SCHWARZENEGGER TRIES TO DISTANCE HIMSELF FROM BUSH BUT HE CAN'T DISTANCE HIMSELF FROM BUSH'S & THE GOP'S BRAND OF FASCISM

Referring to Schwarzenegger's plan to hide out in the rural Central Valley while Bush is in L.A. this Thursday, Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez said, "The governor is trying to create some distance between himself and the president. ... But we're going to make that connection every day of the week.'' Good; he needs to. Democrats all over the country need to make the connection OBVIOUS BEYOND ANY DOUBT that their local Republicrooks are part of the Bush/Rove/DeLay criminal conspiracy.

In the case of California, Schwarzenegger is having fits because he specifically asked Bush, who is even more reviled than the no longer popular Governor, to stay out of the state 'til after Schwarzenegger's Special Election on November 8. Schwarzenegger reminded Bush how he risked his own political capital by campaigning for Bush in Ohio in the closing days of the 2004 presidential election, something that helped Bush in tightly-contested Ohio-- and hurt Schwarzenegger in deep blue California.

Schwarzenegger doesn't want Bush sucking up political contributions in the state and he's afraid Bush's unpopularity (now bordering on widespread loathing in the most populous parts of the state) will drive a stake into the heart of his carefully disguised by very reactionary special election measures. Bush doesn't care about either of his concerns and he'll be starring at a major fundraiser in L.A. for the RNC on Thursday and cutting a ribbon the next day at the opening of the new Air Force One exhibit at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.

One of the far right extremists plotting to turn California into his version of hell on earth from behind the forbidding walls of the hideous Hoover Institute, Bill Whalen, is concerned about the fake-reform propositions Schwarzenegger is trying to trick Californians into voting for. He thinks the Gropenator needs to avoid being seen with Bush; "it's probably a photo op he doesn't need." Instead he wants Arnold to concentrate on screwing teachers (Proposition 74), screwing public employee unions (Prop. 75), running roughshod over the budget (Prop. 76) and gerrymandering the state's districts like DeLay did in Texas (Prop. 77). Whalen makes clear exactly why Schwarzenegger and other local Repugs are so upset that Bush. "The biggest favor he can do is stay out of this election. Arnold doesn't want this to be a referendum on the war in Iraq, the price of gasoline and (Supreme Court nominee) Harriet Miers."

Schwarzenegger's public snub of Bush's ill-timed visit has dismayed tone-deaf Beltway operatives who can't see further than a White House hysterical and panicked as Bush faces increasing criticism over the Miers nomination and his cronyism in general, the disastrous war in Iraq, and all the GOP indictments, from Bush's Congressional allies Randy "Duke" Cunningham and Tom DeLay (with Ohio Bob Ney probably next) to GOP crooked fundraisers Jack Abramoff and Thomas Noe to the likelihood that Scooter Libby and Karl Rove get their turns soon (not to mention Dick Cheney). One White House flack, speaking on condition of anonymity, called Schwarzenegger some dirty names. "At a time when the president needs the support of a Republican governor, Schwarzenegger is turning his back" on him. Bush is pissed off that Schwarzenegger made a high-profile campaign swing through the state with John McCain, one Republican who remains untainted-- though not justifiably so-- by Bush's catastrophic and corrupt regime. Bush detests McCain and is driven to distraction (in whatever form) by anything positive about him.

Allow me to leave the California propositions for another day. I want to get to what made me start writing today (without missing the entire SOUTH PARK Marathon). Voters are wising up to Bush and DeLay and Frist and the national Republican machine. Now a clear and growing majority of Americans entirely distrusts Bush, sees that he and his party have priorities that are destructive to our own, and are starting to grasp that the only way to stop the madness is to vote against Republicans in general. Sounds good? It is good-- except for those last two words: "in general." In general, for example, people in Maine intuitively understand that fighting Bush is as important today as it was for Colonel Joshua Chamberlain & the heroic 20th Maine to stop the slaveholding fascist rebels at Big Round Top, allowing the United States to win Gettsyburg and end the rebellion which neo-Confederate scum like DeLay, Frist, the Bush Brothers, Sessions, Cochran, Lott, Inhofe, Coburn, et al are trying to revive. (I mean African-Americans are sensitive to this kind of thing and their 98% disapproval rating of Bush is unprecedented in the annals of American polling.) But will Mainers vote to oust Olympia Snowe? Not according to any poll I've ever seen. In Maine the Republican senator isn't looked at someone who votes for Bill Frist to be Majority Leader as much as she's looked at as an independent-minded "moderate." People think fondly of her as OUR Senator. OK, let's move a little south to Connecticut, one of the bluest of the blue states, where Bush would do a jig if his approval ratings reached as high as 38% (his national number). Connecticut is a state where Gore in 2000 and Kerry in 2004 slaughter Bush. Yet there are 3 Republicans in Congress, Rob Simmons (in the overwhelmingly Democratic 2nd District), Chris Shays, and Nancy Johnson. They are all part of the DeLay machine, all, especially Johnson and Simmons, dependable votes for almost every hair-brained, neo-Con scheme and corporate-fascist outrage against everything decent about our country. By all right the 3 of them should be afraid to even stand for re-election. In truth Simmons and Shays are worried, but not overly. Johnson's laughing. And so it goes all over the country.

I like the way some Nebraska Democrats are dealing with it. Take a look at New Nebraska Network. Kyle Michaelis points out that Republican candidates are running away from Bush, DeLay and the national GOP. And he doesn't think we should let them. "The problem," he says, "is not that Republicans have lost their way...it's that the Republican way doesn't work. And guess what, the American people-- even the people of Nebraska-- have noticed."
People see the danger Bush and the national GOP pose but they're not trying it to their own specific legislators... at least not yet. But that's the Democrats job. Let's pray they're up to it.