George Skelton looks at Schwarzenegger's legacy of squandered promises.
"For Arnold Schwarzenegger, two very early decisions as governor helped
force him into the budget box he found himself in Friday, where the only
moves he dared make were, he said, personally painful.
Those two
fateful moves were:
First, cutting the vehicle license fee, or "car tax." Ironically for
Schwarzenegger, it counted as a spending increase,
costing roughly $5
billion annually. That's because local governments,
not the state, had
banked the VLF revenue, and Sacramento graciously reimbursed
them for
their loss.
Second, the new governor used his star power to persuade
the Legislature
— it wasn't hard — and the voters to borrow $15 billion to pay not only
for inherited debt, but the initial car tax cut and
other daily
expenses. The state still is paying off those bonds
and the money's long
gone. The annual cost: $1.2 billion.
Add to those missteps Schwarzenegger's over-reaching in his second year
by calling an unpopular special election for too many
flawed "reform"
initiatives, all rejected by voters. The sum total amounts to wasted
opportunity.
Cathleen Decker analyzes the "screaming match" between Meg Whitman and Steve Poizner.
"For Whitman, the former head of EBay making her first
bid for office,
the turnabout from high-flying frontrunner to muddy brawler has been
particularly brutal.
"For months, she campaigned by saying she would focus
as governor only on
jobs, spending and education, and on running government
"a little bit
more like a business." So necessary was that laser
focus, she said, that
she vowed to veto any bill the Legislature produced
that dealt with
anything else.
"By last week, however, her once massive lead had diminished
substantially and Whitman was firmly on familiar turf
for a Republican
primary — issues that play on cultural or racial notes. In another
ad,
airing on the radio, she misrepresented facts to blast
welfare
recipients."
We're just happy the image of Meg Whitman mud wrestling was conjured up by somebody else, and not this column...
If you didn't get enough of the state budget coverage, Shane Goldmacher's weekend wrap up is available. here.
"Proposing a budget that would eliminate the state's welfare-to-work
program and most child care for the poor, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on
Friday outlined a stark vision of a California that
would sharply limit
aid to some of its poorest and neediest citizens.
His $83.4-billion plan would also freeze funding for local schools,
further cut state workers' pay and take away 60% of state money for
local mental health programs. State parks and higher
education are among
the few areas the governor's proposal would spare."
Mark Barabak says elections tomorrow in Arkansas, Pennsylvania and Kentucky could be a gauge of voter anger nationally.
"With anger all around, voters in three states will
signal on Tuesday the
depth of the country's anti-establishment mood, which threatens
lawmakers in both parties and raises prospects for
an even more
polarized Congress after November.
"On the left, two veteran U.S. senators, Democrats
Blanche Lincoln of
Arkansas and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, are fighting for political
survival, despite the support of party leaders from
President Obama on
down. Their opponents say neither is a true Democrat.
On the right, the hand-picked candidate of Kentucky Sen. Mitch
McConnell, the GOP leader on Capitol Hill, is struggling to
rally
against a "tea party" insurgent who spends nearly as
much time
criticizing Republicans as he does Democrats. Rand Paul, son of
presidential hopeful Ron Paul and the front-runner in the Senate race,
won't even commit to backing McConnell for party leader
if elected."
Tom Campbell has maintained a lead in the polls while keeping a low public profile. Maeve Reston reports,"In his quest to take on California Sen. Barbara Boxer, Republican Tom Campbell has managed an unusual feat — he has been the least visible of the three GOP candidates for Senate, and yet has led in almost every poll.
"Much of it is driven by the need to raise money. Campbell
has had
trouble in that regard in past races, and the demand
is even more
pronounced in the Senate primary where he is competing
with Fiorina, who
has already given several million dollars to her campaign. Candidates
are not required to release information about their
campaign treasuries
until late May, so it is not yet clear where any of
the candidates stand
financially.
"With his five past terms in Congress and service in
the Legislature,
Campbell is better known across the state than the
other candidates.
Still, as many as a third of voters are undecided.
All three GOP Senate
candidates are laboring mightily to elevate themselves
beyond a sideshow
as their party's gubernatorial
hopefuls batter each other with tens of millions of dollars in
television advertising."
John Ellis looks at the race between Jeff Denham and Richard Pombo.
"Supporters of two candidates in the hotly contested 19th Congressional District Republican primary are crying foul over radio and television commercials they say violate federal election law.
"Experts say the ads probably would stand up in court -- especially after a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision overturned a century-old restriction and allowed corporations to spend money in federal elections. But those in the fray insist each others' commercials are illegal."
And finally, are you looking to save some costs while planning a wedding? Well, maybe you can get a robot to conduct the ceremony.
At a recent wedding in Tokyo, "The nuptials were led by "I-Fairy," a 4-foot (1.5-meter) tall seated robot with flashing eyes and plastic pigtails. Sunday's wedding was the first time a marriage had been led by a robot, according to manufacturer Kokoro Co. "Please lift the bride's veil," the robot said in a tinny voice, waving its arms in the air as the newlyweds kissed in front of about 50 guests. "The wedding took place at a restaurant in Hibiya Park in central Tokyo, where the I-Fairy wore a wreath of flowers and directed a rooftop ceremony. Wires led out from beneath it to a black curtain a few feet (meters) away, where a man crouched and clicked commands into a computer."