Schwarzenegger on board of US English

[Harold F. Schiffman]

>>From the Washington Post,

	Schwarzenegger Is No One-Dimensional Character


By Terry M. Neal washingtonpost.com Staff Writer Wednesday, August 13,
2003; 12:49 PM

The picture of Arnold Schwarzeneger, an Austrian immigrant turned
California gubernatorial candidate, is beginning to come into focus, and
it's a complicated one. Schwarzenegger, like many Americans, is difficult
to define politically. He is apparently not strictly beholden to any
hardline rightist or leftist ideology.

While media reports in recent days have focused on Schwarzenegger's
support for Proposition 187, the controversial 1994 referendum that denied
government benefits to illegal aliens, virtually nothing has been said
about the multi-millionaire actor's 15-year association with U.S. English,
an organization that seeks to establish English as the official language
of the United States and also has ties to right-wing nationalist movements
that have stirred controversy for other politicians such as Mississippi
Republican Sen. Trent Lott.

Its been less than a week since Schwarzenegger announced on "The Tonight
Show with Jay Leno" that he would seek to replace Gov. Gray Davis as
California's chief executive. Yet, in today's hyper-political atmosphere,
he is coming under mounting fire for being vague about his stance on
issues.

Hispanic and Asian voters, who could make up a fifth or more of those
going to the ballot box on Oct. 7, would likely take a dim view of
Schwarzenegger's involvement in U.S. English, as well as his support for
Proposition 187.

At the same time, Schwarzeneger has come under attack from conservatives,
led by Rush Limbaugh, who have argued that the actor's support for
abortion rights and gay adoption make him unfit to carry the mantle of
Ronald Reagan. Already there are movements on the right to push for more
conservative candidates, such as Bill Simon.

Yet Schwarzenegger's position on some issues, particularly with regard to
immigration, appear to fall in line with conservative ideology and could
leave him vulnerable to attacks from the left.

Schwarzenegger, who enjoys a lead in the polls, has not been eager to
clarify the complicated image of him that emerges from his public
association with groups such as U.S. English. Schwarzenegger campaign
officials did not respond to three phone calls made this week for this
column.

U.S. English's Tortured History

U.S. English has a long, controversial history, and its goals are opposed
by some of the nation's most influential minority advocacy organizations.
The group supports legislation on the national and state level that would
require almost all government business to be conducted in English.

In 1988, U.S. English found itself embroiled in an embarrassing flap.
According to James Lubinskas, a spokesman for the group, Schwarzenegger
joined the advisory board the previous year. With U.S. English-sponsored
referenda pending in three states, opponents of the referenda obtained and
publicly released a private memo written by the group's co-founder, John
Tanton, which he intended to share only among other leaders of the
anti-immigration movement.

Tanton, a Michigan eye surgeon, is considered the modern-day godfather of
the anti-immigration movement. He has founded or helped fund at least 13
anti-immigration groups, three of which are listed as "hate groups" by the
Southern Poverty Law Center.

"In this society, will the present majority peaceably hand over its
political power to a group that is simply more fertile," Tanton wrote in
his 1988 memo. "Can homo contraceptives compete with horno progenitivo if
our borders arent controlled. . . .Perhaps this is the first instance in
which those with their pants up are going to get caught by those with
their pants down. As whites see their power and control over their lives
declining, will they simply go quietly into the night? Or will there be an
explosion."

U.S. English was co-founded by former Republican senator Samuel Ichiye
Hayakawa, the son of Japanese immigrants. Its advisory board has included
several mainstream celebrities, ethnic minorities and politicians. But
Tanton's memo set the organization back significantly. Following its
release, Linda Chavez, a prominent Hispanic conservative who served in the
Reagan administration, resigned as president of U.S. English, and Walter
Cronkite left the group's advisory board.

Schwarzenegger's reaction to Tanton's comments are unclear at this point,
because the campaign isn't talking about it. Some media reports suggest
Schwarzenneger left the group. But it is unclear when he rejoined. What is
clear is that Schwarzenegger is still on the advisory board and an active
member, according to Lubinskas. "Arnold Schwarzenegger is on our board of
advisers," Lubinskas said on Monday. "He joined in 1987. He was invited to
join. He supports official English and he supports U.S. English as an
organization."

Lubinskas also said Schwarzenegger has donated money to the organization
over the years, but could not say how much.

The group fell into obscurity for some years after the Tanton memo
incident before it re-emerged in the 1990s under the new leadership of
Chilean-born businessman Mauro E. Mujica. Mujica was traveling in Mexico
and referred all questions to Lubinskas.

Recently, U.S. English has come under the scrutiny of watchdog groups such
as the Southern Poverty Law Center for its hiring of Lubinskas in March.
Lubinskas was listed as a contributing editor of the August 2003 issue of
American Renaissance magazine, which SPLC lists as a hate group. The
magazine is published by Jared Taylor, a leader of the white-supremacist
group Council of Conservative Citizens, which is also listed by SPLC as a
hate group. Lubinskas has long ties to right-wing nationalist groups, such
as American Friends of the British Nationalist Party. The Summer 2000
edition of the AFBNP newsletter describes a meeting in which Lubinskas
shared a stage with former Louisiana Klansman David Duke.


James Lubinskas, left, introduces Sam Francis, center, editor of the
Council of Conservative Citizens' Citizens Informer newsletter, at a 1999
CCC meeting in Virginia. (Jenny Warburg)

Asked about his connection to AFBNP on Monday, Lubinskas declined to
comment.

SPLC lists neither U.S. English nor the Federation of American Immigration
Reform (FAIR)a Tanton organization that played a central role in support
of Californias Proposition 187as hate groups. While Schwarzenegger remains
quiet, his supporters point out that after discovering years ago that his
father had been a member of the Nazi party in Austria, he became active in
Jewish causes and has donated more than $1 million to the Simon Wiesenthal
Center in Los Angeles. He also has been active in health and educational
causes, lending his time and money to improving the lives of inner-city
children.

Guilt By Association?

Should Schwarzenegger be considered guilty by association? No. He deserves
a chance to answer questions about his involvement with U.S. Englishnot
because he doesnt have a right to belong to whatever organizations he
wants to belong to, but because politicians are rightly judged by the
company they keep.

Conservative activist David Horowitz, who is also on the advisory board of
U.S. English, described the board as essentially a symbolic entity of
like-minded people. He said he could not recall the last time there was a
board meeting. Horowitz, who has denounced Taylor and the CCC in print,
said he did not know about Lubinskas's association with American
Renaissance and that such ties were "not good."

Sitting with Schwarzenegger on the board of U.S. English are other
Hollywood names  such as game show host Alex Trebek and Lee Majors, star
of the 1980s television series "The Fall Guy"  as well as Nobel laureate
Saul Bellow and 1968 anti-war Democratic presidential candidate Eugene J.
McCarthy.

Schwarzenegger should also talk about his association with Tanton. He
should be asked, as an advisory board member, if he knew anything about
Lubinskass hiring by U.S. English. He should be asked if he played any
behind-the-scenes role with FAIR in the Proposition 187 fight.

Schwarzenegger, as well as all the other major candidates, should also be
asked to explain whether they support or oppose Ward Connerlys Racial
Privacy Initiative, a ballot measure on which Californians will cast votes
the same day as the recall election. Connerly's initiative would ban
government from collecting most kinds of racial and ethnic information.

Opponents of U.S. English's goals said Schwarzenegger's involvement with
U.S. English would likely hurt his chances among Asian and Hispanic
voters.

"We are all for helping immigrants learn English," said Celia Munoz, vice
president of policy for the National Council of La Raza, one of the
nation's largest and most influential Hispanic advocacy organizations.
"Having said that, it doesn't make any sense to be making English the
official language of the United States. It doesn't accomplish anything. It
doesn't help people learn English, but it does hurt people. It's ugly and
punitive and very harmful."

Karen K. Narasaki of the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium
expressed a similar thought.

"While we certainly promote immigrants learning English, we also
understand that it takes some time," she said. "We think it makes sense
for government to communicate with people in the language they best
understand. To not do so can result in health and safety issues. If its
not sharing with them basic health information for their children or
regulations for business, its not good for an immigrant who is struggling
to learn English."

Horowitz argues that Schwarzenegger's positions on Proposition 187 and
U.S. English would help him with the electorate. He characterized
Schwarzeneggers decision to hire as his campaign chairman Pete Wilson, the
former Republican governor who led the charge for 187, as a great idea
that can help him win conservatives and moderates and revive a moribund
party.

Wilson has defended himself and Schwarzenegger in recent interviews,
accusing Democrats of playing "the race card."

The success of Proposition 187, Wilson said Sunday on ABCs "This Week",
"was directed against Washington's failure both to control the borders and
then their sticking California state taxpayers with the cost of federally
mandated services, that was note a vote against Latinos. It was a vote
against illegal immigration and what President Clinton even admitted was
federal failure which he said was, quote, unfair to California."

But Wilson misses several points:

1) The demographics of the state have changed significantly in the last
decade.

2) The level of political activism of that changing demographic can be
directly attributed to his actions.

These are not points Schwarzenegger can afford to miss - or refuse to
address - if he hopes to be elected governor.


 2003 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive