But the governor's efforts at the California Congress of Republicans met a mixed response, the Los Angeles Times reported. "We Republicans have a history of boldness," Schwarzenegger said to cheers from the audience. He cited former presidents Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan.

But Young Americans for Freedom distributed flyers that showed Schwarzenegger's face on Patty Hearst's body, suggesting that the governor -- like the kidnapped heiress who joined her kidnappers in bank heists -- is a victim of the Stockholm Syndrome and has begun to empathize with Democrats in Sacramento.

"The governor's been embracing a wholehearted Democratic agenda," said Brandon Powers, the YAF chairman.