By John Marelius, Staff Writer San Diego Union-Tribune November 30, 2008
Five years ago, Arnold Schwarzenegger took over a state drowning in red ink, brimming with confidence that he and the Legislature would forge a bipartisan solution that would put California back on sound financial footing.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger "I know there are some who say that the Legislature and I will never agree on solutions to our problems," the internationally famous bodybuilder and action-movie star said in his Nov. 17, 2003, inaugural address. "But I've found in my life that people often respond in remarkable ways to remarkable challenges."
Five years later, Schwarzenegger presides over a state drowning in red ink and last week made no effort to conceal his exasperation over the Legislature's failure once again to agree to a plan to cut into the state's $28 billion deficit.
"It was a total failure on the Legislature's part," the Republican governor said on Tuesday after the latest proposed compromise blew up. "You saw it's like a kindergarten down there, where they point fingers at each other."
Schwarzenegger's colorful tenure after the historic recall election of Democratic Gov. Gray Davis has had its successes: overhauling the worker's compensation system, wresting the power to redraw legislative district boundaries from the Legislature and enacting regulations to curb greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming.
But his inability to slay the fiscal dragon raises questions about what kind of legacy Schwarzenegger will leave when his term is up in two years or whether he will even stick around that long.
"The lingering question would be this: Did Arnold conquer Sacramento or did Sacramento conquer Arnold?" said Bill Whalen, a research fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. "In terms of style and political approach, he has done things that other governors have not. On the other hand, if you look at where the state is vis-à-vis 2003, there's an argument that we've gone full circle."
Schwarzenegger's celebrity outsider status has been an asset in the public side of the job, but not when it comes to the gritty day-to-day work of governing. "He is a political novice who came up against political forces that were just too strong," said Jack Pitney, a professor of American politics at Claremont McKenna College.
"In 2004, he made a push to elect Republicans to the Legislature, but gerrymandering prevented that. In 2005, he pushed his agenda through ballot measures and he ran up against the power of special interests. And now he's running up against the cruel arithmetic of the budget. There are some weights that even Arnold Schwarzenegger can't lift."
Former Schwarzenegger economic adviser Joel Fox agreed.
"He had great intentions when he ran for office, but he obviously was a novice in the workings of Sacramento, so I believe that disrupted his plans," he said.
If the budget mess continues on its intractable course, Schwarzenegger's best hope for a lasting legacy is probably in environmental policy.
Although he supported Republican John McCain for president, Schwarzenegger has ties to President-elect Barack Obama through his Kennedy in-laws.
He has said publicly he would be open to a job in the Obama administration after he leaves office in 2011.
"I will help in every possible way the administration to be successful," Schwarzenegger said in a recent Fox News interview. "So whatever they need, I'm there."
Obama's election "really saves Arnold's legacy," said Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a senior scholar at the University of Southern California School of Policy, Planning and Development.
"He can now focus on the environmental issues that are so dear to him and he'll have a much better chance of a positive response from the feds," she said. "He's got a buddy in the White House who's not about to tell California to drop dead if they want to tighten their own standards."
Joe Mathews, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation who wrote a book about Schwarzenegger's 2003 campaign, envisions the governor becoming "climate change czar" in the Obama administration and does not rule out Schwarzenegger leaving office early to accept it - even if it means leaving the governorship in the hands of Democratic Lt. Gov. John Garamendi.
"If I were Governor Schwarzenegger, I would seek leverage in the current budget situation by reminding Republicans of this fact," Mathews wrote. " 'I know you don't like me,' he might say, 'but if you don't start playing ball, I might just take my ball and leave you with a Democratic governor.' "
Conservative Republicans have always regarded Schwarzenegger with suspicion because of his liberal views on social issues and bipartisan approach to governing. But he held them in line during his 2006 re-election campaign by promising not to raise taxes.
While Schwarzenegger's no-new-taxes pledge has since given way to the enormity of the state's fiscal problems, it remains a line Republican legislators refuse to cross.
"The bigger-than-life superstar turned out to be just another politician who squandered the opportunity of the recall and embraced the status quo," grumbled Jon Fleischman, publisher of the widely read conservative blog FlashReport.
By most analyses, Schwarzenegger has little choice but to find a solution to the budget crisis if he is to be viewed as a successful governor.
"I think what he really needs to do is what he was elected to do in the first place, which is to try to come to grips with the budget and fiscal problems of California," Fox said.
Larry Gerston, a political science professor at San Jose State University, agreed.
"Another governor might be viewed as the environmental governor. But the budget thing has hit him straight between the eyes and he's shown great inability at politics," he said. "This is not a movie where you direct this. This is where you have to get your hands dirty and get people who don't like
each other very much to work together."
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20081130-9999-1n30gov.html
This email was cleaned by emailStripper, available for free from http://www.papercut.biz/emailStripper.htm