"Mack the Knife" <bulldog101750@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:3ea9a031-b2e3-43fd-9b00-cd2f82bdf4a6@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Clint Eastwood's termination: 'Somebody got a bee under their bonnet'
>
> The actor says he was surprised at his removal from the state parks
> board in the wake of his opposition to Schwarzenegger's proposed toll
> road.
>
> By Michael Rothfeld, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
> March 26, 2008
>
> SACRAMENTO -- After Clint Eastwood learned last week that his friend
> Arnold Schwarzenegger no longer wanted him on the state parks
> commission, he spoke with Bobby Shriver, the governor's brother-in-
> law, who had also been dropped. Somewhat incredulous, they joked about
> it, each saying the other should be more offended.
>
> "I talked to him the day we were not reappointed, or as Donald Trump
> would say, 'You're fired,' " Eastwood said in an interview, his
> gravelly impression of Schwarzenegger's Austrian accent producing a
> kind of Dirty Harry-meets-the Terminator effect.
>
> "So we laughed about it," Eastwood said, "and I said, 'Me? But you're
> his brother-in-law!' and he said, 'But you're his friend and longtime
> mentor!' "
>
> The governor has said that he decided not to reappoint the men, who
> were first named to the Park and Recreation Commission in 2001 by then-
> Gov. Gray Davis and reappointed by Schwarzenegger in 2004. He said
> their terms had expired and he wanted to give others a chance to
> serve.
>
> But Eastwood and Shriver have attributed the governor's move to their
> opposition to a plan to build the Foothill South toll road through San
> Onofre State Beach, a park in Orange County that is popular for its
> surfing and scenery. The project was defeated by the California
> Coastal Commission in February.
>
> "I think it was just somebody got a bee under their bonnet at the
> right moment, so there we are," Eastwood said. Of the governor, he
> added: "I guess he felt we were going to be guys who were going to be
> obstructionists for anything through state parks."
>
> Schwarzenegger declined to be interviewed Tuesday. He and other
> sup****ters say the six-lane toll road, which would have run past the
> Trestles marine estuary, would have relieved traffic in Orange County.
> The governor also asserted that it would have reduced global warming.
>
> {Bull****er Schwarzenegger says a freeway thru a state park will
> reduce global warming. Ever notice how the biggest bull****ers are
> on the climate change bandwagon?}
>
> Eastwood seemed at peace with last week's events. He said there are no
> hard feelings between him and Schwarzenegger, 60, a fellow Republican
> and "a friend of mine for a very long time."
>
> But he seemed perplexed because his opposition to the road predated by
> more than two years the governor's endorsement of it in January. He
> said that he told Schwarzenegger long ago of his reservations and that
> the governor urged him to follow his conscience.
>
> "You're not going to get people who are interested in state parks who
> want to build freeways through state parks," Eastwood said. "So I
> don't know what the big surprise was there."
>
> Several environmental groups, including the Natural Resources Defense
> Council, the Surfrider Foundation and the California State Parks
> Foundation, said they submitted a letter to state Senate leaders
> Tuesday requesting a hearing into the oversight of state parks. They
> based their request on Schwarzenegger's treatment of the two
> commissioners, his proposal to close 48 parks because of the state's
> fiscal crisis and his sup****t for development in parks.
>
> "It is difficult to recall any time in California's history when our
> world-class system of parks has been more at risk from a range of
> threats," says the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Times.
> The governor's office said he has backed billions of dollars in
> spending to protect and preserve parkland.
>
> Eastwood, 77, the former mayor of Carmel, has advocated for parks
> under four governors in both political parties, starting with George
> Deukmejian. He has made public service announcements and appearances,
> including one created by environmental groups opposing the toll road.
> In that clip, he spoke of surfing at San Onofre with James Arness of
> "Gunsmoke" fame and guys with nicknames like "Hammerhead," after he
> arrived in Los Angeles as a young man in the 1950s, before surfing was
> a craze.
>
> Eastwood, who refers to himself as a conservationist, said he is by no
> means obstructionist. Though he agreed with the Coastal Commission on
> the toll road, he clashed with that board as recently as 2006, when it
> rejected a golf course and housing development that he and business
> partners had proposed at Pebble Beach, near his home in Monterey
> County. Adversaries in that fight praise his work for parks.
>
> "From everything I saw, he was a terrific parks commissioner," said
> Peter Douglas, the Coastal Commission's executive director. "It just
> happened that when he was calling the shots on that project at Pebble
> Beach, he wasn't listening to what we were saying about what the law
> allows and doesn't allow. But that's behind us now."
>
> Mark Massara, director of the Sierra Club's coastal programs, fought
> Eastwood on the Pebble Beach project and worked with him against the
> toll road. "He has a reverence for open space and public property,"
> Massara said. "It's deep and abiding and sincere."
>
> Although Eastwood said he first learned that he would not be
> reappointed from one of the governor's aides, Schwarzenegger called
> later and apologized that the situation had played out as it did.
> Eastwood said he told Schwarzenegger not to worry about it.
>
> "I'm a grown person," Eastwood said. "I'm not a kid."
>
> "The parks is a voluntary job, and it's just a job you do, when they
> need you. It was fun. . . . They make changes, and that's their
> prerogative. It's not like I need a day job."
The two, Shriver and Eastwood, knew going in what their mission was:
Defeat the proposed tollroad in Orange county. And when that was
accomplished, Schwarzenneger comes out looking good.
It's politics!
|
