Arnold digs up more sleaze

Oct. 3, 2012

By John Seiler

As if he hadn’t inflicted enough sleaze on the public consciousness during his long public career, ex-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger just published another autobiography. I’m not reading it.

If you want to know about Arnold, instead read “The Governator: From Muscle Beach to His Quest for the White House, the Improbable Rise of Arnold Schwarzenegger,” by Ian Halperin. It came out in 2010 and includes everything except the 2010 scandal about the pregnant maid, which you know about from the frequent media stories. I reviewed Halperin’s book here.

In his “60 Minutes” interview just before the book came out, Arnold said, “I explained that it was my screw-up, that [Maria] should not feel that it had anything to do with her.” What? He committed adultery against his wife and it didn’t have anything to do with her?

Maybe when I can check it out of the library I’ll look into the parts where Arnold gives excuses for another betrayal: of the people of California. He’s already marked in the history books as one of California’s worst governors. Nothing he can write ever will change that. He promised tax cuts and balanced budgets; he delivered tax increases and deficits. He promised to create jobs; his AB 32 and other schemes killed jobs by the thousand. His policies jacked up unemployment above 10 percent, where the number has remained stuck for four straight years.

A new report by the Manhattan Institute, “The Great California Exodus: A Closer Look,” detailed how people hated Arnold’s “Kauhliphornya” so much they left in droves. I’m posting the full chart below. Arnold became governor in October 2003. Here are the exodus numbers — net migration from the state by fiscal year beginning July 1:

2003: +146,630 in-migration (people flocked to California; Arnold becomes governor for 9 months of that fiscal year)
2004: +62,836 in-migration
2005: -83,183 out-migration (people begin fleeing Arnold-topia)
2006: -52,760 out-migration (Arnold passes AB 32 jobs killer; Arnold re-elected)
2007: -24,293 out-migration
2008: -25,307 out-migration
2009 -89,018 out-migration
2010 -47,204 out-migration (Arnold finally leaves office halfway through the fiscal year)
2011 -10,000 out-migration (Arnold’s damage continues)

Especially on the budget and the economy, Arnold made California worse in almost every way. His governorship was the same as his private life: crass, boorish, sleazy, betraying.