Double standard

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Orange County Register, Thursday, September 23, 2004
The governor won't accept driver's ID for illegal immigrants without a 
special mark.
By JOHN GITTELSOHN

SACRAMENTO ? Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill Wednesday that would 
have allowed illegal immigrants to get a driver's license, saying it failed 
to address his concerns for national security.

"One of the most important duties of the governor of a state is to protect 
its citizens," Schwarzenegger's veto message said. "Determining the true 
identity and history of an individual is a key component of that protection."

The bill failed to provide those protections, Schwarzenegger had said, 
because illegal immigrant driver's licenses would look the same as those 
issued to legal California residents. Schwarzenegger wanted a 
distinguishing mark, a demand proponents of the bill called discriminatory 
and some even compared to the Stars of David that Jews were forced to wear 
in Adolf Hitler's Germany.

Immigrant activists said Schwarzenegger's veto broke a vow to reach a 
solution that would have let an estimated 2 million undocumented immigrants 
drive legally.

The bill's author accused Schwarzenegger and his staff of "bad-faith 
bargaining." State Sen. Gilbert Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, said, "For several 
months, he has told the Legislature and the media thathe is working hard on 
the issue and yet never went beyond speaking in generalities or calling for 
a discriminatory mark."

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Sacramento Bee, January 11, 2006
Governor 'never thought' to get license
By Laura Mecoy -- Bee Los Angeles Bureau

LOS ANGELES - Despite years of cruising Pacific Coast Highway on his 
motorcycles, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Tuesday he'd never stopped to 
consider he needed a special license to ride a two-wheeler on California roads.

"I just never really got one," the former actor said. "I never thought 
about it."

He said he had a driver's license when he lived in Europe to drive 
motorcycles, motorcycles with sidecars, trucks and tanks.

"When I came over here, in the beginning I used that," he said. "And, you 
know, I just never really applied for it, and it was just one of those 
things that I never thought about it."

Schwarzenegger was cited at least once before - in 1983 - for driving a 
Jeep without a valid driver's license after an accident, according to press 
accounts at the time. In those reports, his spokesman said it had expired 
while he was in Mexico making a movie.

Margita Thompson, his press secretary, said she couldn't comment on that 
incident because it was long before she began working for Schwarzenegger. 
But she said the governor "has absolutely acknowledged he needs" to get a 
motorcycle license.

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