States Senate, Barbara Boxer.
CONCLUSION
So, to Arnold Schwarzenegger, Susan Kennedy represents that ‘organization mind’ reference by Darius Anderson above. But to me, this is a hard-line, seasoned political operative who has spent most of her life literally battling the causes in which I believe, from her youngest years collecting
photos of Jane Fonda in a scrapbook, to her days as a student activist with radical Tom Hayden, to her stints heading up the Democrat Party, the Abortion Right Action League – and, of course, going on to be a senior aide to Dianne Feinstein, and then her now-much-written-about role as the right hand to recalled Governor Gray Davis!
What is someone like me supposed to do? I respect the Governor and want to be supportive of him. But I can’t just transfer that respect, like a commodity, to someone who would do that to Bruce Herschensohn. And this is an anecdotal story – I’m sure there are more. Well, I am going to try and get more shuteye, maybe when I awaken, this bad dream will over. If not, well, I’m open for a suggestion. You couldn’t write this kind of drama for a book.
Jon
(Ironically, 13 years later – Angelides is running for Governor, Mulholland works for Westly, and, of course, Kennedy works for Schwarzenegger.)
PS: Has anybody seen or heard from Assembly Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy on this appointment? He seems to have been disappeared. Senate Republican Leader Dick Ackerman, on the other hand, has been very vocal on the myers issue (see my commentary yesterday).
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