Gov. Widens His Distance From Bush

With a methodical series of public gestures, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is distancing himself from President Bush and fellow Republicans in Congress as he seeks to avoid harm to his reelection effort from their declining political fortunes.

Schwarzenegger has challenged Bush on border security and global warming regulations. He publicly threatened to sue the Bush administration over Medicare regulations. He has tacitly sanctioned at least three other state lawsuits against the federal government.

He has demanded that Bush dispense more money to the state to cover the costs of disasters, immigration and welfare, and chastised Republican efforts in Congress to expand offshore oil drilling. In the last few weeks, he has labeled actions by Bush and Congress as terrible, irresponsible, unacceptable and embarrassing.

Schwarzenegger’s more aggressive stance against Bush and national Republicans -- including a skeptical reception of the president’s immigration speech Monday -- is part of a dramatic return to the centrist approach of his first year in office, after two years of hewing to his Republican base.

A Republican who is seeking reelection in a heavily Democratic state, Schwarzenegger this year has appeased his critics on the left and center by making big-ticket deals with the Democrat-run Legislature. Though that may dilute past criticism of his leadership, his campaign still expects his Democratic opponent in November to try to link him with the unpopular president.

Both of the potential Democratic nominees are signaling that they intend to do so.

Anti-Republican feelings over the war in Iraq, congressional lobbying scandals, high gasoline prices and domestic eavesdropping will lead to a “Democratic tsunami ... right over the Republican beachhead,” said Bob Mulholland, a senior strategist for state Treasurer Phil Angelides, one of two major Democratic candidates.

If Angelides wins the Democratic primary in three weeks, Mulholland said, the campaign “absolutely” would run television ads featuring Schwarzenegger and Bush together at various political events.

“We have the video. It’s Bush and Schwarzenegger playing patty-cake,” Mulholland said.

Angelides is facing state Controller Steve Westly, who has been far less vocal about Schwarzenegger’s relationship with Bush.

Nonetheless, Westly spokesman Nick Velasquez said the campaign would challenge Schwarzenegger for failing to push harder for federal funds, among other accusations.

“Time and again, Bush has told California to drop dead, and the governor has been silent until he finds himself in an election year,” Velasquez said.

Schwarzenegger’s campaign insists that voters view the California governor far differently than they do Bush -- as a unique blend, not a partisan. Indeed, a recent Times poll found the governor with a firmer job approval rating than the president among registered voters in California -- 44% said Schwarzenegger was doing a good job, to 31% for Bush.

“At the end of the day, I don’t think people see Arnold Schwarzenegger as anything other than an Arnold Republican,” said Steve Schmidt, the governor’s campaign manager.

For Schmidt and a few other Schwarzenegger campaign aides, the governor’s anti-Bush stance involves a bit of whiplash. They moved to jobs in the reelection campaign directly from the Bush White House, where they had aggressively defended the president on his Supreme Court nominees and many other issues.

Asked whether Schwarzenegger was trying to separate himself from Bush as he enters the reelection campaign, Schmidt replied: “Gov. Schwarzenegger’s first priority is standing up for California, and that is precisely what he is doing. He has taken exception with the federal government on a range of issues ... and he is going to go out there and express those opinions every day.”

Clearly, however, Schwarzenegger’s moves underscore the dilemma of Republican candidates nationwide: how to deal with a president and Congress whose approval ratings are perilously low.

Schwarzenegger and Bush have never been particularly close. But in 2004, the GOP governor gave the keynote address at the Republican National Convention, where Bush was nominated for a second term. At the close of the hard-fought election, Schwarzenegger flew to campaign with Bush in Ohio, a key electoral state and one where Schwarzenegger owns an upscale mall, holds an international bodybuilding contest and remains popular.

“There is no match for the leadership and the resolve of George W. Bush,” Schwarzenegger told Bush supporters in Ohio.

Lately, however, the governor has forwarded a different message.

When it comes to illegal immigration, Schwarzenegger said recently, the federal government -- and by extension Bush -- “has failed the people of America in a terrible way, in a disastrous way.” On Tuesday, he added that Bush’s protection of the border had been “embarrassing.”

Schwarzenegger and Bush have clashed over clean-air standards that the governor, among others, has been pushing to reduce global warming.

In pressing state standards, the governor said, “The federal government has so far fallen short with showing leadership when it comes to the environment. I think that I, as governor, don’t want to wait for the federal government or for any other states, as far as that goes.”

Putting the blame on Bush also can deflect criticism from Schwarzenegger, who came into office promising to get California a bigger share of federal tax dollars to cover the costs of housing illegal immigrants in jails and prisons, and for cleanup from natural disasters such as last winter’s storms.

So far, he has not been particularly persuasive.

This week, Schwarzenegger again asked Bush to declare a state of “major disaster” in California and give the state $69 million for storm cleanup. U.S. Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, both Democrats, joined the governor in pressuring the White House.

When Bush rejected the governor’s previous request for a federal emergency declaration, Schwarzenegger called it “unacceptable” and warned that the state could face catastrophe.

“We have seen what happens in New Orleans when people waited for the federal government,” he said in a gibe at Bush’s much-derided response to Hurricane Katrina. “Their response was terrible there, and we don’t want to be a victim of that.”

The administration subsequently did receive some federal assistance and regulatory changes.

On a related front, Democratic Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer’s office has been filing a steady stream of lawsuits against the federal government over its efforts to overturn or weaken state laws. Lockyer is representing Schwarzenegger in three lawsuits that contest the federal government’s attempts to challenge California’s air pollution and energy efficiency standards.

This year, Schwarzenegger upbraided the federal government after the rocky start-up of its prescription drug plan for seniors, known as Medicare Part D. Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency, which he renewed Tuesday when tens of thousands of Californians were left without coverage. He freed up $150 million to buy prescriptions and held a news conference at a pharmacist’s window where he said the federal program had been “disastrous.”

When Lockyer threatened to join six other states that had sued the federal government over the program’s unexpectedly high costs, Schwarzenegger jumped to join him. The Bush administration relented, and no lawsuit was filed.

Nathan Barankin, communications director for Lockyer, said Schwarzenegger has “in the past been quietly supportive of our efforts” to challenge the federal government in court.

“What is different now is he is public about it,” he said.