Schwarzenegger Faces Defining Tests on "Post-Partisanship" With Decisions on Iraq War Vote and Last Minute Presidential Election Changes

These Republican legislators also say that the measure in calling for an "immediate" withdrawal of our troops is beyond that which "even the Democratic Congress" is willing to support. In the way that they protest too much, they are tacitly admitting that the vote will be in the affirmative on this proposition and that they cannot with this argument defeat it in February. For if it does not pass, their position would be strengthened. They certainly aren't giving a full and fair recital of the proposition, which states:

“Shall President George W. Bush, in support of the men and women serving in the Armed Forces of the United States, end the United States occupation of Iraq and achieve the immediate, complete, safe, and orderly withdrawal of United States forces; and, further, shall President George W. Bush and the Congress provide the necessary diplomatic and nonmilitary assistance to promote peace and stability in Iraq and the Middle East?” [Emphasis added]

But more importantly, shouldn't the voters of California be able to judge this and vote on how they feel?

Even the Orange County Register, a Republican/libertarian newspaper, editorialized in support of having a vote in “Let Californians be heard on Iraq: There's no good reason not to have a referendum on the Feb. 5 ballot.”

The Register said:

“One of the consequences of never having had a formal declaration of war (as we still believe the Constitution requires) before invading Iraq is that the kind of far-ranging discussion that should have preceded such a drastic step was short-circuited. A referendum in California would have no power to bind or mandate the president. But it would offer him and his advisers important information about how the people view the Iraq war almost five years on. Not that California is necessarily representative of the nation as a whole, but the views of Californians are not unimportant.

“The most childish reason to oppose putting such a referendum on the ballot is the argument that even discussing the idea of troop withdrawal will hurt morale in the military in Iraq and perhaps even endanger the troops. There's little or no reason to suspect this is true.”

And what about that argument that this is just designed to drive voters out to the polls? That in itself seems to recognize that this is what the state voters want to see on the ballot and that they will care enough to get out and vote in larger numbers. Shouldn't we want to see more Californians voting and excited about doing so?

Or are we supposed to be demoralized by headlines such as the recent Washington Post's "Bush Wants $50 Billion More for Iraq War: Planned Request Signals Confidence That Congress Won't Prevail on Pullout"?

The Republican Scheme to Neuter California in the Presidential Election

Schwarzenegger also is going to have to take a position on this measure that is being circulated for signatures to place it on the June ballot and that would have the effect of deciding the race for the Presidency in June, by awarding electoral votes to the Republican candidate of about the size of Ohio that decided the last election.

Schwarzenegger has already announced that he will be supporting the Republican nominee for President. It's bad enough that he campaigned in the last crucial days of the 2004 election for Bush in Ohio. But he can't duck this one with lines such as he delivered last Wednesday "I haven't looked at the language and I'm not saying I'm against it or I'm for it or anything." That line is beginning to get laughs.

Some folks are having a field day with this one, such as Julia Rosen who wrote in Calitics about carrying in 2148 copies of the "Dirty Tricks Initiative" to the Governor's office and a picture to prove it.

A clear stand against this initiative, which is now being opposed by many Republicans who see it as fundamentally unfair to change only California's law on the Electoral College, will be needed to clothe our Governor in post partisanship garb. Once agains, even the Orange County Register called this a "Reform for Losers." Time will tell what clothes the Emperor will wear on Iraq and the fairness of the next election.