The next Bush: George P. and his more famous uncle

Jon told you about the heat his governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, is taking from Republicans in attempts to end the California budget crisis. Schwarzenegger threw his lot in with America’s foremost Democrat, Pres. Barack Obama, in the interest of helping his state, and GOP extremists (yes, that’s pretty much all of them) are imploding.

Down here in Florida, Republican Gov. Charlie Crist is in the same hot water. And turning up the flame on the burner of Republican scorn is none other than a Bush. The next generation of sneering, arrogant, law-breaking incompetents is calling out Crist for accepting stimulus funds.

George P. Bush… the son of former Gov. Jeb Bush, grandson of former President George H. Bush and nephew of former President George W. Bush, addressed a national conference of young Republicans and told them there is a rift in the party between fiscal conservatives and what he calls “D light” — Republicans who are trying to appeal to the political middle.

“There’s some in our party that want to assume that government is the answer to all of our problems,” Bush said. “I’m not going to name any names.”

…”You know who I’m talking about,” Bush said, as the crowd attending the Young Republican National Federation murmured and laughed a little tensely. “That’s problematic. We as conservatives have to ultimately balance the federal government’s checkbook.”

“We” frickin’ who, Kemosabee? Your uncle just ran up the biggest deficit in the history of about 20 industrialized nations combined, and you’re claiming the fiscal high ground?

Bush made it clear he respects only the most extreme (dare I say “neoconic”) wing of his party.

“There are numerous actions that I have seen legislatively that do not speak to a strong conservative, it speaks more to a moderate,” Bush said. “That’s fine, but when you run as a conservative and then you lead as a moderate, that’s one thing that any leader would have to reconcile.”

Crist is rumored to be considering a run to replace Florida Sen. Mel Martinez, a do-nothing Republican who announced he won’t seek re-election following one lackluster term. Jon discussed Schwarzenegger’s prospects (limited, unless we change the Constitution to allow foreign-born candidates) and if he is not Senate material, what with that body’s tradition of give and take, Crist clearly is.

George P. Bush, whose dad already said he won’t run for the seat, might well be considering it. Then again, if Charlie runs for Senate, that leaves a big hole in Tallahassee. What better way, if you’re a Bush, to start your own campaign than by trashing everyone else?

“Arnold Schwarzenegger is like passing a kidney stone, and we’ve got another year to go,” said Jon Fleischman, a vice chairman of the California Republican Party. The GOP has parted ways with the governor because he reneged on his campaign promise never to raise taxes, a pledge he broke in order to resolve the state’s staggering $42 billion budget deficit. If Schwarzenegger and his party were a married couple, his party would be claiming irreconcilable differences and heading to divorce court.

In a bit of fortuitous timing, on Friday, just hours after Schwarzenegger signed a budget bill that included $12.5 billion in tax hikes, he flew to Washington for the National Governors Association’s Winter Meeting. Meanwhile, in Sacramento, the California Republican Party gathered their annual convention. The mood there was dismal:

At a glum gathering of Republican faithful, GOP leaders hewed to the party’s traditional call to scale back government, even as many voters demand just the opposite to stop the economy’s downward slide.

[Fury] among Republicans over the $12.5 billion in tax hikes approved by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature led to fratricidal maneuvers to punish the six GOP lawmakers who voted Friday for the state budget…

The panel also rejected a proposal by a few delegates to extend “a heartfelt and sincere apology” to former Gov. Gray Davis for promoting his 2003 recall. Schwarzenegger, the delegates said, has “proven to govern as a tax-and-spend politician precisely similar to the one he campaigned to replace in the recall election.”

Disapproval of the party’s own governor was a major theme at an event with little of the festive atmospherics usually on display at party confabs, apart from a life-size cutout of Sarah Palin that proved to be a popular photo stop.

Rep. Darrell Issa of Vista, who bankrolled the recall of Davis, put it less colorfully. “Quite frankly, he’s failed to change the fundamental spending in California,” Issa said.

Rep. Issa bankrolled the recall because he hoped to ride it to the governor’s mansion. He famously broke down on camera, sobbing over the lost opportunity (not to mention hundreds of thousands of dollars) when Schwarzenegger became the frontrunner.

It’s doubtful Schwarzenegger is concerned about the wrath of his party. For one thing, he’s a short-timer — term-limited out as of next year. He can retire to Bel Air and do nothing, if he chooses. Or he could make another Terminator sequel, although it’s hard to game out why SkyNet would build an android that appears to be in its 60s and has hair plugs.

Even if Schwarzenegger had additional political ambitions, it’s hard to see how the anger of his party could hurt him. The California GOP is broke and its voter registration is down to 31 percent, a historic low. One GOP analyst recently characterized the California Republican Party as “dead.” “Call the undertaker,” wrote Tony Quinn in December, “haul away the corpse.”