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Yes, I like you guys too, but I'm not going to sit here and take insults from the likes of Mark on this. His 'Congratulation' was his way of sticking the knife in one more time.

Insult? Schwarzenegger's victory was something for which you worked long and hard. It's a knife you handed to Arnold when you chose to believe his fuzzy bull, which he has since deftly plunged on numerous occasions. It's not my doing. Had Arnold proved to be a fiscal conservative, had he not derailed the workman's comp initiative, had he not increased spending and forced local government to raise taxes, had he not chosen to bypass open government, had he not destroyed the constitutional protection against borrowing, had he not hidden the size of the current deficit ala Bray Davis, you would be laughing at my foolishness and be right to do so. I am acknowledging the accountability for your lack of discernment in studying Arnold before making you choices, by pointing out the facts, if not reminding you of your conduct in the process and that you were warned. As to insults, I don't call your posts stupid, insane, a "jihad," or idiotic. That's your style, not mine, as the posters on the list above will ruefully attest.

Meanwhile, the only argument of which you seem capable is that had conservatives not supported Arnold, Bustamante would have won. That is patently false but since you justified your choices thereby one can hardly fault your consistency, late polling data to the contrary.

Schwarzenegger won on the strength of Democrats who couldn't support Bustamante, GOP moderates, and conservatives who fell for the "because he can win" belief, based upon a campaign of fear that eminated from the New Majority crooks that gave us Nixon (you do remember that debacle?). Instead of letting Schwarzenegger take votes from Bustamante, only to be defeated by conservatives who significantly outnumber Republican moderates, you fell for that campaign of fear, telling us that Schwarzenegger represented an incremental step back toward Republican governance, all immediate historical evidence and indications from Arnold's written policies to the contrary. After years of successful conservatives, "moderates" gave us Wilson, which led directly to Gray Davis. If the incrementalism you have suggested Schwarzenegger represented worked, that never would have happened. Instead, those same "moderates" stabbed their own conservative candidate in the back in the person of Bill Simon, accompanied by many here on FR.

Apparently you don't understand that the RINOs will never allow conservatives to be successful and have done everything possible for over forty years to derail conservative candidates (see hosing Kaloogian for Bill Jones and then abandoning him for a contemporary case). For you to have supported Arnold when there was a clear alternative shows that you don't understand either the history or the mechanics within the corporate Republican establishment.

You fell for that bogus fear mongering and for that you are accountable. I told you and FairOpinion at that time that I would hold you to it in the interest of showing you how destructive Arnold would be (your predictions to the contrary) and seeing to it that you never do something like supporting Arnold again unless there was NO other choice (as is the case in the presidential election). You had no idea how bad Arnold would be and didn't listen to those who tried to educate you, believing that it was only blind partisanship. It wasn't; it was the voice of hard experience, research, analysis, personal knowledge of Arnold's character (or lack thereof), and hard polling data.

You underestimate yourself. This is still a nation of self-government and we DO get the government we deserve. Instead of fighting for conservative principles you chose to fight anyone who would challenge your compromise and discounted all evidence that pointed to what Arnold would really do. I know for a fact that the conservative pols in this state were watching FR to see if the conservative grass roots could be convinced to break for Arnold in order to secure the governorship. The likes of you and FairOpinion were instrumental in that regard with your relentless browbeating, attacks on McClintock, and the baseless assertion that Arnold would at least do SOMETHING to get spending under control. After weeks of such relentless browbeating, Chris Cox et al. broke for Arnold. The rest is history.

You got what you wanted, and the list of Arnold's leftist moves and efforts to thwart real reforms is growing (such as in workman's comp). I promise you, we may see more of a net leftward turn in Sacramento and more significant marginalization of conservatives under Arnold than we would have seen even under Bustamentalcase, who would have been stymied by the lack of votes to get a budget, an envigorated the referendum and recall process (you can bet that if he signed another SB60 after a referendum he would have been hosed), AND rekindled interest in conservative government. Until you admit that it was a mistake to support Schwarzenegger, you can look forward to more evidence of that mistake.