Santa Monica, CA — As Governor Schwarzenegger prepares to hold a fundraiser tonight in Sacramento that reportedly asks $100,000 per head, the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights today released remarks made by actor-director-producer Warren Beatty upon receiving the Phillip Burton Public Service Award this weekend. Some of the comments were directed at Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and his fundraising.
“I’d like to be rooting for you,” Beatty said to the audience of 350 people. “So I’ll say it again. Spend some of that popularity. Do the right thing. Do the right thing, because after dining out at all of those rich and powerful fundraising dinners, who knows? Some ‘stooge’ or ‘girlie man’ or ‘loser’ may just pop up out of nowhere and eat you for lunch.”
Read Beatty’s full remarks at: http://arnoldwatch.org/assets/beatty_speech.pdf
Watch a highlights video at: http://arnoldwatch.org/assets/AW_mov/beatty_excerpts_large.mov
(for dial-up connections, view a low-resolution version at: http://arnoldwatch.org/assets/AW_mov/beatty_excerpts_small.mov)
To view a low-resolution version of Warren Beatty’s entire speech, go to: http://arnoldwatch.org/assets/AW_mov/beatty_speech_low.mov This is a 16MB file and may take a few minutes to download.
“I’d like to help him,” said Beatty. “I don’t see anything wrong with his wanting to be the President of the United States. Don’t the parents of every Austrian boy or girl want their son or daughter to grow up and become the president of the United States? Fine if he wants to be president. But to yield to the reactionary right wing agenda in order to get a political party to become president with, that’s not something so fine with me. It makes me sad for Arnold.
“It’s become time now to define a Schwarzenegger Republican. A Schwarzenegger Republican is a Bush Republican who calls himself a Schwarzenegger Republican. And with Arnold calling Democrats “stooges” and “girlie men” and “losers” and his general disrespect and bullying of honest legislators who’ve also been willing to make this sacrifices necessary to serve in public office, with a lot less fanfare than the Governor I may add, it should be pointed out that they’ve all been elected by the people in what is called a representative democracy — with checks and balances.”
“I’d like to be rooting for Arnold. But he has to do something’. Arnold has to spend some of that popularity that he is so sure that he has and lead the people he is so sure will follow him by telling them a truth that may not be so pleasant to hear and that the Republican party he seeks to seduce will not like. That truth is that in order to have the decent society that we sought to construct and maintain and voted for in California, it’s going to cost money particularly for rich people like me and Arnold. It’s called paying higher taxes, and not waiting around hoping the economy will boom to pay our bills. It’s called raising taxes, maybe temporarily, maybe only to the Reagan or Pete Wilson level. It’s called the haves giving a little more to the have-nots.The only taxes the Governor has suggested raising are called fees and tuitions that had been provided by the state in programs for people who need help and can least afford to pay. Those programs the Governor wants terminated. At long last Mr. Terminator, do you want to terminate our decency?”
“If you’re looking for something to terminate — terminate your dinners with the lobbyists of K street. Terminate collecting out of state right wing money. Terminate the 70 million dollar special election you want to hold to divert the public’s attention away from the budget.”
Beatty continued, “Confront the powerful, not the nurses, not the teachers, or the children, or the students, or the elderly, or the sick, or the cops, of the firemen, or the workers, or the disabled, or the blind’These are not, as you called them: the ‘special interests.’ These are people decency demands up be ‘especially interested’ in.”
Finally Beatty warned: “Arnold, we know you weren’t raising the money for yourself, we understand you’re only raising it to become powerful in today’s Republican party. Do the right thing. Because after dining out at all of those rich and powerful fundraising dinners, who knows? Some “stooge” or “girlie man” or “loser” may just pop out of nowhere and eat you for lunch.”
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