Debra J.Saunders, the San Francisco Chronicle "conservative" (if that is the name for it) columnist, hits a twopher for today, re California's Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and its refractory legislature (or is it the other way around?). First (echoing Bruce Bartlett?) she argues that the Republicans can't continue to answer every question with "tax cuts! Gawwwwk, tax cuts!" "The Democrats are right," she says. "A $42 billion, 18-month shortfall is not going to be fixed with cuts alone--not when the annual general fund is $103 billion." She quotes a Republican legislator who says: "The brand of what it means to be Republican is now in jeopardy of meaning nothing." Saunders responds, "So ... the brand has come to mean: more spending without paying for it."
Point two: Saunders is not especially sympathetic with the Democrats in the legislature, but she is not about to let the governor off the hook and here I think she is onto somethiing important. "If Schwarzeneggrer had cut spending when Democrats feared him, the budget hole would be smaller. If he had raised taxers earlier, the increases would be less painful. ... Now that Schwarzenegger is govserning like an adult, he is all alone." I think she is bang on here: seems to me that Arnold basically blew off his first two (four?) years in office; my guess is that he didn't want to spend all that time away from Malibu and couldn't believe it was really that hard.
Minnesota had a similar problem with Jesse Ventura. He, too, basically wasted a good opportunity. In Ventura's case, once he realized what he was up against, he just went back to his day job (my guess is that he also needed the money; Arnold probably doesn't). Give Arnold credit for trying, but sign on with Debra that it is too little and too late.
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