Posted on 03/23/2006 9:19:57 AM PST by NormsRevenge
As dismay grows in his own party and among many observers over Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s seemingly surprising embrace and defense of left-liberal Democrat Rob Reiner and his tenure as chairman of the California Children and Families Commission, it is becoming evident that some of Schwarzenegger’s highest ranking appointees and advisors have long been involved with the controversial commission and the movie director/initiative promoter himself and have played key roles in the direction the program has taken.
“The First 5 Commission,” says one Schwarzenegger friend using the Reiner commission’s nickname, “and Reiner himself have been much closer to the governor than people think.”
Former Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg, a close Arnold friend and top political advisor who pushed the appointment of controversial Schwarzenegger chief of staff Susan Kennedy, former Schwarzenegger Secretary of Education Richard Riordan and his wife, Nancy Daly Riordan, both longtime friends of the First Couple, and Schwarzenegger’s Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kimberly Belshe, have all been deeply involved with the Reiner commission and its drive for universal preschool.
Reiner had wanted the highly funded First 5 LA Commission, which operates under the umbrella of his state commission and is funded by the tobacco tax enacted by his 1998 Proposition 10 initiative, and over which he is said by sources to be very influential, to establish a universal preschool program. To that end, an advisory council chaired by Hertzberg (who was Arnold's first choice to serve as his chief of staff, prior to Hertzberg running for mayor of L.A.) and Nancy Daly Riordan was established in 2002 to work on developing a “10-year Master Plan,” as documents call it, for First 5 LA’s “Universal Preschool initiative.” (Prior to becoming involved with Riordan, L.A.’s very wealthy former mayor, Nancy Daly Riordan was long married to Warner Brothers chairman Bob Daly, in which context she first met Schwarzenegger.)
THE PLAN WAS TO USE THE PROP 10 MONEY to institute in Los Angeles County what Reiner is trying to do now statewide with his Proposition 82 universal preschool on California’s June ballot. On February 12, 2004, First 5 LA formally adopted the master plan developed with guidance from Schwarzenegger’s associates, Hertzberg and Riordan.
But there was a problem. The program was very expensive. It was taking a lot of time to get up and running. More funds would be needed. In what Reiner would probably describe as a coincidence if he acknowledged knowing about it at all, which last week he did not, the state commission on June 28, 2004 signed a $67.5 million contract for advertising, largely to stimulate public demand for preschool programs. $23 million of that was used to promote “Preschool For All” after Reiner launched his universal preschool initiative last year and sent operatives into the field to gather signatures so it would qualify for this year’s primary election.
Nancy Daly Riordan, meanwhile, resigned later in 2004 from the Los Angeles Universal Preschool Board, citing, according to First 5 officials, concern about having to file economic conflict of interest forms.
Her husband, former Education Secretary and LA Mayor Dick Riordan, has long been associated with Reiner and the state and LA commissions. He was an early endorser of Prop 10 in 1998, and campaigned for its passage with Reiner. When criticism of the Reiner Commission - centering on slowness to act and flaky projects - emerged in the year following the passage of Prop 10, Riordan appeared publicly with Reiner to praise the commission and its work and was very supportive of Reiner’s less than successful plan to implement universal preschool in L.A. He is one of the drafters of Reiner's latest initiative, Proposition 82 for universal preschool.
Arnold introduced Riordan at the former mayor’s campaign kick-off event when he ran for governor in 2002. When the recall came around, the two men agreed to support each other should either run for governor to replace Gray Davis. Arnold and wife Maria Shriver huddled at length with the Riordans in Malibu a few days before the former action superstar’s stunning Tonight Show announcement of his candidacy. Riordan held “the education portfolio” in Arnold’s campaign, dominating the candidate’s highly touted “Education Summit.” After the election, when Schwarzenegger made him secretary of education, Riordan served as an ex officio commissioner of First 5, during which the commission’s fateful advertising plans to stimulate public demand for preschool were drawn up.
Also there as an ex officio commissioner was another member of Arnold’s Cabinet, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kimberly Belshe. Neither she nor Riordan raised any alarms about the commission.
Former Pete Wilson official Kimberly Belshe was a founding commissioner when it was formed in 1998 following the passage of Reiner’s Proposition 10 tobacco tax initiative. She had been director of the state Department of Health Services. Asked what appointment she wanted from departing Governor Wilson, she picked the new Reiner-created commission. She served as vice chair of the commission. While she was there, Reiner’s media consultants developed their initial plans, revealed in a 2002 memorandum, to use state funding to promote Reiner’s “Preschool For All” theme of stimulating public demand for state preschool services.
Then in the fall of 2003, Belshe became a member of the Schwarzenegger Cabinet as secretary of the Health and Human Services Agency. After joining the Arnold Administration, she became an ex officio member of the Reiner Commission.
WHILE SERVING AS REINER'S VICE CHAIR on the commission, Belshe approved an earlier use of state funds for an arguable political purpose. That was the spending of $14 million on advertising touting the commission’s then very thin activities while Reiner political opponents attempted to have the commission abolished in the March 2000 primary. The measure, Proposition 28, was defeated. I’ll have more about that another time.
Belshe opposed the reorganization recommendations of Arnold’s highly touted California Performance Review (CPR). One of those recommendations would have placed the lone wolf Reiner agency under a state agency framework, bringing a new level of scrutiny and oversight to its operations. Schwarzenegger shelved most of the recommendations, including this one.
Top associates of Schwarzenegger’s have been intimately involved with the Reiner operation for years. The two men have supported one another's causes, Reiner's Prop 10 in 1998 and Schwarzenegger's Prop 49 after school programs initiative in 2002. Reiner, behind the scenes, was a special guest at the Arnold Inaugural. Knowing this, it is not so surprising that the governor would take the seemingly curious stance he has.
They are all crooks.
LOL.. Thanks for reminding me of what some folks are willing to sacrifice to Just Win Baby!
There ya go with the word hate as some others like to toss out to detract from anything that doesn't protect the Gubby and his cohorts...
Nice, Thanks for the bump.
Still, you are first with ad hominems ... just like your lefty pals at LA Weekly. Your "newspaper of record" Blech!
Refute its content, Please. instead of trying to cover for those who could care less what, who or how they manipulate events and public mood to gain and retain power..
You're the one posting tripe from the LA Weekly and trying to pass it off as "fact". Why stoop so low?
LOL.. How many New Majority folks are you representing or are you a member yourself?
Why not elevate your argument a bit and stop using words like hate and low?
Like I asked before, refute one item in the article. Please drop your tedious accusatory stance. It shows how little you have to offer substance wise for either side and makes you out to be nothing more than devoid of your own abilities to discern the state of politic in the state.
You seem to be supportive of the moderate approach to things, if ya get my drift.
Hate and low! Ha! You with your ad hominems. You're not so lofty. Live with it ... breathe it ... LA Weekly, the stuff of Liberal Dreams.
Excellent reply. Refuse to discuss content, excellent indeed. A true moderate in action. How like so many others who refuse to connect dots and just shrug and attack the poster and when unsuccessful attack the source but not the content.
I like how ya avoid answering any questions posed as well.
Refusr to own up to your ad hominem attacks. I know your love the bumps ... but no one is listening. Nor should they with your rock solid sources. Why cheapen yourself?
LOL.. Thanks for your concern about cheapening myself, I really feeel the love, man.
Like I said, you won't even attempt to refute any content, that speaks volumes in and of itself.
I felt the love too with your opening ad hominem. Yes, you avoid it. Nevertheless, the market opens early in California and I am way past bedtime. Go ... proceed with your liberal nuttiness. You do it so well.
The thread had pretty much died but since you came along ,, Thanks!
Republicans in Cali have moved into Dhimmi status.
What can ya say?
Our state and nation are suffering mightily as a result of a plethora of fools on both sides of the aisles these days, many of them masquerading as moderates in their own parties.
I don't consider corruption "tripe".
This makes me nauseous. Even if Arnold and his crew are buddy-buddy with Reiner and the Reineroids, the accusations of misuse of millions in taxpayer funds are serious and I have yet to see a solid refutation of them.
Even if Arnold doesn't want to be seen as bashing an "old friend" or whatever the heck it is, any such tail cannot be allowed to wag the dog. Do the right thing; people will respect you for it. "It is with regret that I must announce that I have replaced Mr. Reiner with ..." DO IT.
Saying, instead, that Reiner's "innocent until proven guilty" is avoiding the issue. It's a swell standard in courtroom criminal proceedings, but this IS NOT such a proceeding. Reiner has NO RIGHT to this job.
Jeeze. What a disappointment.
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