Schwarzenegger Needs to Put His Popularity On the Line for a State Budget

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

There's only one way the state budget is going to pass anytime soon: Governor Schwarzenegger needs to muster all of his celebrity power in the next few days and camp out in the districts of Republican State Senators who refuse to support the bipartisan budget plan passed by the Assembly and supported by Senate Democrats and one bold Senate Republican.
 
No more tough-worded but empty statements. No more cordial meetings with schnapps and strudel. No more Mr. Nice Guy with the GOP Caucus.
 
It's time Schwarzenegger to use the bully pulpit. Time to target the one or two Republican votes needed to pass the budget. Time to tap the tools pulpit that only a Governor has, as well as the celebrity only this governor has.
 
Figure it this way: Senate Republicans already have gotten the Governor to agree to make $700 million in additional cuts on his own. And that won't be easy. Democrats will howl, and the poor are likely to take the hits the hardest. That won't do much for Arnold's popularity numbers as he tries to eek out legislative victories on health care, redistricting, and water.

They've also got him to start talking about weakening the state's environmental laws, something that goes against his grain as Governor Green.
 
And last night, they basically had a public vote of no confidence on his integrity. (Sen. McClintock unleashed a nasty one in his remarks, wondering about the governor's honesty by raising Schwarzenegger's unfulfiled commitment to Sen. Gil Cedillo to sign a bill providing licenses to undocumented workers).
 
You gotta wonder how much more of a public beating the governor is going to take from the ultra-right before he fights back.
 
Schwarzenegger's popularity is near its peak. He's been shy about wading into the budget morass, and for good reason. But it's high time he put some of his poll ratings on the line to get a state budget passed.