When I hailed a cab this morning to go to the airport, the cabbie asked me why I was in town. I told him that I had spent the evening in a tux at the Governor’s Inaugural Ball.

His response… “Did any Republicans go?”

I followed up and asked him what he meant. He said that he and some other cabbies saw or heard parts of his speech, and decided that Republicans must be upset that in his speech, the Governor “trashed” his own party. He said , “Isn’t he a Republican himself? I just figured if Republicans worked hard to elect him, they might be mad that he has jettisoned his own party in favor of this…what did he call it? The ‘Post Party Era?”

I asked the cabbie if he was a Republican, and he said that he wasn’t – he was a Democrat. He said, “I just feel sorry for you guys…” Sigh.

My local Assemblyman, Chuck DeVore (R-Irvine), had this to say last night as he reflected on the Governor’s Inaugural Address: “I considered his words and wondered: when a conservative who favors smaller government and lower taxes ‘compromises’… Read More

I was just reading the transcript of the Governor’s inaugural address. After wading through the meaningless "Party of California" sophistry and such bromides as "We don’t need Republican health care or Democratic health care. We need health care," I came upon the passage where the governor outlines his big dream for California’s future. And it occured to me I had yet to encounter the words "liberty" or "freedom."

I did a search of the speech text for "freedom" and "liberty." Nothing. Plenty of references to "health care" and the "environment." Other than a reference to a "free-market" in emissions credits, the Governor made no mention of the idea undergirding the reason for our republic.

Then again, what should I expect from a Governor whose professed mission is to expand the size, scope and cost of government?… Read More

Liberalism as a strategy and philosophy is a failure. Progressivism is meeting a similar fate. To continue to govern as a majority in California, the Democrats have had to again redefine their agenda. The easiest path is to redefine centrism leftward. The Governor is coming right along. He used the word "centrist" several times in his inaugural speech today. Unfortunately, it no longer has the same meaning.

It wasn’t that long ago when Governor Pete Wilson was known as a "moderate" or "centrist" leader. He ran balanced budgets, applied entrepreneurial solutions to the State’s problems, rejected extreme environmentalism, funded education sensibly, avoided excessive borrowing, and demanded accountability in State Government. A similar strategy today would be characterized as "right wing extremism".

Up until November of 2005 one could easily argue that Governor Schwarzenegger was indeed a centrist from the Pete Wilson mold. But in fact, with the defeat of his four reform initiatives, Arnold has nowin fact moved well to the left of Pete Wilson, both in policy and future planning. Even with… Read More

On this bitter and blustery January morning, the faithful queued up for the Governor’s Inauguration. It was a very long line, and having just returned from Disney, I wondered where I could get a FastPass…there were none. Once inside, I found my way to my assigned seat in the Bob Uecker “front row”…the nose bleed section. The preliminary musical entertainment was appropriately diverse – Asian drummers outside; inside the Mariachi Divas; Irish dancers; the Unity Gospel Choir; a Sheryl Crow song that started with “My friend the communist…” coupled with a power point slide show of the Governor in China; finally tap dancing cowboys. I should have taken Dramamine beforehand, but it was still cool.

Out came Willie Brown. He said that years ago when Arnold first came to him and talked about becoming the Governor, Willie said, “Don’t do it! This state cannot be governed. I should know, I contributed to the ungovernability of this state.” Like him or not, he’s hilarious.

Then the stage was filled with mayors, former Governors, legislative leaders, and constitutional officers. There were only four women onstage, and two were wives of former… Read More

Next up, the California Dream Team Luncheon as it was being billed,on the West Steps.

The Inaugural Ceremony was nicely choreographed, Willie was funny, he didn’t want it to end, he said it was the biggest audience he’d spoken to since the 72 Dem election. Chief Justice Ron George did the oath, the Guv with his hand on the Bible and Maria on his arm. Also, Governors Wilson and Davis wereon the stage, with wives Gayle and Sharon. Immediately after the oath, a choir sang "Hallelujah." JillBuck did a much better job ofreporting on these happeningsthan I would’ve, so I’ll leave it to her post.

The lunch on the West Steps was in a tent with a clear plastic roof, a hot house effect, or perhaps one of the first of the Million Solar roofs…it was quite warm inside. George Schultz was one of the main speakers, the Guv spoke and made a lot of jokes that he’d probably like to have back, but it was all in fun. Rob Lowe did some of the MC work as well. I mentioned to Rob later that some of his finest work was as the "Young Number Two" in the Austin Powers 2nd movie, he seemed delighted… Read More

There is no doubt that much of the success of Governor Schwarzenegger’s re-election triumph last November can be laid at the feet of Steve Schmidt and Katie Levinson. Schmidt was famously tapped by the Governor to come out from D.C. to take the reigns as Manager of his campaign. Steve came from the reknowned Bush communications team, bringing with him, among others, Katie Levinson (Katie was actually named Arnold’s “MVP” by this website for her role in the re-elect).

With the Governor’s campaign all done – a triumph for Schmidt, Levinson and many others – those responsible for shepparding the GOP Governor to a landslide victory in a year that was terrible for Republicans nationally – are in high demand.

It was not unexpected when, a few weeks ago, it was announced that Schmidt had signed on as a Senior Advisor to the Presidential campaign of Arizona Senator John McCain. A number of significant Bush players have jumped onboard with the maverick Senator’s effort, including as campaign manager, Terry Nelson. Schmidt and Nelson are friends. Billionairre Irvine Company owner Donald Bren is McCain’s… Read More

All the excitement is building up this morning for the Governor’s inauguration starting at about 11AM over at the Memorial Auditorium. We go into session at 9AM, for just a bit of housekeeping, mainly to distribute our tickets to the show today, before we get shuttled overto the festivities.We will alsoadopt a set of Joint Rules of the Assembly and Senate, something that hasn’t been done formally for a decade I’m told. The interaction between the 2 houses has been done under a less formal set of agreements. Hopefullynew ruleswill help us operate more efficiently and straight up, with less games and power struggles between the houses….OK, we can be optimistic, it’s still only 5 days into the new year, right? "I’ll be back" with more on how the ceremonies and other stuff goes today.… Read More

ARNOLD’S INAUGURATION DAY Today the 38th Governor of the State of California will be sworn in to a full four-year term in office. It is pretty clear that this will be a bitter-sweet day for Republicans as Arnold Schwarzenegger is going to make it clear in his inaugural address that he will be Governing as a centrist, which by my definition means that he will be hanging up any set of defining GOP principles and instead he will attempt to govern by finding ‘middle ground’ and ‘compromise’ on a host of issues that, from a conservative point of view, are issues that aren’t gray at all, but are black and white. Chief among these is the notion that California government is too large, and that it taxes to much, spends too much and regulates too much. Along with most Californians and the overwhelming number of Republican voters, I supported Arnold Schwarzenegger for re-election. Not simply because he would be an infinitely better Governor than Phil Angelides — as we saw on the campaign train, Homer Simpson… Read More