Ahnold Perspires and Aspires

Posted on February 24, 2004 in California Watch Citizenship Partnership

It’s politics Tuesday!

When he’s not threatening California voters with getting tough if they don’t pass his propositions, Ahnold tells the press that he’s worried about “civil unrest” arising from San Francisco’s decision to issue marriage licenses to same sex couples. Red Water Lily points out that all the protests have been small and no arrests have been made. Nevertheless, the man-of-steroid-flabbed-muscles who squats in the Governor’s Mansion appears to be ready and willing to reenact his roles as The Terminator in real life.

If he suspects that any unrest is being planned, Ahnold should look to the Assemblies of God and other Fundamentalist Churches. They’ve been well-trained to hector abortion clinic workers: expanding their harassment to same sex couples should be an easy extension of their machinations.

Meanwhile Bush, eager to be the Anybody-But-a-Bush-Lite has, in the words of Balkinization, “thrown in the towel” and endorsed civil unions:

He is attempting to shape the issue in terms of what states may officially term “marriage,” as opposed to preventing states from effectively giving same sex couples the bundle of rights enjoyed by married couples. This means that he cannot endorse the proposed FMA in its current form, because, as I have noted previously, it would also prevent states from passing civil unions or domestic partnership legislation. His strategy is to make the fight about semantics and symbolism rather than substance.

This could cause the Fundamentalists to stay home or back a candidate such as deposed Alabama Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore. I fully support the right of every American to vote their conscience.

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Back to Ahnold: We’ve all heard about how he wants to become President of the United States. This will require a constitutional amendment, an option which Andrew of Byte Back placidly disassembles. In his first appearance before the well-tamed press corps, Ahnold played coy:

“There are so many people in this country that are now from overseas, that are immigrants, that are doing such a terrific job with their work, bringing businesses here, that there’s no reason why not,” said Schwarzenegger, who became a U.S. citizen in 1983.

“Look at the kind of contribution that people like Henry Kissinger have made, Madeleine Albright,” he said, referring to two former secretaries of state who were born in Europe.

As for running himself, Schwarzenegger told host Tim Russert he’s been too busy with California’s problems to contemplate it. “I have no idea, I haven’t thought about that at all,” he said.

Yeah, right.

Yule Heibel broke her silence on politics to scream Terminate This!

I don’t know, I think the anti-foreign-born law is a good one. Germany should have had that law. At least we should see that one Austrian was enough.

A lesson to be remembered.