For the love of god, spare us this "Schwarzenegger is a liberal" claptrap. His one enduring legacy has been to bamboozle the voters into floating the largest bond issue in the history of the world, and the state is still living off of those borrowed funds. But soon they will run out, and we will face a series of escalating budget crises, culminating in either another massive bond issue (most likely), drastic budget cuts (less likely), or a massive tax increase (unlikely). To Mr. Thompson's credit, he at least mentions in passing that the piper will need to be paid, and soon.

Also, I would like to see the evidence that California is better off. By every mneasure that I can find, the state is demonstrably worse off. Energy prices are soaring, and Schwarzenegger dropped the lawsuit initiated by the Davis administration that would have recouped some 25 billion dollars from Enron et al. Unemployment is up, fewer people have health insurance, hospitals are closing, housing is all but unaffordable for the middle class, scandal rocks the state prison system, traffic grows ever worse, and the once magnificent infrastructure is deteriorating faster than it can be rebuilt.

In my opinion, Angelides should sit out the general election, and immediately mount a recall on November 8. Why spend 20 million on an election where you have to run against an incumbent, when you could spend 2 million and the incumbent is prohibited from appearing on the ballot? Further, the incumbent is required to get 50 percent plus one on the recall question, while the challenger need only get a plurality. Schwarzenegger could hardly complain, since he stole the office the same way.

This article- and the preceding letter responding to it- puzzle me mightily. Last I checked, Arnold took power thanks to an unsustainable state budget deficit in California engendered in part by what is universally acknowledged to be an extremely lackluster Democratic governor. Schwarzenegger ran on a cost-cutting platform because that was all there was to run on. However, electing a doctor does not mean people like taking medicine. That voters would reject spending cuts does not signal anything except that Americans like fiscally responsibility as long as it doesn't cost them anything. This is one of the flaws of the referendum addiction California suffers. The result is stagnation as politicians are forced to postpone painful reforms indefinitely, since they cannot survive politically if they enact them. Mr. Thomson's article notes that California still suffers from a giant budget deficit and speculates that Schwartzenegger's career will suffer when he is forced to "pay the piper." But these are bills he is running up on the behalf of Democrats in order to stay in power. Thomson himself notes, on the one hand, that the deficit is a problem. On the other hand he seems to paint a picture of the Governator courageously facing down Republican fiscal conservatives. We can't agree that the deficit is a looming problem and simultaneously praise Arnold for running it up in order to please Democratic interests. How this serves as an example of how democracy is supposed to work baffles me.

What the Schwartenegger case illustrates is that while the Democrats have yet to commit themselves ideologically to fiscal conservatism in any serious way; they have, however, successfully convinced Republicans to abandon it in the name of "centrism." This is a distressing development, because at least half of the point of the two-party system is that the parties are capable of restraining each others' spending. Cutting deals where each party gets to spend on their own special interest groups is not an example of sweet compromise for the greater interest, but of cynical dealmaking in the service of political careers, not good government.

What we are seeing developing in the Democratic party is a distressing mirror of what has happened to the Republicans; a valorization of party loyalty over loyalty to the common interest. We have in this article a Democratic activist who is enraged at Schwartenegger for enacting policies advocated, supported (if we are to believe Thomson, forced down Schwartenegger's throat) by Democrats . . . because Schwartenegger is not a Democrat. If this is what we are to expect when the Democrats take power- the worst of both party's self-serving tendencies combined- we are in for a very short honeymoon.

And make no mistake: California faces some very serious problems that will require the same sort of bipartisanship on display this year. The state's prison system faces an unprecedented crisis.

Let's not forget that this crisis is part of Gray Davis' legacy.

Unfortunately, Davis forgot that California prisoners have family members who vote. That's one reason why Davis lost so many votes among Democrats who made less than 50k and didn't go to college.

Arnold came into office determined to fix this problem. But he didn't really get as much support as he could have from the California left.

In fact, Salon steadfastly ignored Arnold's attempts to resolve this crisis while they were publishing photos of Abu Ghraib and acting like Iraqi prisoners for some reason have more of a claim to humane treatment than do the prisoners in our own state.

And Susan Kennedy's arrival was NOT GOOD NEWS for anyone who wanted this problem solved, because she was a big part of the problem herself, with her deep ties to the prison guards union.

A federal judge was so disgusted by the correctional system's failing healthcare system that he put the program into receivership, and the price tag to fix the problems hovers around $600 million.

When Kennedy showed up, prison guards union leaders were spotted by the LA Times hanging around her office. Then Arnold started backtracking on his original prison reform plans, and that is when the judge threw his biggest fit of all.

Just to set the record straight on the supposed liberalizing effect of Susan Kennedy in the Governor's office. Bleaaaahhhhh. If she's a liberal, then I'm Mark Twain.

The state's prison system faces an unprecedented crisis. California's sentencing laws have overcrowded the correctional system with 170,000 prisoners, half of whom are nonviolent offenders. The average prison is now about double its capacity, and efforts to ease the problem are estimated to cost $6 billion.

Thank God we've got all those marihuana users locked up at last! It's for the good of the CHILDREN.

Disturbing article. Ahnold is a JOKE. No mention of his having met with Ken Lay prior to tossing his (foreign-born) hat into the ring..? He's a retread using a facsimile of the Reagan mold. Right down to the not-found-in-nature hair color.

Or would you have us believe that this civic-minded Austrian former bodybuilder/action movie star is acting on our behalf, out of the goodness of his heart..?

What do you keep in a toolbox? Take your time, I'm in no hurry.