Schwarzenegger ain't no "moderate"

Arnold Schwarzenegger's "moderate" act shouldn't bambozzle anyone. The guy's a conservative Republican punk and will continue to govern that way.

He just offered a non-apology apology to remind the angry-white-folks base that he don't much like them there Latinos (or black people either): Governor apologizes for 'hot' Latina comments by Kevin Yamamura Sacramento Bee 06/8006. Yamamura reports:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger apologized Friday to anyone "that feels offended" by his private comments theorizing that Latina Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia has a "very hot" temperament because of her ethnic roots.

In a taped conversation with aides obtained by the Los Angeles Times and released Thursday night, Schwarzenegger said he believed Garcia and other women with either Cuban or Puerto Rican roots have particularly strong personalities due to "part of the black blood in them and part of the Latino blood in them."

"Anyone out there that feels offended by those comments, I just want to say I'm sorry, I apologize, because that was not the intention," Schwarzenegger said in a recording of Friday's press conference provided by his campaign. (my emphasis)

Translation: And to all those white people who agreed with I said, I'm your boy!

Delores Huerta made the somewhat odd comment that Schwarzenegger's sneer at women of color was "totally sexual". Obviously they were racially bigoted, as well. (I haven't seen the transcript; the isolated two-word quote may give a wrong impression of her comment.) She added:

"It just speaks to what the man thinks," Huerta said of Schwarzenegger. "This is what is important. Because we have a governor up there who should be respecting all women, and especially Latina women, because ... we are the ones who are the lowest paid, the ones who suffer a lot of discrimination, and his apology I don't think is heartfelt."

No, it wasn't heartfelt. This kind of non-apology apology is a sneer, not a real apology. In fact, for rightwingers like Schwarzenegger, it's become a ritual that facilitates making bigoted comments, as the Republican Party continues on its neosegregationist path.

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