Free Republic

State Republican lawmakers have a long history of resisting taxes, and this year is no different. Even before Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger calls a planned special session to deal with the state's "fiscal emergency," GOP legislators say they have ruled out revenue increases as a potential remedy. They're not joking: All but one GOP member in the Capitol has signed a no-tax pledge. It's said "an elephant never forgets," and the Republicans whose party is symbolized by that pachyderm remember tax increases as hurting the economy – and their own political fortunes. "It's such a strong plank of the Republican platform...

Stymied by Republican resistance, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's hope of placing the most comprehensive rebuilding project in California history on the June ballot foundered Wednesday amid recriminations among legislative leaders and the administration. The California Assembly approved only a $4.1-billion borrowing plan to shore up the state's levees and $19 billion more for school construction. But late Wednesday night, the Senate declined to act on either measure, and the upper house's leaders said further negotiations would have to focus on the November ballot. Passing the hastily negotiated package "starts looking to Californians like we don't know what we are doing," said...

A frenetic last-minute attempt to place a massive public works bond on the June ballot failed late Wednesday, handing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger a key legislative defeat in his bid for re-election. The collapse of negotiations over the bond measure came just hours before an administrative deadline to place measures on the primary election ballot. "We ran out of time," Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata said, after the Senate passed an urgency bill appropriating $1 billion for levee repairs from the state's reserve fund.

That said, it seems to me that Schwarzenegger badly needs a deal and shouldn't be too picky. Take what he can get from Democrats and warmly embrace it as his own. Pull out a two-by-four and beat Republicans into submission. Republican lawmakers need a rehabilitated governor to help them raise campaign money in the fall and perform little favors for the next four years. Not to mention improving flood control in their rural districts. Privately, some gubernatorial insiders agree. "It's been really hard to watch," one advisor says of the Republicans. "Don't they understand the part about the governor giving...