Governator scolds legislators who went to Republican convention
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger gave up a prime-time speaking slot at the GOP convention underway in Minnesota because of California’s budget morass. So it was not surprising that he took the bait when asked this morning how he feels about state legislators, both Democrats and Republicans, who decided to attend their party shindigs.
But the governor, who has not been shy lately about attacking lawmakers, did so with unusual vigor at a news conference in Placerville, where he was surrounded by local officials upset that the state is holding up their funding.
“While the state is 2 1/2 months late on a budget and while there are severe consequences because of that to education and healthcare and hospitals, and law enforcement and firefighting and all of those things, there are absolutely no consequences for the legislators. Absolutely none. They go on vacation. They go on recess. They go home on the weekends and have their two days off -- because God forbid they have to work through the weekend -- and they go to the various different conventions and do their things, and business as usual.”
“I think that you should stay in the capital,” Schwarzenegger said. “You should not go anywhere until the budget is done ... "
The governor did not note that lawmakers did actually work this past weekend, because ... (continued on jump)
--Michael Rothfeld
Photo: Associated Press
... the deadline to pass most bills was Sunday night. And Schwarzenegger, normally not an advocate of hanging around Sacramento all the time, has himself been flying home to Los Angeles in his private jet at night to see his family. But he presumably meant the legislators should stay at work during the daytime. In any case, his rant prompted a strong ovation from the locals.
Schwarzenegger went on to suggest the legislators are gluttonous for taking their $1,000-a-week living stipend -- tax-free -- while “you guys have to suffer here.... So I think it is unfair.”
In an odd moment, the European-born governor appeared somewhat frustrated that he can’t make the trains run on time without permission from lawmakers.
“We don’t have a dictatorship,” he said. “We don’t have a system in place where the governor says, ‘This is the way it's done -- You’re going to stay in your office and you’re going to do the budget.’”
But then, realizing how that sounded, he quickly added, to laughter, “May I remind you, thank God we don’t have a dictatorship because when I grew up in Austria we were surrounded by dictatorships so I left because of that. But I just want people to understand the governor does not have the power to make the legislators do the work.”
He said people can “have the power” by calling up lawmakers and, in effect, threatening to punish them: “Look the election is coming up ... so you are on the line here. Get to work and get this done.”
