[dsmtoday]

Arnold gives a 10% budget hike to the Dems and they scream that it's a "budget cut" because he didn't give them the 20% increase that they wanted. I'd like to see a "fiscal Conservative / social Liberal" make it in that environment.

In the example you've given, a fiscal convervative / social conservative would fail as well. However, if the core Republican Party in CA actually had Arnie's back, he might have been able to do something. However, most of the "true conservatives" in the party simply turned their back on him.

[NormsRevenge]

don;t forget, the Gub proposes the budgets, and he asked and cajoled many on the R side of the aisle to go along so they would have more time to battle for the reform initiatives.

in retrospect, I wonder if that was a prudent move... not that I agreed with the last 2 years of budgeting regardless and how things shook out.