Two days ago it leaked out of Arnold Schwarzenegger's bunker that his new campaign manager will be none other than Dick Cheney's aide (henchman), Steve Schmidt. Schmidt is the 2nd BushCo operative sent in, (the first being Adam Mendelsohn, the governor's new communications director:
http://tinyurl.com/...)
This interest by the Bush Crime Family is very very bad not only for California but for the entire nation here's why:
Steve Schmidt is a deeply embedded BushCo criminal crony who ran the 2004 campaign (swindle) and up until today was helping to handle the Alito nomination. This guy is big shit and he's now pointed directly at the Golden State.
Schmidt's assignment to run Schwartzenegger's 2006 campaign builds a bridge directly from the White House that has until now been blocked from the Washington side. The Bush cabinet have kept Arnold out in the cold since his arrival in California's statehouse. We must take this appointment as a credible sign that the Bushies intend to try and steal California in 2006.
This will be aided by the new Republican-appointed Secretary of State, Bruce McPherson, who has opened the door to re-certifying Diebold black box voting machines in California. The machines had been stopped cold by Democratic former Secretary of State Kevin Shelley (who resigned in disgrace with no support from a single Democrat).
It appears the same groundwork is forming in California that occured in Florida prior to 2000, and in Ohio prior to 2004. If the Republicans can gain a foothold in California it will be mighty tough to take back the White House in 2008. Our 54 deliciously tempting electoral votes will cinch a continued GOP domination for decades to come. Whether by hook or crook, they'll try to steal 'em.
"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, in a signal that he'll mount an aggressive 2006 re-election campaign, has hired one of the White House's top political operatives to run his campaign -- a former California GOP strategist who has been described by Newsweek as a political "artillery shell" for his hard-charging tactics.
The governor's office would not confirm the hiring on Tuesday, but sources said Steve Schmidt, 35, is expected to be announced shortly as Schwarzenegger's 2006 re-election campaign manager. Schmidt, a deputy assistant to President Bush and counselor to Vice President Dick Cheney who is responsible for Cheney's press relations and communications, will not join the governor's campaign until February, the sources said."
Full article here:
http://tinyurl.com/...
Mr. Schmidt is Cheney's personal gatekeeper as evidenced by the following fine examples of his M/O:
By ELISABETH BUMILLER (NYT)
Published: November 28, 2005
"Built like the tight end he was in high school, with a gleaming shaved head that sets off his pinstriped suits, Steve Schmidt looks like someone you would not want to bump into in a dark corner of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, his current lair.
''Obviously, his look has a high degree of intensity,'' said Matthew Dowd, President Bush's chief strategist in the 2004 campaign and a friend of Mr. Schmidt.
But Mr. Schmidt, 35, is more of a subtle tactician than his appearance might suggest. At the moment, he is using that skill, with varying success, in two crucial jobs: counselor to Vice President Dick Cheney, with responsibility for press relations and communications, and chief White House strategist in charge of selling the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. on Capitol Hill.
In short, he is one of those people most Americans have never heard of who is at the center of the big brawls in Washington. He got his start in the administration by running the Bush campaign's war room in 2004, when Newsweek likened him to an artillery shell and said he stalked through campaign headquarters declaring, ''Kill, kill, kill.'' Mr. Schmidt said he had devoted most of his time since June to two of President Bush's three Supreme Court nominations, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Judge Alito. Mr. Schmidt would have worked on the nomination of Harriet E. Miers but was in Iraq at the time, dispatched by the White House to assess problems in the American government's press operation in Baghdad."
And there's more:
"On Tuesday, the Republican party seemed to mount an uncharacteristically hard-hitting, three-pronged counter-attack against those who would have the American public believe they were lied to about pre-war intelligence.
The first prong of the attack came when White House spokesman Scott Mclellan on Tuesday accused Sen. Reid as going on "rants that were "unbecoming of a leader of any party." He then pondered whether the American public would think of Democrats statements as genuine concerns about America, or as an effort to undermine a "dedicated public servant."
Prong number two occurred when the chief spokesman for Vice President Cheney, Steve Schmidt, also came out harshly against Democrat Minority leader Harry Reid, saying his comments were "unconscionable personal attacks and malicious." Schmidt then added, "These are beneath the office of the Democrat leader."
(http://tinyurl.com/...)
Schmidt was Deputy Communications Director for Bush/Cheney 2004.
Guardian Unlimited
August 2004
"Yesterday Bush campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt explicitly linked the Vietnam row to the emergence of these powerful groups. 'Real coordination is what John Kerry's campaign has been engaged in with the Media Fund, America Coming Together, and MoveOn.org,' he said. '(It) is a flagrant disregard of the spirit and letter of the campaign finance reform law.'"
(http://tinyurl.com/...)
Regarding Kitty Kelley's bio on the Bush Clan:
"Kitty Kelley is a discredited purveyor of trash," Bush-Cheney campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt said Monday. "She smeared the Reagan family and now she is peddling garbage about the current first family."
(http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...)
The Nader Campaign reported some shenanigans:
"Spokesman for the Bush campaign, Steve Schmidt, told the Oregonian (newspaper) that no paid campaign staffers were making calls to help Nader but said that some volunteers may have made calls from the campaign's office. "The campaign certainly understands that when Republican volunteers see that there are Democrat volunteers trying to restrict the choice and keep Ralph Nader off the ballot, that they should work to expand choice," Schmidt said."
(http://tinyurl.com/...)
Schmidt was involved in blurring the lines between church & State:
"The Bush-Cheney '04 national headquarters in Virginia has asked us to identify 1,600 'Friendly Congregations' in Pennsylvania where voters friendly to President Bush might gather on a regular basis," a senior Bush election official in Pennsylvania wrote to clergy members and others on Tuesday.
-snip-
If congregations take the Bush campaign up on the request, they could lose their tax-exempt status, say some critics.
-snip-
But not very often, it should be noted. In the 27 years that IRS regulations have banned churches from engaging in electoral politics, only two churches and five religious organizations have lost their tax-exempt status for such a violation. And to date, no church has actually had trouble with "distributing general information" about campaigns or registering voters "in a place accessible to the congregation."
Even less troubling, says Bush campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt, is what Bernstein's message asked for--the names of individuals in various churches who might be interested in volunteering. The campaign isn't asking for endorsements from the pulpit, he said.
"The e-mail is targeted to individuals, asking individuals to become involved in the campaign and to share information about the campaign with other people in their faith community," Schmidt explained. "Yesterday, a liberal judge from San Francisco overturned a partial-birth abortion ban which banned that abhorrent procedure. That is an example of an issue that people of faith from across the United States care about."
(http://tinyurl.com/...)
So as you can see, BushCo henchmen are setting up shop in California, no doubt with full funding and trunk-loads of dirty tricks. We have to keep these guy as exposed as possible and the Democratic candidates for governor better get a Dr. Dean spinal transplant BUT QUICK!