"Nofziger" is the political memoir of Lyn Nofziger.
It covers his time in politics and government from l966 to 1990.
During this period Nofziger worked in various capacities for Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon
and was involved in numerous campaigns including those of Reagan, Nixon and Ford.
The book provides an insider"s view of many of the political players of the '60s, '70s and '80s.
Sigh.
From http://www.lynnofziger.com/musings.htm:
With "friends" like these...Aug. 30, 2002--Californians now are going to have a clear choice when they they go to the polls elect a governor this November.
They can reelect an inept, corrupt incumbent Democrat named Grey Davis. Or they can elect an inept, weak and not very bright Republican named Bill Simon. Take your pick. But be smart. Bet on Davis. Simon is too dumb to win and his senior consultant, Sal Russo, isn‘t much better.
Simon, who won the Republican primary last March, entered the general election race with a clear chance for an upset victory. This was mainly because polls showed Davis with high negative ratings, thanks not only to his bumbling but also to his ham-handed fund-raising methods that border, or cross the border, on dishonesty.
But Simon has systematically begun to kick away any chance he might have had in this heavily Democratic state..
His latest booboo, instigated this week by Russo, was to spit in the eye of his conservative, pro-family base.
I n a spectacular flipflop that has his conservative supporters tearing their hair Simon has set out to woo the homosexual vote, which in California is large but generally liberal and Democratic.
Simon, supposedly a devout Catholic, disclosed this week that he now favors marriage benfits for homosexual couples and that as governor he would continue Davis’ practice of declaring a “Gay Pride Day.”
Until now Simon has run as a supporter of traditional values.
Sharing Simon’s lack of principle, his senior consultant, Russo, says he has his candidate following the old Richard Nixon practice of “running to the right” in Republican primaries and “running to the center” in general elections.
Iit should be noted that in following that practice Nixon lost the presidential election in 1960, the California gubernatorial race in 1962 and barely squeaked out a presidential victory in 1968 over Lyndon Johnson’s vice president, Hubert Humphrey.
In contrast, Ronald Reagan, who remains the hero of the nation’s conservatives, ran principled conservative races, winning the California governorship overwhelmingly twice and the presidency twice by huge margins. His only loss was a narrow defeat for the republican presidential nomination in which race he came within an ace of unseating a sitting president, Gerald Ford.
Russo, fooling practically no one, denies Simon has flipflopped on the issue, claiming “we haven’t changed our position whatsoever. He says Simon is merely “broadening his message. “
Claiming to be serious, he says Simon remains “solidly conservative but in a California way,” whatever that may mean, especially to the old Reagan conservatives have made up the core of Simon‘s support.
Regardless of how his base may feel, there is no doubt that Simon’s flipflop has won him the approval of the party’s pro-gay liberals such as Richard Riordon and Gerald Parsky. All he needs now in order to solidify that support is switch his pro-life stand to pro-abortion.
In the process, however, he has severely weakened his base.
Russo asserts that polls taken before this newest Simon screw-up show that only 41 percent of California voters are prepared to vote for the heartily disliked Davis. But that may be enough if huge numbers of pro-family conservatives refuse to vote at all.
If, indeed, those conservatives refuse to vote for governor many may of them may not even bother to go to the polls, which will be an across the state disaster for Republican candidates running for congress and the state legislature.
The California Republican Party has been in a state of disarray for the last several years. But, baby, if you think things have been bad up to now, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.
-- snip --
It has occurred to me that someone out there who now and then reads these musings might wish to comment and not know how to contact me. Here’s how. My e-mail address is: franklynnof@cs.com