"It must be a coincidence," Schwarzenegger says.

[Rose Siding]

(CBS) On one day last month Gov. Schwarzenegger vetoed three bills — and on the same day accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars from groups who opposed those bills. CBS News correspondent Vince Gonzales reports that Sunday Schwarzenegger responded to CBS News' report from last week that there was an appearance the governor was accommodating the special interests he had once vowed to fight.

"It must be a coincidence," Schwarzenegger says. "But the fact of the matter is different."
........
"I only accept money based on if someone is interested in my vision for the future," he says. "Those are the people that we accept the money for. If I find out that anyone wants to have a favor in return for money that they give me, I give the money back immediately."

Out of the nearly $70 million he's raised since first running for governor, CBS News found about $400,000 worth of donations he's returned.

One $50,000 check came from an insurance company. But when the Governor and his California Recovery Team returned that check, the insurance company turned around and donated $75,000 to a political action committee which supported Schwarzenegger. A few months later, that committee gave nearly $169,000 to the California Recovery Team.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/11/07/politics/main1022107.shtml?CMP=OTC-RSSFeed&source=RSS&attr=Politics_1022107

[babylonsister]

1. Maria must be very proud. nt

[NanceGreggs]

2. Yeah, it must be a coincidence ...

... just like Halliburton getting those no-bid contracts. Connection to Cheney? Don't be ridiculous -- it's a coincidence!

[desi826]

3. He is so full of shit

I am slapping every single one of his propositions down tommorrow, I swear.
Des

[neuvocat]

4. Likewise.

If for no other reason, I'm going to vote his propositions down.

[kestrel91316]

12. Yep. NO on every last one, except 79 (and 80??)

[desi826]

16. Yeah

79 & 80 are the only 2 worth voting for.
Des

[mcscajun]

5. There *are* no coincidences...

...get real, Arnie.

[tularetom]

6. Yeah it's a coincidence too

that I voted against every single ballot measure ahnuld was supporting.

[A-Schwarzenegger]

7. Lightning ought to blast the orange dye off his head for saying this:

"If I find out that anyone wants to have a favor in return for money that they give me, I give the money back immediately."

[Cha]

8. Here's an article on arnie off of

buzzflash..

"At Arnold Schwarzenegger's "victory" party on Election Night 2004, the governor stood onstage and basked in ballot proposal wins for Propositions 68 and 70, both about Indian gaming, and against 66, which would have changed the Three Strikes Law. But Republicans got nothing else out of him -- not one seat in the Assembly, not one seat in the Senate, no new congressional offices. One year later, it's no surprise he's again pushing his agenda via special election. But Assemblymember Jackie Goldberg (D-Los Angeles) says this particular slate of propositions is more than just another end-run around the state's elected legislators. She calls it the "corporate takeover of California."

This time, she argues, the issues on the ballot are carefully linked together and designed -- using corporate money -- to advance conservative interests and to keep Democrats away from the polls. She claims the governor even said as much in an e-mail to supporters. If he succeeds, she says, it's a "catastrophe," creating a governorship that no longer needs a legislature: "They're saying, 'Heck with this notion of democracy. It's so burdensome. It's so time-consuming. It gets in the way.'" She calls it a short-sighted act of political sabotage. Is Arnold set on a course to cripple the government?

Why do you call these propositions the "corporate takeover of California"?

Jackie Goldberg: If you take a look at who's paying for all of this, it's really extraordinarily large businesses. And they're not even all California corporations - the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has spent a quarter of a million dollars on one of them. That's in addition to the California Chamber, which tends to represent the largest corporations. You've got all the major pharmaceutical companies spending a fortune confusing the people about Propositions 78 and 79. You've got huge amounts of pharmaceutical money in Proposition 75. In fact, there is not a single one of these that isn't being financed by the largest corporations and the biggest players -- not just in California. The governor has fund-raised in New York, in New Jersey, in Florida. They're after a Tom DeLay-kinda takeover like."


http://www.alternet.org/story/27732/

[rodeodance]

13. " it's really extraordinarily large businesses"--and who says it is NOT

big business who is really running this country--!!

[upi402]

9. WTF? Cal EEE foawniyahh

What the hell were Californians thinking?
Did they catch Bushititis?


not a real medical question-

[Blackthorn]

10. Hang on...

Quote:
"It must be a coincidence," Schwarzenegger says. "But the fact of the matter is different."

Am I the only one who read that as an admission it WASN'T a coincidence? Is not the "matter" in his statement the coicidence? So if the fact of the matter is different to the "fact" he claimed, a coicidence, does this make it *not* a coicidence?

Or am I reading to much into his garbled rantings? Sounds vaguely like Bush.

[Humor_In_Cuneiform]

11. Oh Ahnauld, somehow I knew it would be this way. n/t

[BikeWriter]

14. Sheeeeeeit!

[Zinfandel]

15. Get out the vote in CA and Vote NO on Arnold's bullshit props!

Vote NO on 74 through 78!!!

[K8-EEE]

17. Remember Him Saying...

"I don't need anybody's money..." I'm not a politician etc. I always knew it was a crock of shit. He's the biggest and slimiest pol of all.

[AX10]

18. BULLSHIT Arnie! You are bought and paid for by the right wing.

You're going down!