California politics: The diligent press makes an astonishing discovery

Yes, the newspaper actually used this headline itself: Schwarzenegger shows he's a mortal in politics San Francisco Chronicle 07/11/04.

The opening line is:  "For the first time, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger doesn't look like an unstoppable political force."

Translation: what we still generously call our political press corps has discovered that every now and then, they have to cover the governor of California as though he were a real politician dealing with serious problems, instead of their usual fawning celebrity coverage of the novelty Hollywood star in the governor's office.

It would be way too much to expect that this trend will spread very far.  Or last very long.

Bob Somerby (the Daily Howler) is right.  If we didn't have this press corps, you couldn't invent them.

Government finance experts say his proposed budget borrows too much money, postpones difficult decisions and looks strikingly similar to Gov. Gray Davis' final budgets, which were derided by Senate President John Burton as "get-out-of-town-alive'' plans.

Some lawmakers and Capitol insiders say the political food fight that always accompanies budget season has shown the actor-turned-governor to be thin-skinned, and, after eight sure-footed months in office, exposed him as a beginner struggling to learn the ins and outs of statehouse deal-making.

We should expect much more from the governor who took office in a political coup based on recalling the elected governor because he was acting, well, pretty much like Schwarzenegger is acting.  Except that Schwarznegger is much more active in raising money in the pay-to-play system that Davis was rightly criticized for indulging so enthusiastically.

This article does give a few examples of Schwarzenegger wrestling with the same kinds of problems that Gray Davis was expelled from office for wrestling with.  This bit is an interesting example of the short-term thinking that's so characteristic of the politics of the "culture of contentment":

Schwarzenegger struck a deal with cities and counties that got the state money for the next two years, but traded that for his support of a constitutional amendment that could potentially forever lock in a local- government financing scheme.

"A lot of the deals he's made do not seem to be deeply thought-out in respect to the long term,'' said Steven Sheffrin, director of the Center for State and Local Taxation at UC Davis.

The Republican Party, being particularly devoted to its core mission of comforting the comfortable, is especially inclined to short-run expediency.  And borrowing massively to juggle budgets long enough to pass the problem on to someone else.

Pretty much the Schwarzenegger style of governing.