I confess, the MSM habit of casually trotting out Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, Rudy Giuliani of New York, and Arnold Schwarzenegger of California as examples of the vanishing, precious "moderate" Republican has long been a big sticking point with me.
The awful truth is that Romney is a total, shameless opportunist (and people who've been paying attention in Massachusetts have known this for at least a full decade); Rudy Giuliani is an outright fascist; and Arnold Schwarzenegger is a total Bushie, the only difference that the wingnuts in California do not have the power to start wars on a pack of lies (though down in One-Party Republican San Diego County on the Mexican border they keep trying).
Here is a link to the Los Angeles Times story:
Published in the Los Angeles Times, June 18, 2009.
Schwarzenegger Says He'll Veto Democrats' Plan for Balancing Budget
by Michael Rothfeld and Shane Goldmacher
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger told the leaders of the Assembly and Senate on Wednesday to scrap their plan to raise taxes to help close the state's budget deficit, but the two Democrats insisted they would move ahead next week with a vote of the full Legislature.
. . .
The proposal included what the lawmakers said were $11 billion in cuts to programs dear to Democrats -- to education, healthcare and welfare -- along with $10 billion in accounting maneuvers and other financial moves such as selling state assets.
But it was the levies intended to raise $1.9 billion in new taxes on oil and tobacco, and fees on motorists to fund state parks, that Schwarzenegger said would be unfair to Californians after higher taxes were imposed on them in February."
On the one hand, the pundits and the professors of the MSM scold the American people (and progressives in particular) for "single issue/identity" politics. Abortion, gay rights, and immigration should not be a political "litmus test" they all say.
Very well.
So, why, exactly, do the same pundits say the likes of Giuliani and Schwarzenegger are "moderate" Republicans instead of just plain old "conservative" Republicans? Only because Giuliani and Schwarzenegger are not right-wing crazies about abortion, gay rights, and immigration.
Next time they call Arnold a "moderate" we should unleash a hurricane of letters-to-the-editor.
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