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Debaters Rip Schwarzenegger
September 18, 2003
Gary Delsohn -- Bee Capitol Bureau
HOLLYWOOD -- While this is where Arnold Schwarzenegger found his greatest fame, the movie star who wants to be governor took a beating from three challengers Wednesday for skipping a spirited debate and being questioned instead -- across the street -- by gentleman interrogator Larry King.
"I just wish we could get Arnold here," Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante said in one of his many swipes at Schwarzenegger in a debate sponsored by the Los Angeles Press Club at a film school on Sunset Boulevard.
The only debate that Schwarzenegger has agreed to appear in is scheduled for next week at California State University, Sacramento, where candidates are supposed to receive questions beforehand.
His opponents should turn the tables on him, Bustamante said Wednesday, and hold their own debate on taxes, the economy and other vital California issues outside the school.
Bustamante said the other candidates should have "an unscripted debate outside of Sacramento State and leave Arnold in there with his movie-script answers and the rest of us take real questions from real reporters and real moderators like this," as he nodded toward an empty chair with Schwarzenegger's name tag in front.
At a CNN studio across the street, Schwarzenegger taped a one-hour segment of "Larry King Live." He defended his decision to participate in just one debate, on Sept. 24 in Sacramento.
The other debates he skipped were "just little warm-ups," Schwarzenegger said. "We go for the Super Bowl of them."
During the hour of gentle questioning from King, Schwarzenegger said he would try to overcome his lack of experience in government by "surrounding myself with the smartest people."
He attacked Gov. Gray Davis for failing to provide leadership on a host of issues, including transportation and infrastructure -- even though the Republican front-runner has not yet detailed his plans on those issues. He also called for more private investment in power plants and faulted Davis for signing long-term energy contracts when prices were high.
Schwarzenegger also met at a Los Angeles restaurant with a couple dozen immigrants who became U.S. citizens Wednesday. The actor-turned-politician urged the group to contribute to their new country.
"It is like a dream," Armenian immigrant Karo Karapetyan said. "Today I became a citizen, I registered to vote and I met Arnold -- three things some people don't do in their life."
Wednesday's candidate debate -- which also was attended by state Sen. Tom McClintock, writer Arianna Huffington and Green Party candidate Peter Camejo -- was loose and had very few rules. At one point, co-moderator Patt Morrison of the Los Angeles Times tried eliciting some personal comments by asking rapid-fire questions about the candidates' favorite books and movies, whether they owned a gun, spoke any other languages and could recall their last vacation.
Some of the revelations: McClintock bought a shotgun a few years ago when his family was threatened, Bustamante has a deer rifle he hasn't used in years, and McClintock's favorite book is "Free to Choose" by conservative economist Milton Friedman.
Huffington joked that McClintock and Schwarzenegger, a moderate Republican, had common ground because Schwarzenegger also has spoken fondly of Friedman. McClintock replied, "But I actually read the book."
Camejo complimented the conservative McClintock for showing up and taking the heat from the far more liberal candidates sharing the stage with him.
"But he will never say what he's going to cut," Camejo said of McClintock, who often stresses cutting waste in government.
There was plenty of substance on specific issues, too. The candidates sparred on how best to balance the state budget; McClintock wouldn't raise taxes, and the others would.
They disagreed on whether they'd sign state Sen. John Burton's bill requiring employers to pay into a fund that would provide medical insurance for their uninsured workers. McClintock said he wouldn't, Bustamante said he would, and Camejo and Huffington said they would -- but only as a first step toward their ultimate goal of universal health care for all Californians.
Bustamante also was attacked again for taking several million dollars from California Indian tribes and for putting money that exceeds new state fund-raising limits into a separate fund he controls to oppose Proposition 54.
"I can be playing this same laundering game you're playing," McClintock said to Bustamante, "but my folks tell me it's illegal, and if it's not illegal, it is on the wrong side of the law."
Earlier Wednesday, Schwarzenegger picked up Howard Stern's endorsement when he called in to the shock jock's morning radio show. The wealthy candidate said he plans to spend $10 million of his own money on a campaign he expects will cost $22 million.
To put Schwarzenegger on the air, Stern got a Federal Communications Commission ruling that his show was a news program to avoid "equal time" rules that would have required him to let the more than 130 other recall candidates appear on his show.
Stern vowed to help Schwarzenegger pick up the votes he needs to win the race to replace Davis.
"But you gotta give me some kind of payoff … not a bribe, but where I am treated with some respect," Stern joked.
Source: Copyright 2003 Sacramento Bee. All Rights Reserved.
Here is the link.
September 18, 2003
Gary Delsohn -- Bee Capitol Bureau
HOLLYWOOD -- While this is where Arnold Schwarzenegger found his greatest fame, the movie star who wants to be governor took a beating from three challengers Wednesday for skipping a spirited debate and being questioned instead -- across the street -- by gentleman interrogator Larry King.
"I just wish we could get Arnold here," Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante said in one of his many swipes at Schwarzenegger in a debate sponsored by the Los Angeles Press Club at a film school on Sunset Boulevard.
The only debate that Schwarzenegger has agreed to appear in is scheduled for next week at California State University, Sacramento, where candidates are supposed to receive questions beforehand.
His opponents should turn the tables on him, Bustamante said Wednesday, and hold their own debate on taxes, the economy and other vital California issues outside the school.
Bustamante said the other candidates should have "an unscripted debate outside of Sacramento State and leave Arnold in there with his movie-script answers and the rest of us take real questions from real reporters and real moderators like this," as he nodded toward an empty chair with Schwarzenegger's name tag in front.
At a CNN studio across the street, Schwarzenegger taped a one-hour segment of "Larry King Live." He defended his decision to participate in just one debate, on Sept. 24 in Sacramento.
The other debates he skipped were "just little warm-ups," Schwarzenegger said. "We go for the Super Bowl of them."
During the hour of gentle questioning from King, Schwarzenegger said he would try to overcome his lack of experience in government by "surrounding myself with the smartest people."
He attacked Gov. Gray Davis for failing to provide leadership on a host of issues, including transportation and infrastructure -- even though the Republican front-runner has not yet detailed his plans on those issues. He also called for more private investment in power plants and faulted Davis for signing long-term energy contracts when prices were high.
Schwarzenegger also met at a Los Angeles restaurant with a couple dozen immigrants who became U.S. citizens Wednesday. The actor-turned-politician urged the group to contribute to their new country.
"It is like a dream," Armenian immigrant Karo Karapetyan said. "Today I became a citizen, I registered to vote and I met Arnold -- three things some people don't do in their life."
Wednesday's candidate debate -- which also was attended by state Sen. Tom McClintock, writer Arianna Huffington and Green Party candidate Peter Camejo -- was loose and had very few rules. At one point, co-moderator Patt Morrison of the Los Angeles Times tried eliciting some personal comments by asking rapid-fire questions about the candidates' favorite books and movies, whether they owned a gun, spoke any other languages and could recall their last vacation.
Some of the revelations: McClintock bought a shotgun a few years ago when his family was threatened, Bustamante has a deer rifle he hasn't used in years, and McClintock's favorite book is "Free to Choose" by conservative economist Milton Friedman.
Huffington joked that McClintock and Schwarzenegger, a moderate Republican, had common ground because Schwarzenegger also has spoken fondly of Friedman. McClintock replied, "But I actually read the book."
Camejo complimented the conservative McClintock for showing up and taking the heat from the far more liberal candidates sharing the stage with him.
"But he will never say what he's going to cut," Camejo said of McClintock, who often stresses cutting waste in government.
There was plenty of substance on specific issues, too. The candidates sparred on how best to balance the state budget; McClintock wouldn't raise taxes, and the others would.
They disagreed on whether they'd sign state Sen. John Burton's bill requiring employers to pay into a fund that would provide medical insurance for their uninsured workers. McClintock said he wouldn't, Bustamante said he would, and Camejo and Huffington said they would -- but only as a first step toward their ultimate goal of universal health care for all Californians.
Bustamante also was attacked again for taking several million dollars from California Indian tribes and for putting money that exceeds new state fund-raising limits into a separate fund he controls to oppose Proposition 54.
"I can be playing this same laundering game you're playing," McClintock said to Bustamante, "but my folks tell me it's illegal, and if it's not illegal, it is on the wrong side of the law."
Earlier Wednesday, Schwarzenegger picked up Howard Stern's endorsement when he called in to the shock jock's morning radio show. The wealthy candidate said he plans to spend $10 million of his own money on a campaign he expects will cost $22 million.
To put Schwarzenegger on the air, Stern got a Federal Communications Commission ruling that his show was a news program to avoid "equal time" rules that would have required him to let the more than 130 other recall candidates appear on his show.
Stern vowed to help Schwarzenegger pick up the votes he needs to win the race to replace Davis.
"But you gotta give me some kind of payoff … not a bribe, but where I am treated with some respect," Stern joked.
Source: Copyright 2003 Sacramento Bee. All Rights Reserved.
Here is the link.