USATODAY.com - Schwarzenegger won't shy from confrontation

USATODAY.com - Schwarzenegger won't shy from confrontation:

"Schwarzenegger raised nearly $30 million last year from an array of corporate contributors, some of whom are giving in $250,000 increments to help promote his ballot initiatives. Asked whether they are special interests, he replied, 'As soon as a group of people is between the public and the politicians, it becomes a special interest. Now that can mean the drug companies, that can mean the auto dealers. Anyone that is fighting for their (own) interests. It doesn't mean they're bad.'

J.J. Jelincic, president of the California State Employees Association, has his own definition: 'For Arnold Schwarzenegger, a special interest is anyone who has not written him a $100,000 check.'

Bob Stern, president of the Center for Governmental Studies in Los Angeles, says Schwarzenegger's conference calls with donors highlight a paradox: 'He came in saying that he was against the special interests and he's become Mr. Special Interest. You give a certain amount of cash, and you get special access to a special phone number to give your input.'"

...Republicans, a minority here, find Schwarzenegger's aggressiveness bracing. "Because he's new, because he's bigger than life in every respect, he's willing to take on what's untouchable," says state finance director Tom Campbell, a former member of Congress.

State Senate Republican leader Kevin McCarthy gives another reason for the Austrian-born Schwarzenegger's fearlessness: He's not angling for higher office, because only native-born Americans can occupy the White House. "This governor can't be president," he says. "He knows it; we all know it."

Mark DiCamillo, director of the statewide, non-partisan Field Poll, says the slim leads Schwarzenegger's proposals enjoy will be hard to sustain in the endgame ad barrage. But then again, "he's a man who likes to overcome obstacles."

Schwarzenegger says all people need is information, and he'll make sure they get it: "I'm an expert at that, to go out there and to market and to promote things."

He demonstrated his style in defense of his budget initiative, which Nunez and others say would give him more power than any governor in the country and make him virtually king of California.

"Would you rather give the budget to the legislators that have run down this state and created a budget deficit of $22 billion, or would you rather give it to me? Somebody who has hundreds of millions of dollars and has (made) the best investments of anyone in Hollywood?" Schwarzenegger asked. "Just do a little soul-searching right now and ask yourself: Do you want to give your checkbook to those guys or give it to me? Because I can guarantee you I can turn $1 into $2."