Governor’s Record Isn’t as Good as the Spin on It

Your Nov. 14 editorial, “Rookie of the Year,” gives our popular governor a free pass despite his failure to live up to his campaign promises. His list of failures far outstrips his meager accomplishments. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has been unusually adept at public relations, a skill that former Gov. Gray Davis never learned, but calling Schwarzenegger an unusually effective governor is a whitewash, pure and simple.

Davis was reviled for the increase in vehicle license fees, while our current governor gets credit for reversing the $4-billion levy by simply adding it to the state’s debt burden. At last count, the state is $15 billion in debt to pay for last year’s budget shortfall.

The governor’s cavalier acceptance of ethical lapses by key staff members when they accepted $44,105 in personal gifts during his first year is one more broken promise to institute campaign reform.

The governor’s chutzpah is boundless. Just one year in office and he already is favoring a constitutional amendment allowing a foreign-born individual to qualify for the U.S. presidency.

Irving Willner

Monterey Park

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I am not surprised to read that you find Schwarzenegger’s first year to be a “mild success,” given how you have spun his so-called accomplishments. Granted, the environmental gains should weigh heavily in his favor, but you have not really examined how much actual work he did. What I find interesting is how you have swept under the rug the allegations of sexual harassment and the direct evidence of his staff’s acceptance of “gifts.”

In some circles, these actions would be morally reprehensible. I suppose, however, in the Republican morality double-standard world, a lumpy carpet is fine so long as you keep the party flag hoisted.

Glenda Tamblyn

Northridge