Wilson Acknowledges his Political Twin

Capitol Weekly recently caught up with former Governor Pete Wilson to get his thoughts on Arnold and the Special Election. The interview in today’s paper once-again proves what we have known all along – Arnold is a carbon copy of Pete Wilson – and this time the comparison comes straight from Wilson’s mouth.

When asked about why the sense of bipartisanship has declined over Schwarzenegger’s term, Wilson responds, “Well I don't know if it is all that different from my own experience to be honest with you. There may have been a greater expectation in his case that he would be more accommodating. I never had that. I think it was based to some extent on the fact that Maria is part of the Kennedy clan but Arnold is doing many of the things that I did or sought to do.”

Wilson goes on to say, “We undertook many of the things the governor is doing now. He has put on one ballot many of the things that I put on several.”

Arnold and his team can try all they want to deny that they are replicating the Wilson era, but they seem to be the only ones who don’t get it.

More evidence to the Wilson-Schwarzenegger union came in yesterday’s Sacramento Bee. In his column, Peter Schrag makes the argument that Schwarzenegger’s Agenda is just Pete Wilson Redux far more eloquently than we ever could. Here are some excerpts:

Arnold's agenda: The specter of a governor past

By Peter Schrag – Sacramento Bee Columnist
Wednesday, November 2, 2005

“Has the ghost of ex-Gov. Pete Wilson invested the bulked-up body of Arnold Schwarzenegger? Looking at the governor's past year and at his agenda for Tuesday's special election, what other conclusion can you come to? …

“…Schwarzenegger, in a stunning example of the triumph of hubris over political smarts, took them all on at once -cops and firefighters, nurses, teachers. His stab at a pension reform initiative may well have been overdue, but in the failure to draft it carefully the pension proposal left open the possibility that it would jeopardize the death and disability benefits of all public safety employees and their families. It was subsequently withdrawn, but not before it laid the basis for the unified campaign that could well kill most of what's left of Schwarzenegger's agenda.

“Given the composition of Schwarzenegger's political staff and his nebula of consultants and advisers, many of whom were also members of Wilson's staff -George Gorton, Don Sipple, Marty Wilson, Bob White -not to mention his close association with Wilson himself, it's not surprising that so much of Schwarzenegger's campaign is composed of the wreckage of Wilson campaigns past…” (Sacramento Bee, November 2, 2005)

Click here for the complete column.

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