A very interesting commentary this morning on a local San Francisco channel...an interview with state legislator and former City Councilman Mark Leno about how the state continually gets itself into these long delays in reaching a budget agreement.

In part, Leno said, it is a continuation of the fact that CA is one of only three states requiring a super-majority to pass budget bills. Secondarily, however, he observed that Schwarzeneger has one major problem.....no rapport with the members of his own party.

It is true that the Gov.'s own politics are far more pragmatic than virtually every member of the whack job contingent that makes up the GOP minority in the legislature, but Leno said, "If he just invited a few of them to dinner once in a while, and had Clint Eastwood join him, they'd be eating out of his hand."

I don't know if that would prove true in reality given the intensity of the legislators' adherence to (or fear of wavering from) their pledge on never raising any taxes in the face of a $41 billion deficit. True madness defined.

Wow - that may be the most sensible statement to come out of the mouth of a Republican with major national standing since Eisenhower's "Cross of Iron" speech!

Funniest column in the WaPo this week, apart from Will's, is by S.E. Cupp, who believes she's a humorist and is, but not in the way she thinks, gazing starstruck at the lineup at the upcoming ConPAC and pining nostalgically for the days when Bush and Cheney were in attendance. (Sounds like Arnold's invitation was recalled.) Most hilarious line of many priceless ones: "Michael Steele, Mike Huckabee and John Boehner are the Jonas Brothers of conservative celebrity." Maybe, but Sasha, Malia and the gang at Sidwell Friends ain't linin' up for 'em.

I guess repubs won't be pushing for that constitutional ammendment to allow the Governator to run for President after all.

He never ran in the primary; the only way he got in was through the special recall election. So hes not a product of the GOP machine, and hasn't been forced to drink the kool-aid time and time again.
"republicans" like him and Bloomberg are sui generis.

One can not help but ponder at how Schwarzenegger happened to become a Republican. The CW about if your father was a X, chances are that that you are an X, hardly apply to an immigrant.

"You're terminated, fucker."
––national republicans to the governator

Well, Arnold made oodles of money with his Hollywood career, i.e. he was massively successful financially.

Then he set his sight higher and wanted to also make it socially. So he married an heir to one of the most well-connected political families in the country and announced his political ambitions. When the recall opportunity presented itself, he grabbed it with both hands.

By now, he is no longer only rich and famous, but has truely arrived among the rich and powerful. He is not going to throw that away for the crazy bunch in Sacramento. Where he now sits, he doesn't need that aggravation.

The business with being governor could have gone a little better, but Arnold has essentially accomplished what he set out to achieve. The rest is history.

I wonder if there's an excommunication process in place at the Republican National Committee....

I think they'll "Beta" the process on those six GOPers who had the audacity to vote for the budget first....

Arnold's basically done. He'll be term-limited out of office, and won't be able to get elected to anything if he has to go through a Republican primary, since the Kool-aid drinkers think he's a traitor.

But he's very much a traditional Republican, a believer in low taxes and pro-business policies.
In the Northeast he'd fit right in to the party.

He's going to walk out on them.

A little off topic, but has anyone else noticed how CNN has been carrying the GOP's water and holding it's belt loop. Their commentary since January 20th has been Foxian.

A look at their last several web site headlines is a case study in negative digs at the President, a small sample:

GOP governors: Stimulus may hurt in long run

Poll: Obama rating slips, but still high

Media treatment of Obama fair, majority say

This may be a little off topic, but pretty pertinent considering what the right-wing has been up to lately. Glen Greenwald over at Salon referred to this article:

The basic elements of contemporary right-wing thought can be reduced to three: First, there has been the now-familiar sustained conspiracy, running over more than a generation, and reaching its climax in Roosevelt’s New Deal Obama's 'Stimulus Package, to undermine free capitalism, to bring the economy under the direction of the federal government, and to pave the way for socialism or communism. A great many right-wingers would agree with Frank Chodorov, the author of "The Income Tax: The Root of All Evil", that this campaign began with the passage of the income-tax amendment to the Constitution in 1913.
The second contention is that top government officialdom has been so infiltrated by Communists liberals / socialists that American policy, at least since the days leading up to Pearl Harbor 9/11, has been dominated by men who were shrewdly and consistently selling out American national interests.
Finally, the country is infused with a network of Communist liberal agents, just as in the old days it was infiltrated by Jesuit liberal agents, so that the whole apparatus of education, religion, the press, and the mass media (liberal) is engaged in a common effort to paralyze the resistance of loyal Americans.

Keep in mind that this article was printed in 1964. Yes 1964.

If you look at the few changes I made to that paragraph, it could easily have been written today. (Italics in Original; Bold mine)

Sounds like Arnie needs to be hauled before Rush for a little reprogramming.

"Sounds like Arnie needs to be hauled before Rush for a little reprogramming."

I seriously doubt that Arnold will ever allow that to happen. Rush is for the plebs and Arnold is playing in better company now.

Raises an interesting question though: Did Arnold ever appear on Rush, or has he always kept his distance?

Joe Buck is right when he says "Arnold's basically done."

He has nothing more to run for; can't run for Gov again, can't run for Prez or VP. Senate? No way. So he's free to speak his mind (such as it is).

I wonder if there's an excommunication process in place at the Republican National Committee.... -- Steve Benen

Jindal might try a little exorcism, perhaps but, in general, I agree with the rest -- Ahnold's "done" as far as RNC is concerned. Can't blame him, either, especially if his choice was between "pariah with RNC" and "pariah with my wife"; some scr3ws are worth more than others.

I don't think Arnie has been all that eager to be in lock step with the Republicans. He's made such comments before, especially when approaching budget talks in the past.

As MT Gov Schweitzer said,

"You can philosophize in D.C. all you want, but we in the states have to get things done.

A Governor's job is to deliver for people: to create good jobs, to strengthen our healthcare system, to educate our children, to make sure we have decent roads, to keep criminals in prison. This recovery package does that."

Arnold's easy to make fun of, and certainly he can be criticized for decisions he's made as Governor. However, in spite of his on-screen persona, I think he's actually light-years away from the enthusiastically-stupid-and-proud-of-it mentality that all Republicans are expected to display if they aspire to national office.

Contemporary Republicanism is indistinguishable from a rigid religious cult in which all adherents are expected to believe the most ridiculous things, regardless of the mountains of hard evidence to the contrary. It actively and openly scorns educated people, and is suspicious of education itself. The GOPer who compared his party to the Taliban didn't know how accurate he was.

I wonder if there's an excommunication process in place at the Republican National Committee....

I don't know about the National Committee, but the former head of the California Republican Party was stripped of his position and excommunicated when he sided with Schwarzenegger on the budget.

Arnold, mein Lansmann, is probably a conservative Democrat who wants to make the trains run on time. Clearly he doesn't care what the Rethug establishment, deranged as it is, cares about him. He may want to be president, but it isn't going to happen, at least not in his lifetime. He also does want to govern, and for that I give him credit.

Certainly he has not strengthened the Rethugs in California, nor can he. Only now, when the state came within a sneeze of disintegrating, are the long term consequences of 1978's Proposition 13 made manifest.

I haven't been one of Arnold's fans, but he has definitely given a good account of himself in recent days.

Orange County should become its own state ASAP. Maybe its own country. There must be a corner of this world somewhere, where the Rethugs can gather and practice what they preach.

Those praising Schwarzenegger now should remember the start of his term, when he went to war against the unions, among other wingnuttishness acts, and saw his approval ratings begin to slide down. He isn't behaving sanely now because he's some wise, thoughtful guy, but because the citizens of California taught him the existence of boundaries.

Schwarzenegger wasn't the powerful governator we thought he would be. Maybe we need Clint Eastwood.

Arnold won't be excommunicated, he'll just be ignored. He won't be on Fox News, he won't be invited to appear with anyone. He will be invited to public events when he appears to be in lockstep.

Look for him at the Republican convention in 2012 if they can get him to endorse the candidate and not say anything even mildly in disagreement with Republican orthodoxy.

My guess is, he stays quietly and nominally a Republican, and moves back to his Hollywood career, finds that Hollywood has moved past him, and eventually gets back into politics somehow as an independent.

Gee, do you live in California ? Schwarzenegger's politics have never been orthodox republican and probably never will be. Why don't you write about something more interesting ? This kind of snickering about the GOP is beginning to sound like what we used to hear in a 4th grade schoolyard.

Arnold is playing in better company now.

He certainly had a choice seat at the Governor's Dinner yesterday: beside First Lady Michelle :)

I like him. I moved here at the time of the black-outs. We haven't had any of more of those and I'm OK with that. The governor's race was the biggest circus going. I thought along with Arianna, and the stripper, Arnold was just another punchline. But he surprised me. Seems he grew into the job. He's also willing to admit a mistake and that's something you just don't see that often esp. with Republicans.

The Guv is, not only closer to the old Eastern Establishment of Republicans, but, to the old Northern California Knight regime, which gave the country Earl Warren and Senator Thomas Kuechel, who voted for the Civil Rights Bills. Kuechel was purged by Walter Knott's Birchers in '66. Speaking of ol' Walter, must be a whole lot of boysenberries boiling and gurgling somewhere in an Orange County grave.