Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger: GOP 'dying at the box office'

[DeepModem Mom]

LAT: Gov: GOP 'dying at the box office'
Schwarzenegger warns against weakening the party with a bunker mentality so that its only remaining power is to say 'no.'
By Evan Halper and Scott Martelle, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
September 8, 2007

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger issued a warning to his fellow California Republicans on Friday: Their party is doomed if it does not move to the political center. In a speech before 1,200 delegates to a semiannual state party convention, Schwarzenegger said the group's failure to reach out to independent and moderate voters -- and embrace politicians who, like him, govern from the middle -- is causing membership to plummet. "In movie terms, . . . we are dying at the box office," he said. "We are not filling the seats."

The speech, which drew a mixed response, comes at a time of strained relations between the governor and the conservative activists who control the party. Schwarzenegger's policies on the environment, healthcare and state spending have led some party leaders to call him a Democrat masquerading as a Republican. Yet in welcoming Schwarzenegger, party Chairman Ron Nehring described him as "the single greatest asset of the California Republican Party." Anticipating the speech to come, Nehring said the governor had been "bold" in taking the lead on healthcare and the environment -- traditionally Democratic issues.

Schwarzenegger, armed with poll numbers and invoking the names of "pragmatic conservatives" Ronald Reagan, Dwight D. Eisenhower and Teddy Roosevelt, told a nearly full ballroom at the Renaissance Esmeralda Resort and Spa that on the issues, most Republican voters agree with him -- not party activists. "Our party has lost the middle, and we will not regain true political power in California until we get it back," he said. "I am of the Reagan view that we should not go off the cliff with flags flying." "I did that in 2005; trust me," Schwarzenegger said in a reference to his failed special election, when voters rejected each one of the conservative ballot measures he championed.

Cautioning against an incipient "bunker mentality," he urged the party to follow the lead of Democrats and invite independents to vote in primaries. Otherwise, he said in a clear reference to the summer's prolonged budget standoff, the party will deteriorate to such an extent that "our only remaining power is to say no."...

***

Conservative Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who followed Schwarzenegger to the stage, received a more enthusiastic reception with a liberal-baiting speech....

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-arnold8sep08,0,5971876.story?coll=la-home-center

[goclark]

1. Here we go - the Arnold for President movement

He is right but I don't trust him one damn minute.
He blows like the wind.

[aquart]

3. You are aware that he wasn't born here and cannot run?

[TheFarseer]

4. BUT

there was talk of a Constitutional Amendment so that he could.

[high density]

7. Constitutional Amendment is a HUGE hurdle to jump

I am not worried about it in the least.

[goclark]

8. I am aware and I'm also aware there were no WMD

Under the Chimp's Dictatorship, all things are possible.

[napi21]

2. Actually Arnold is right. Although I'm glad to hear the Party strongly disagrees

with him! If they listen, they do stand a much better chance, nation wide! Stick to your "bunker mentality" Pubs! That way we won't have to worry about you for a LONG LONG TIME!!!!

[Vidar]

10. Exactly, much as the words "Arnold is right" pain me to say!

[Arugula Latte]

5. The GOP: Tonight they're gonna party like it's 1899 ... nt

[DeepModem Mom]

6. LOL!

[ProudDad]

9. Please don't believe that the groppensteroidenfuhrer is "moderate" or "centrist"

He's a right-wing tool of his corporate capitalist masters...no more, no less.

DON'T BE FOOLED...