California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger swears that the profanity spelled out when looking at his veto letter a certain way was pure coincidence.

The Republican governor was in Washington for an event with Vice President Joe Biden to praise the economic stimulus package as having successfully created jobs. He spoke afterward with reporters in front of the White House West Wing to tout it some more.

One question was about the veto letter he sent to members of the California State Assembly. Upon closer inspection, the first letters on each line in the second and third paragraphs spell out an epithet using the four-letter F-word that is usually hurled in anger.

“That was a total coincidence. It was a wild coincidence,” Schwarzenegger said without a smile.

Newspapers and blogs have made a lot of fun, calling it the “F-Bomb Letter,” and the governor the “Swearminator” in a reference to his former acting role as the “Terminator.”

Many were incredulous about the chances that the placement of the letters were pure happenstance.

But we heard from the governor himself today — it was a coincidence…

Click here for more Reuters political coverage.

Photo credit: Reuters/Jason Reed (Schwarzenegger and Biden discussing economic stimulus)

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s spokesman insists it was just an innocent coincidence.

San Francisco state representative Tom Ammiano, tongue firmly in cheek, says it was “a very creative way of exercising veto power.”

The facts are clear: A letter on the governor’s website  explaining his veto of a bill to help finance the port of San Francisco is three paragraphs long. The letters that begin the four lines of the second paragraph and the three lines of the third spell out an obscene comment. See below:

Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear called it a “weird coincidence.”
“There are other messages that say things like ‘ear’ and ’soap’,” he said.

Websites like Gawker were incredulous, especially since Ammiano and the governor have a bit of a history. The representative shouted “You lie!” and other messages at Schwarzenegger when the governor crashed a recent Democratic Party gala, left-leaning Calitics website reported.

Ammiano took the veto incident as just part of California politics and focused on his plan for Wednesday: a hearing on his bill to legalize and tax marijuana to help shore up the creaky state budget.

The veto message is posted on the governor’s website.

For more Reuters political news please click here

Photo credit: Reuters/Phil McCarten (Schwarzenegger speaking at the Women’s Conference in California on Oct. 27)

Watch out Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina, New York and California would love those dollars you turn down from the $787 billion economic stimulus plan.
 
A few governors, namely Louisiana’s Bobby Jindal, South Carolina’s Mark Sanford and Mississippi’s Haley Barbour, have all said that they may turn down some of the stimulus money for their states, particularly aid aimed at bolstering unemployment benefit programs.
 
“We can’t pay for the benefits already in the program, but to get the stimulus money, we’ve got to increase the program’s size and scale,” Sanford said on “Fox News Sunday”.
 
That has some other states hard hit by the deepening recession calling for the money to be sent their way, especially New York where Wall Street has been laying off workers by the thousands.
 
“If any governor — Democrat or Republican — leaves stimulus money on the table, then we respectfully request that funds be distributed to New York,” the state’s two Democratic senators, Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, said in a letter to President Barack Obama on Monday.
 
Another New York lawmaker, Representative Anthony Weiner, plans to offer legislation that would redirect rejected stimulus funds to other states. 
 
“If some governors decide to reject the money, 45 other states should be able to use it to create thousands of jobs. We have plenty of projects across the country that will put people to work and help achieve long term economic growth and stability,” Weiner said in a statement.

For more Reuters political news, click here.

- Photo credit: Reuters/Mike Segar (Wall Street in New York City.)

California environmentalists are in tizzy this week, accusing Republican Vice Presidential candidate and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin of telling their governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, how to do his job.

At issue is a letter Palin sent to Schwarzenegger last month, asking him to veto a bill that would raise shipping container fees to pay for pollution-reduction programs at three major California ports.

The letter, which Palin sent to Schwarzenegger a day before she was announced as John McCain's running mate, began circling on the Web on Thursday.

In it, Palin argues that the fees would hurt Alaskans, who rely heavily on marine cargo to receive goods.

"Shipping costs have increased significantly with the rising price of fuel and these higher costs are quickly passed on to Alaskans," Palin wrote. "This tax makes the situation worse."

Palin also argued that the $30 fee per 20-foot container would "harm California by driving port business away."

California's three biggest ports -- Long Beach, Los Angeles, and Oakland -- are responsible for nearly half of the nation's imports.

"Gov. Palin needs to visit Southern California and understand that we are the tailpipe of the nation, " said the bill's author, California State Senator Alan Lowenthal. "By getting cheap goods from Asia to Alaska, we are subsidizing Alaskans with our health." 

Environmentalists also countered the letter swiftly, saying the bill was critical to reducing the number of pollution-related deaths in California.

"We're counting on the governor to stand up for California and not out-of-state interests," Martin Schlageter, campaign director for California air quality group the Coalition for Clean Air, said of the letter.

The bill has received the approval of the California legislature, but the Governor himself has yet to sign it or comment on his plans.

McCain, whose presidential bid Schwarzenegger has endorsed, toured the Los Angeles port area with the California Governor in February of last year. At the time, he called for a nationwide roll-out of California's low carbon fuel standard.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected to help kick off the opening night of the Republican Convention on Sept. 1, but the “governator” says his appearance is contingent on whether a state budget agreement is reached between Republicans and Democrats. 

In a press conference Wednesday afternoon where the governor rolled out his budget compromise plan, Schwarzenegger said he “made it very clear” to Arizona Sen. John McCain that he’s “honored” to speak at the convention — but the budget comes first. 

“The state of California and the budget is the most important thing,” Schwarzenegger said to reporters. “If I do not have a budget, I cannot speak at the convention.”

California Republicans and Democrats are battling over whether to raise taxes, hampering resolution of the stalemate.

Schwarzenegger urged both sides to “step out of their ideological corners and step in the middle.”

 With only a week and a half to go before the convention, McCain better have a substitute for Schwarzenegger handy.    
    
Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage. 

 Photo credit: REUTERS/Fred Prouser. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger speaks at a news conference in Los Angeles on Aug. 15, 2008.

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said on Wednesday he’s likely to make another major speech at the Republican National Convention later this year, as he did in 2004, and that he’s going to join his buddy John McCain on the campaign trail later this year.

The governor spoke of his plans during a lunch session for participants at the Milken Institute Global Conference on the economy.

Schwarzenegger announced on Jan. 31 that he is supporting McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

The governor noted that his wife, Maria Shriver,  is a lifelong Democrat who supports Barack Obama. 

Schwarzenegger told the conference that he likes the environmental stands of each of the three presidential candidates: McCain, Obama and Democrat Hillary Clinton.  But said he sided with McCain because he knows him best and has a long working relationship with the Arizona senator.

On Tuesday night, the Milken audience was asked, by a show of applause, which of the three candidates they supported. It was a close call between McCain and Obama who the audience liked the most. Only a handful put their hands together for Clinton, who won the California primary over Obama handily earlier this year.

Because he was born outside the United States, the Austrian-born Schwarzenegger is not eligible to run for president. If he were, perhaps he would not have uttered the line on Wednesday that “Nobody is dying to go to Iowa,” the state that holds the first contest in the presidential nominating process and one where candidates are expected to spend alot of time wooing voters. Schwarzenegger said that when he was extoling the virtues of California.

Reporting by Bernie Woodall

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage. 

Photo credit: Reuters/Phil McCarten (Schwarzenegger participates in a panel discussion at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, Calif.)