Schwarzenegger to pay $4.5 million after court rebuke

[CShine]

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said that he would pay $4.5 million on top of the $5 million he already spent to be elected after a judge ruled the actor broke a state campaign finance law by taking out a loan.

In a characteristic show of upbeat spin, Schwarzenegger praised the judge's decision against him and said he had always intended to pay back the money.

"The four and a half million we got loaned from the bank, I always intended to pay that back myself, so it was a great decision," Schwarzenegger told a Sacramento Press Club lunch. "We never wanted to raise the money to pay it back. I myself pay for that."

A California judge ruled yesterday that the former Mr Universe broke the law by borrowing more than $4.5 million on his own account to finance his run for governor in last October's recall election.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/01/28/1075088053006.html

[POed_Ex_Repub]

1. So he's paying back the money he illegally borrowed...

Which helped him win the election... And now it's after the fact and of course he's happy to pay it back.

Did I miss something, where's the punishment? Where's the frickin' justice? Shouldn't there be a fine or something? Basically what this is saying is that he got caught with his hand in the cookie jar, and his "punishment" was putting it back.

Must be nice to be rich and above the law.

[asjr]

3. Creepublicans

always get by with that shit.

[indepat]

9. How about a recall?

[Democat]

2. What if a guy gets caught robbing a bank and he says...

No problem, officer, I was going to give it back anyways.

Have a nice day!

[Snappy]

4. Welcome

to the new Amerika.

[ConcernedCanuk]

5. Hmm - takes on a new "personality" if you read the rest of the article

.
.

From the posted article:

"Schwarzenegger's lawyer said the governor, who swept into office vowing to end "politics as usual" in California, had relied on a ruling from the state's Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) that his actions were legal.

"We are gratified that the judge held that the campaign acted in good faith and in reliance on the FPPC's erroneous regulation," Schwarzenegger attorney Colleen McAndrews said.

The FPPC, the state's election watchdog, issued a statement today disagreeing with the judge's ruling. "

/snip/ . . (so he DID check with the FPPC, and he DID get permission, right? )

"While we respectfully disagree with the court's conclusion that the regulation was not entitled to greater deference, we will take his order into consideration in reviewing the regulation."

/end/

so . .

don't be too hard on da turminator on this one

Even the commission disagrees with the court's decision, and they are supposed to be the regulating body.

Even IF it had been a blatant misuse of funds (which it doesn't appear to be), It pales by comparison of the Texacutioner's performance as Governor of Texas (over 150 executions), and his performance as pResident in being responsible for tens of thousands of innocent lives lost, including over 500 young Americans, and countless tens of thousands of others with ruined lives.

And GeeDubya's "bodycount" increases by the hour, and there is NO way he or anyone will be able to "pay them back" for his evil.

[meti57b]

7. arnold will impact the life and health of the poor and disabled ....

Rather than a small and temporary increase in tax to solve the State's budget deficit, he will cut State aid to the poor for medicaid and other services. He rescinded the increase in fees for automobile license and that money was supposed to go to the city and counties for police, fire department and city and county services to the poor, including hospitals. Keep in mind that the automobile license fee was originally this high and Governor Davis lowered it when times were better and the State had more money. Davis simply raised the fee back to where it had originally been, when the State needed the money.

Arnold is a cheap crook who is taking the necessities for life away from the poor, to benefit the wealthy.

He is pushing his bond measure initiative to sell $18 billion of long-term bonds to make up the budget deficit, rather than raise taxes, temporarily. With this, he is putting this debt onto the next generations to pay, rather than a slight tax raise, now.

[kcwayne]

6. Rest assured that Ahnold won't be paying this back

]i]The four and a half million we got loaned from the bank, I always intended to pay that back myself

Nonsense. Ahnold will have some means of appropriating funds, or doing a deal, or has already done a deal (such as dropping the lawsuits against Enron) that put far more than 5 million in his pocket. He bought the election as an investment, not as an expense.

[asthmaticeog]

8. I protest...

...this being posted in "Latest Breaking News." A Republican candidate breaking the law in the course of a campaign hardly constitues "news." </snark>

[Moderator]

10. Duplicate

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=332987