This excellent diary got me to thinking about how we should respond to the defeat of Gov. Schwarzenegger's ballot propositions at the hands of California voters last night.
We have little to celebrate today. Of course, we should be grateful that the voters of California kept five destructive initiatives from becoming law. But the state still faces the same problems it did on Monday, and taxpayers just received a bill for $50 million for what essentially amounted to a six-month Kabuki theater production starring a guy we're accustomed to seeing throw bad guys from tall buildings.
When someone files a lawsuit against another person, then under many circumstances, that person is liable for paying the court costs and perhaps even the other litigant's legal fees should that case prove unsuccessful.
Why should the failure of this special election be treated any differently?
The Bulldog Manifesto is absolutely correct in arguing that Schwarzenegger's forgoing of his salary is an empty gesture in light of the fact that he was willing to spend almost thee hundred times his yearly salary on what basically boils down to a very expensive abdication of the job he was elected to do.
Think about it. The only reason this election happened was because he was unwilling to work with the legislature. And so he decided to cynically wield his extra-political celebrity to try and circumvent the legislative process. Why not? It worked twice before.
Now the citizens of California are $50 million poorer, and what do they have to show for it? Zilch. Zip. Nada. He couldn't have done any better job wasting the taxpayers' money than if he'd spent it on lap dances.
I don't know about the rest of you, but it occurs to me that if the governor of a state misallocated funds to the tune of $50 million, people would be calling for his head.
Why shouldn't we be calling for Schwarzenegger's? Especially given that this special election was a calculated misallocation of taxpayer funds that purposely misused the initiative process in doing so?
So to recap:
- Schwarzenegger's special election happened because he abdicated his job duties
- $50 million of taxpayer money (and hundreds of millions more was spent on advocacy by both sides) was spent to accomplish absolutely nothing
- The election results demonstrate conclusively that he is working at cross purposes to the will of California's citizens
- One of the stated reasons for Gray Davis' recall was that he mishandled taxpayer monies
Ladies and gentlemen, the next step is to start calling - as loudly as possible - for Schwarzenegger's resignation.
He has demonstrated that he cannot govern. He has demonstrated that he cannot be trusted as the custodian of taxpayer funds. He has shown that he doesn't think the rules that apply to everyone else apply to him.
It's time for him to go. Now.