Bill Bradley

Teetering King Arnold

Bill Bradley
Arnold began 2005 as one of the most popular governors in our history, seemingly poised to become an important political figure in America. Alas, by the end of the year, he was one or two more big mistakes away from becoming Jesse Ventura with better acting chops. Here are five......

Raw Deal II

Bill Bradley
As Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s failed “Year of Reform” draws to a merciful close, it’s worth looking at how and why he made his fateful right turn in private meetings in August 2004 on what one top Republican calls “Arnold’s Hiroshima Day.” Especially since he’s shifting back to the center.The crucial......

Arnold’s Gray Day

Bill Bradley
More than a week after Arnold Schwarzenegger shocked the political world and enraged much of his own Republican Party by naming former Gray Davis official Susan Kennedy his chief of staff, his scene remains decidedly unsettled. Its disequilibrium was symbolically evident yesterday when the governor, fresh from a several-hour hospital......

Saving Arnold

Bill Bradley
Arnold Schwarzenegger’s appointment of Democrat Susan Kennedy as his new chief of staff has fired up the Republican right wing. There’s plenty of red meat for the wingers. She is a former top aide to Gray Davis, a lesbian married on Maui, ex-head of the California Abortion Rights Action League......

Arnold’s Broken Bond

Bill Bradley
Fresh from his “Year of Reform” debacle and glitzkrieg of China, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is again “thinking big.” Chastened by the predictable failure of his Republican rhetoric in blue state California, the governor says he is reaching out to Democrats, leaving the defining rancor of this year’s State of the......

Reverse Recall

Bill Bradley
The worst night of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s short political life began ominously, with the overwhelming defeat of the Ohio reapportionment reform initiative he backed in a quid pro quo with Common Cause, which backed his California reapportionment initiative. It ended in an across-the-board victory for the governor’s most bitter political......
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Schwarzshank Redemption

Bill Bradley
Illustration by Mr. FishGovernor Arnold Schwarzenegger is confronted by pervasive ennui surrounding the special election he called to promote his “Year of Reform” initiatives. Polls show most voters have turned against him and his election. The national spotlight he anticipated is mostly elsewhere, and relentless opposition from organized labor and......

Taking On Arnold

Bill Bradley
In the topsy-turvy world of Governor Arnold, few have had more of a paradoxical relationship with the former action superstar than Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez. Although Nuñez has emerged as Schwarzenegger’s most persistent antagonist, the Weekly learned that the former L.A. labor leader spent most of the weekends of August......

The Incredible, Shrinking Governor

Bill Bradley
Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez had just confirmed what the L.A. Weekly reported last week — that there are talks on between Democratic legislative leaders and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger toward a compromise deal on the special-election initiatives. In fact, Nuñez says Dems have compromises on a variety of special-election issues already......

Referendum on Arnold

Bill Bradley
Like two wounded and vulnerable antagonists, Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Democrats have taken their intermittent knife fight to a new and more intense level with the scheduling of yet another California special election, the second in three years, this one for November 8. The stage is now set for a......