(cross-posted on the
BetterCA blog)
Or so says the California GOP leaders, as they exited their meeting with Arnold yesterday. With that sort of a reaction, I wonder what Arnold promised them that they came out smiling like the butcher's dog.
The Kennedy saga continues, much to our delight...
SacBee.com:
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and California Republican Party Chairman Duf Sundheim emerged from a meeting Thursday to declare that as far as they're concerned, the controversy over the governor's appointment of Democrat Susan Kennedy as chief of staff is over.
"I think that issue has been put to rest," Sundheim said of the Kennedy matter, after the governor's session with the state GOP board in a conference room at the Hyatt Regency that lasted about an hour. "He made it clear she is there to implement his policies. She's totally committed to that, and we support his decision."
Then again, words are just words and those who were not in that meeting are still steewing, particularly over Duf's choice of words. Most Republicans do not "support his decision" to hire Kennedy. Fleichman tells us that many party officials are holding their tounges in public to try and help the whole issue blow over.
The members of the Board of Directors, I believe, have been done a disservice here. It is clear to me from talking to a number board members, who agreed to be silent after the meeting, that they feel like they have been put in an awkward position (for some, that is putting it mildly). Apparently the agreement for everyone to keep 'mum' was abused, willfully or not. You see, I know for a fact that the board did not express support for the hiring of Ms. Kennedy. Out of deferene to the confidential nature of some of my conversations, I cannot elaborate on what did happen in that meeting. But none of the board members to whom I have spoken support the Governor's decision to hire Susan Kennedy. Not one.
But for the Chairman to walk out of a room and characterize about The Party, or the Board, that "we" support the Kennedy appointment draws one to conclude that he means the 'royal' we - which is to mean that Duf, as an individual, supports her appointment...maybe. Sometimes we get caught in front of a camera, or pinned by a reporter, and what should have been "We support the Governor," becomes "we support his decision" (to hire Susan Kennedy).
It sounds like the party officials are putting on their public happy masks, while they stew in private. Arnold will not have to do much to cause another flare-up. It is just a matter of time.