Excerpts from Bill Bradley's New West Notes at LA Weekley -
Arnold Makes The Reiner Mess His Own
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has made the Rob Reiner mess his own. After weeks of avoiding questions on the matter, Schwarzenegger told the Fresno Bee editorial board yesterday afternoon he will not replace the controversial chairman of the California Children and Families Commission, who he described as “a friend.”
It was previously revealed here that Reiner, although a very liberal Democrat who considered running for governor this year, was a special guest at private parties during the Arnold Inaugural festivities in November 2003. He was on the “Friends and Family” list for inaugural gala activities.
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** Under Reiner’s leadership during the Schwarzenegger Administration, the commission undertook highly questionable activities, using taxpayer money to promote Reiner’s political agenda of stimulating demand for more state spending on preschool. This includes a state contract for $67.5 million in advertising signed on June 28, 2004. Which Reiner told me last week during his disastrous appearance at the Sacramento Press Club that he didn’t know about. That was only one of a number of telling points he said he didn't know about.
** Top officials in the Schwarzenegger Cabinet were involved with the Reiner Commission but raised no alarms about practices that even the governor has said, long after the fact, look bad.
** The governor rejected the recommendation of his highly touted California Performance Review that the commission -- which currently exists as an independent agency sorely in need of oversight -- be brought under the department of health and human services.
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2 PM UPDATE: Sac Bee columnist Dan Weintraub speculates that Schwarzenegger and Reiner cut a deal.
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Remember, the results of the audit that is underway are not known. The handle still turns and it is beginning to look like "schnitsage" or "sautzel"!
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