Loose lips don’t just sink ships, they can also jettison
political careers. And Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger continually makes
himself a candidate to become the next example.
Loose lips don’t just sink ships, they can also jettison political careers. And Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger continually makes himself a candidate to become the next example.
His warning California’s nurses in late 2004 that he would soon “kick their butts'” galvanized the nurses and their union into a significant political force helping to knock out all Schwarzenegger’s ballot initiatives last fall.
His repeated use of the “girlie men” and “loser” epithets to describe Democrats in the state Legislature made many voters consider him reckless and contributed to the confrontational climate that prevailed in the state Capitol all last year.
Now he’s delivered another beaut. “I never stuck to the rules because, you know, I think that is what life is about is to be out there'” he said the day after a motorcycle accident in which only a legal loophole saved him from a driving-without-a-license ticket. The sidecar he temporarily attached for his 12-year-old son Patrick to ride in made his Harley-Davidson a three-wheeler and all he needed to drive that was an ordinary Class C license. But he admitted riding his Harley Davidson without the proper license, explaining it only with his rules-don’t-apply-to-me line.
Schwarzenegger’s statement came as he described his penchant for thrill-seeking sports like sky-diving, fast downhill skiing and motorcycling. But he has ridden without a California motorcycle license for decades, even appearing in a tourism promotion film while speeding along Pacific Coast Highway on a “hog.” So he plainly meant what he said about not sticking to the rules he’s legally obliged to enforce on everyone else.
That’s quite a stance for a governor who favors expansion of prisons to hold other folks who don’t like to obey rules. Quite a position for the commander of National Guard units and California Highway Patrol officers who enforce the state’s laws.
So Schwarzenegger’s loose lips once again are providing fodder sure to be used by political opponents. His ad libbing is also alienating many dedicated Republicans.
Former state Republican Party chairman Michael Schroeder days wrote that the governor is “erratic'” adding that he “has not shown … the basic skills needed to competently govern” and should not run for reelection. That’s from a former strong supporter.
Schwarzenegger also lately shows loose lips in another major way: taking credit for difficult political work others did long before he came along.
He laced his state of the state speech, televised live on major stations throughout California, with this kind of political plagiarism. The major theme of that speech was a $222 billion “strategic growth plan” for the next 15 years, a program Schwarzenegger repeatedly implies is his idea.
But almost all this program, which his aides call the most significant wave of infrastructure investment in recent California history, was going to happen with or without Schwarzenegger’s endorsement.
More than 40 percent of what he plans to spend will come from previously approved bonds, previously authorized federal transportation funds and existing gas taxes, all products of years of hard work by other people who get no credit from the governor.
The $68 billion in construction bonds the governor calls for actually would represent a slight reduction in the pace of bonding approved by voters over the last decade.
The speech also contained a series of misstatements and apparent miscalculations, according to an analysis from the state treasurer’s civil service staff – officials whose jobs do not depend on loyalty to current Treasurer Phil Angelides, one of two leading Democrats vying to face the governor in the fall.
In short, the speech was full of loose-lipped claims and pronouncements that could come back to haunt Schwarzenegger almost as badly as his remark about not sticking to the rules.
All of which looks like a severe case of political hubris. Whenever Schwarzenegger inserts foot in mouth, as in his remarks about the nurses and in claiming rules don’t apply to him, he blithely goes about his next public appearance without admitting even a slight misstep. Example: Asked about Schroeder’s remarks the day they appeared, Schwarzenegger said only that “I’m very happy with the way things are going.” It’s as if he believes voters and rivals will never remember a thing about him except his celebrity.
Last year’s results plainly prove he’s wrong about that; at least some voters and opponents did remember and voted accordingly. Only this fall’s results will tell whether the damage done by the governor’s loose lips will be enough to sink his political career.
