Free Republic

The past few weeks have been a wakeup call to those Republicans, and especially those conservatives, who got stars in their eyes and supported movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger for governor during the historic Gray Davis recall campaign. On the heels of a decisive defeat in the recent special election for his reform ballot initiatives, the Terminator is acting like he wants to terminate his alliance with the Republican Party. Since he has failed to even slow the nonstop spending of the California Legislature, Arnold's false reading of the election-results tea leaves has now led him to join the Democrat Party...

LOS ANGELES -- Now that Arnold Schwarzenegger has been elected governor, California newspaper editors are scratching their heads over the daily challenge of squeezing his 14-letter last name into a headline. Copy editors, given large headlines to work with during the recall election, are likely to have smaller spaces for daily stories on state government. "There were copy editors across the state who were dreading the prospect of Schwarzenegger becoming governor, not because of politics but because of the fit," said John Armstrong, editor of the Contra Costa Times. Editors at the newspaper briefly discussed using Schwarzenegger's three initials, like...

In the wake of California's recall election, the temptation to draw far-reaching conclusions is strong. Despite 11th-hour allegations against Republican Gov.-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger, the final results were decisive. Schwarzenegger, a political novice and outsider, overcame accusations of sexual harassment, past drug use and alleged admiration for Adolf Hitler, and he did so while offering precious few specifics about what he will do as governor. He ducked all but the final debate among the major candidates, and he relied heavily on the so-called soft media, with appearances on Jay Leno's and Oprah Winfrey's shows. Does this mean that celebrities, immune from...