The governor changes tune

By Ruben Navarrette, UNION-TRIBUNE COLUMNIST

Sunday, January 17, 2010 at 12:04 a.m.

Et tu, Arnold?

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is usually a kinder, gentler Republican when it comes to immigrants. So what a shame that Schwarzenegger would, in his recent State of the State address, spread a familiar half-truth about the economics of illegal immigration by stressing the costs while ignoring the benefits.

This isn’t the Arnold we knew.

In 2006, during a meeting with the editorial board of a Spanish-language newspaper, La Opinion, Schwarzenegger said it was a mistake for him to have supported Proposition 187, a mean-spirited ballot initiative in 1994 that denied education, social services and nonemergency health care to illegal immigrants.

In 2007, in a speech to the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, Schwarzenegger called President George W. Bush “very courageousâ€