by John Gizzi

LOS ANGELES—Although growing weak from his battle against cancer, former Orange County (Calif.) Republican Chairman Tom Fuentes demonstrated this weekend he is still strong and combative enough to speak out against two of his perennial foes:  liberal RINOs (Republicans In Name Only) and the wealthy business leaders who fund their candidacies for office and never seem to give up trying to water down the GOP’s conservative platform.
 
Honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the state Republican convention here Saturday, longtime conservative leader Fuentes recalled to a hushed audience that it had been a half-century since he walked his first precinct on behalf of Republican candidates.  Borrowing a phrase from one of his heroes, Pope John Paul II, Fuentes admonished his fellow Republicans to “be not afraid” when dealing with liberal GOPers and their moneyed backers who want to change the party’s conservative agenda.
 
And in doing so, he named names.
 
“When next you see the likes of an Arnold Schwarzenegger, do not be afraid to reject him,” declared Fuentes.  “He and his circle were a cancer in our party—a cancer far worse than mine—for which we will long pay a price.”
 
Schwarzenegger, the former governor of the Golden State (2003-2010), a liberal Republican first elected with conservative support, turned sharply to the left after a year in office and worked closely with Democratic leaders in the legislature in trying to raise state taxes.

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