Posted on 04/07/2006 6:12:33 PM PDT by Amerigomag
After a very promising beginning last week, another key deadline for getting a version of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s big infrastructure bonds package on the California ballot this year has been missed. But sources close to the Republican governor say he can run on the issue with or without the program actually making it to the ballot this year.
This time it was the Democratic and Republican leaders of the state Legislature -- meeting without the governor himself, whose practice of serial separate meetings with the leaders had confused at times -- who missed their own target deadline of April 6th. They had hoped to get a deal done before the Legislature’s Easter break.
They had “a very promising beginning last week” as one ranking legislative source put it. Starting the process with a meeting in Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata’s office, the pro tem, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, Senate Minority Leader Dick Ackerman, and Assemblymen George Plescia and Kevin McCarthy, the incoming and outgoing Assembly Republican leaders, agreed that a pared down approach was best. That more focused approach to a bonds package for November included levee repair and flood management, school construction and modernization, and transportation projects. Other late emerging items in the failed package for June, such as dams and parks, would not be included. Dams had been a problem for Democrats, parks had been a problem for Republicans.
Meetings and discussions between the legislative leaders continued this week, but the deal proved elusive.
In missing the latest deadline, informed sources say that there continued to be agreement on the outlines of a deal, although water storage had begun to seep back into the picture. The magnitude was fairly clear -- $25 to $30 billion rather than the $50 billion “Christmas tree,” as one Republican called it -- but policy and philosophical differences remained.
There are three key areas still unresolved. Finding the right balance in the transportation portion of the package between highways and mass transit. Determining the extent of affordable housing in the package. Democrats want to emphasize it along transportation corridors, Republicans are skeptical. And the issue that has been a stumbling block from day 1 of this process, finding a way to accommodate Assembly Republicans’ desire for changes in environmental and labor law without subtracting Democratic votes for the package.
Despite the latest setback, sources report some good feelings about getting a deal done after the break. But they will have to move quickly. Because the Capitol will soon be moving into state budget mode with the governor’s May revise coming up.
How would another failure to get a big infrastructure package onto the ballot affect the politician who has made it the centerpiece of his message in this election year, Arnold Schwarzenegger?
Not very much, argue the former action superstar’s partisans. They note that most voters -- who of course weren’t able to follow the failed Capitol machinations of last month -- don’t blame Schwarzenegger. They say he can run on the theme of rebuilding the state even if nothing is done.
Schwarzenegger campaign manager Steve Schmidt said yesterday that the election won’t be about Arnold, it will be about a choice. This, incidentally, echoes the George W. Bush and Republican message nationally. Says the veteran of the Bush White House and 2004 campaign: "The choice," he said, "will be between Steve Westly's vision, or Phil Angelides' vision, and Arnold Schwarzenegger's vision.” The choice, as he frames it, "will be reform and continuing to move forward vs. a failed status quo." He cited overcrowded classrooms, congested roadways, and threatened levees ("if it happened around here it would make New Orleans look like a junior varsity disaster") as the sort of things that the current system has failed to solve, that Arnold wants to solve, and that Californians can readily grasp.
Perhaps this is so. But Californians may just want results. And if they don’t see results, they may just turn to someone new. Legislators are mostly safe in their carefully drawn districts. The governor is not.
The Austrian shrugs and his faithfull minions rapidly move forward with their plans to compare apples to oranges since not one of the gladiators has a record of any accomplishments.
All is again peacful in the land of fruit, nuts and imported, political imcompetance.
The choice," he said, "will be between Steve Westly's vision, or Phil Angelides' vision, and Arnold Schwarzenegger's vision.” The choice, as he frames it, "will be reform and continuing to move forward vs. a failed status quo."
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Exactly.
I am trying to figure out whether Angelides or Westly is paying the author Bill Bradley, to tear Arnold down and try to turn conservatives against him.
Next time you talk with him, you might ask him that.
Obviously, the Austrian has fouled his own nest. No paid, political assassin could do more damage to his image than he has wrought with his own hand.
'Just saw a TV ad for Westly, showing him as a young man shaking Jimmy Carter's hand. The music in the background cracks me up, all pastoral and comforting, like lambs to the slaughter.
:::shudder:::
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
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