Paging Warren Beatty

21 September 2005 |permalink | email article

The actor Warren Beatty told ABC News this week that he would not rule out a possible run for California governor next year against Republican actor-turned Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The interview provided fresh catnip for some liberal activists who want a “big name” to oppose Schwarzenegger, a dream match-up often tucked into media stories about the 2006 campaign.

“I don’t want to run for governor,” Beatty told ABC, “but I don’t think anyone should put public service out of the question.” He also mentioned two recent speeches he’s given as indications about how he would lead the state.

Last March in Santa Monica, he flayed Schwarzenegger on his fund raising practices, a reactionary agenda and for showing disrespect for those who make the sacrifices necessary to serve in public office.

In May, Beatty gave a soaring keynote address at the graduation ceremony for UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy. He joked in his sly way but minced no words in expressing disappointment at the direction that California is heading fiscally and philosophically - a direction confirmed in new state polls.

Beatty, in a blistering attack on Schwarzenegger, said, “Can’t we accept that devotion to the building of the body politic is more complex and a little more sensitive than devotion to body-building. Does that make me a ‘girly man?’ “

He suggested it’s become time to define a Schwarzenegger Republican. “A Schwarzenegger Republican is a Bush Republican who says he’s a Schwarzenegger Republican.”

[Ironically, the governor said Tuesday he wants Bush to delay his planned October fund raising visit to California because he fears it will hurt contributions to his Nov. 8 special election. Go figure!]

The liberal activist, confidante and campaigner for every Democratic presidential candidate since Robert Kennedy, has been critical in the past of his party for being too conservative.

But Beatty has not spoken negatively about the two announced, and self-funded, liberal Northern California candidates for the Democratic nomination, state Treasurer Phil Angelides and state Controller Steve Westley. “They are terrific,” he said.

That many not be sufficient to quench media interest in teasing his potential candidacy. But a senior Democratic party strategist told me Beatty and the movie director Rob Reiner, also touted as a possibility, have each privately said they’re not running - but are committed to defeating Schwarzenegger.

I don’t know about Reiner, but Beatty, based on his early involvement, could emerge as a one-man “truth” squad during the general election. He’s smart,  reflective, and quotable.

Today in Oakland he’ll deliver another barn burner speech to the biennial convention of the California Nurses’ Association. State nurses are waging a compelling TV ad war against Schwarzenegger because of his refusal to block implementation of previously passed legislation that would reduce-nurse-to-patient ratios.

On a personal note, I’ve known Beatty since the mid-‘70s when he subscribed to my national political newsletter, The Political Animal. At the Bel Air wedding reception in the ‘80s for the Democratic consultant Bob Shrum and his wife, the novelist Mary Louise Oates, Beatty mischievously said his bathroom wall was papered with old issues. We had a good laugh about that.

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