Transcript Part 1: Perata 'Sick Man'

"Perata is a very sick man. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. He even throws off the Speaker. It's not just me. It's like he all of a sudden on Wednesday he basically shut down his brain and he would not go and talk to anyone anymore. Negotiations for him were over, and then he just put it up for a vote." Read full transcript after the jump.

GOVERNOR ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER

Speechwriting 3

March 13, 2006

GOVERNOR: -- working on what we should say.

MALE VOICE: Absolutely. Well, I worked on a -- do you mind if I --

GOVERNOR: No, no.

MALE VOICE: This way I can remember. Rough draft of an op ed piece.

GOVERNOR: Right.

MALE VOICE: About great bipartisan compromise. They said it couldn’t be done.

All Californians are winners.

GOVERNOR: Right.

MALE VOICE: Flood protection, schools -- what do you want to say?

GOVERNOR: I haven't thought about it.

MALE VOICE: Oh, no. Historic, the future is brighter -- what's the final number, is

it 48 billion? Or is it --

GOVERNOR: I think it will be higher.

MALE VOICE: Oh, yeah?

GOVERNOR: I think it will be 48.5 or 49, somewhere around that. But you know,

that you can always plug in that number. That doesn't matter. But I

think that the key thing is that we just say that was something that I

have talked about during my campaign, and we have to rebuild

California, and that's something that I always said, that we have to

recover, reform, rebuild, and don't forget that this plan worked out,

and this is the biggest infrastructure thing -- I think we have to put

the size on it, the biggest infrastructure agreement, whatever we

call it.

MALE VOICE: I think it's important to talk about that you've been saying this from

the beginning, because a lot of people think -- you hear people say,

"Gee, this is just a re-election plan." But you're been talking since

the beginning.

GOVERNOR: Well, and also the whole last year.

MALE VOICE: That's right.

GOVERNOR: Every time I talked about reform I said, I always said, that we have

to recover, reform, rebuild, that this is now the second installment,

and that first we did the recovery, we brought the economy back.

The second is we have to reform, the third is we have to rebuild.

And so I think that -- yes, that is important. And that I'm also -- it's

very clear that something of this magnitude -- you know, you could

never -- hey, Walter. That something of this magnitude you could

never do just alone, this is something where everyone has to come

together, both parties. And this is when best things happen. This

is what we did with Prop 57 and 58, to vote on our recovery bond

money and refinance our debt, if it is the Worker's Comp, if it is the

budget, all of those things were always done -- or solving the

Proposition 1A, you know, protecting local government. All of those

things were done together. And I think this is just one of those

things that when we all came together for what was best for the

people of California, then we made it happen. And I think it's

important also to say that of course there were tough negotiations.

MALE VOICE: Right.

GOVERNOR: Yes, there were many moments where we thought it was not going

to happen. Yes, there were moments where we were down and

(IA) and we had moments where there were blowups in my office,

that people walked out. Yes, there were moments where I said,

"This is just too big, let's not even try for June." So use some of

those examples, because people like that things are not going to

happen and then you fight through it. So to make it more dramatic,

the whole thing. But in the end, I think that everyone, Democrats

and Republicans alike, they all looked at what is best for this state,

and I think there was the will. And because of that, they made it

happen.

MALE VOICE: I don't know if we want to get into this, but what tipped it? Just all of

this that you're saying? Or at what point did you feel like it finally

happened?

GOVERNOR: I wouldn’t get into that.

MALE VOICE: Not appropriate for this piece?

GOVERNOR: Well, not for that piece, but also for any piece later on, because

there will be a lot of guessing going on anyway. Because if you

say, "Look, what tipped it was because the Democrats finally saw

that if the Republicans don't get the Proposition 42 reform and the

above the ground storage, water storage, they're not going to go

and vote for it.

MALE VOICE: Yeah.

GOVERNOR: So you can't say that, because then it makes the Democrats look

like they've given in (IA)

MALE VOICE: No, I know. You don't want to get into that.

GOVERNOR: So then if you go and then say, the Republicans finally realized that

they can't have everything, have the language written perfectly the

way they wanted to, that that is not going to happen. So finally the

realized -- so in either way it would like someone has given up

something.

MALE VOICE: Right.

GOVERNOR: So I like to just keep it always kind of al little bit above all of that,

and just say, you know, even though there was a struggle and that

the Democrats were fighting for one thing and the Republicans for

another thing that meant a lot to them, didn't mean anything to the -

-

MALE VOICE: Sure.

GOVERNOR: But in the end the key thing is to meld those two things together

into one unit. And that was very tough to do, but in the end we

were able to do it.

MALE VOICE: Were these some of the toughest negotiations that you've been

involved in since you've been here? Or kind of on a par with some

of the other stuff?

GOVERNOR: Well, I think they all have their same dynamics, which is like 57 and

58 where we had the Senate vote, I don't know if you remember.

MALE VOICE: Right.

GOVERNOR: And they just voted it straight down, and then we went back again

after the weekend after everyone chilled a little bit and went back

and negotiated, extended the time that we had to put it on the

ballot, and we met until 3:00 in the morning here, and did it. So

they all -- because everyone is trying to figure out who blinks, and

so they will go, and even if it takes to do a vote upstairs, whatever it

takes --

MALE VOICE: Sure.

GOVERNOR: They will go and take it to the last second of the day, of the day of

the hour, or whatever, to go and have a vote. And who blinks is

always in the end the question.

MALE VOICE: Do we want to address some of these people -- you talked about 68

billion, so it's 48 billion. Do we want to talk about where you go

from here in terms of trying to get some of the other things? Is this

the beginning? It's not the end, right? It's the beginning of a

continuing effort to get more --

GOVERNOR: Well, what we have to work out with the other ones is, I'm going to

talk to Fabian today about that, and to Perata, to Ackerman and

Kevin, and is to talk about this. And now there are certain things

we couldn't get done because there was just not enough time with

the seismic retrofitting of the hospitals, or if it is the prisons and the

jails and all of those issues, it was just too much on the plate, so we

felt like let's address this the next election. So we are going to go

and work on that. There's a willingness there for both of us to sit

down and work on those things.

MALE VOICE: You mean just touch on it briefly? We're going to continue working

on the things that we don't (SS)

GOVERNOR: Exactly. But now in the meantime it's important that the people

know that this is a huge victory for the people, and that we need

their vote now and in November and blah, blah, blah.

MALE VOICE: Can we say that? Can we have the Governor urging a yes vote in

this piece? Coming out of this office, can we do that?

GOVERNOR: You're talking here about the --

MALE VOICE: This is the op-ed piece.

GOVERNOR: The op-ed piece.

MALE VOICE: It'll turn into a stump speech, I guess.

GOVERNOR: Yeah, exactly.

FEMALE VOICE: Once it gets a proposition number.

GOVERNOR: I thought that you were writing also a little bit about a press

conference, when we do a press conference, and each one of us

steps our there, if it is on the Capitol steps or in our press room --

MALE VOICE: Sure, yeah.

GOVERNOR: -- or wherever it is, I think that we have to do it somewhere. Then

we need something a little bit -- that addresses all of this.

MALE VOICE: All the stuff we're -- is this today you're doing a press conference?

GOVERNOR: Well, if there's a vote that's at a reasonable time.

MALE VOICE: Don't know yet.

GOVERNOR: Well, even if it is at 9:00 o'clock at night.

FEMALE VOICE: This won't be a tonight thing. It won't be until tomorrow.

MALE VOICE: Okay.

FEMALE VOICE: This won't happen until (IA)

GOVERNOR: Yeah. It would be tomorrow morning.

MALE VOICE: (IA) need it to?

FEMALE VOICE: They're supposed to (IA) but I don't -- I can't imagine this is going to

be done that early.

MALE VOICE: Yeah. Everything takes (IA)

FEMALE VOICE: And then you've got to wait until (IA) too.

GOVERNOR: Adam.

MALE VOICE: How does that work? If they vote on it tonight, will the bill then

Wednesday or Tuesday --

FEMALE VOICE: It will go tonight.

MALE VOICE: To the Senate?

GOVERNOR: Yeah. But there's the Assembly first.

MALE VOICE: Yeah.

FEMALE VOICE: Right.

GOVERNOR: And then the Senate. Yeah.

FEMALE VOICE: Do you -- speaking of things in the polls, will you talk to the

president of the Police Chiefs Association? I just talked to him.

GOVERNOR: Yeah.

FEMALE VOICE: I was just talking about the fact that (IA) and tie it to the hospital

stuff (IA)

GOVERNOR: Right, right. Good.

FEMALE VOICE: But it would be good for you to (IA)

GOVERNOR: Yeah.

MALE VOICE: I’m going to pop in halfway through your meeting with (IA) hear

what he says (IA)

GOVERNOR: Sure. John (IA) who is with the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers

Association, and then (IA) McCarthy is with the California

Taxpayers Association.

MALE VOICE: (IA) right now.

FEMALE VOICE: I bet (IA) coming over at noon, at they were still trying to find

McCarthy to get him here. But --

GOVERNOR: Yeah.

FEMALE VOICE: (IA)

(Brief interruption in recording.)

GOVERNOR: What is great for the future, no matter if it is -- because I can see

that this is a nation-state and we have to look at it the same way as

other nations around the world and look at the great countries. We

went through that the last time.

MALE VOICE: Right.

GOVERNOR: You know, countries that really are the ones that are on the biggest

move, are the ones that look at the future, the ones that invest in

infrastructure, the ones that pour money into education, the ones

that are building universities. Those are the places that really

believe in their own future, have faith in it, and pour the money into

it.

MALE VOICE: Right.

GOVERNOR: And let the rest of the world know. Look, we have enough faith and

confidence in our future that we put our own money in, and

therefore it inspires everyone else to put money in.

MALE VOICE: Right.

GOVERNOR: And this, for us to go and say we are putting money into our own

future and that we have the confidence in California, will make the

rest of the world now look at us and say, "Wow, he's making a big

move. I think they are serious about it, not only to get their financial

house in order but also to build for the future. We are going to be

there also."

Oh, the other thing that we want to add onto this discussion, in all

this discussion -- which maybe is (IA) the private-public partnership,

because that's another thing we didn't accomplish here, because it

was too complicated, they didn't understand it. They need to be

educated, the legislators, of what that means. So that's another.

There are three things that we're going to work on (IA) for the fall.

MALE VOICE: I think the theme of the op-ed too is -- and this is your theme, what

you talked about, with Reagan -- that California is going to be a

better place tomorrow than it is today.

GOVERNOR: Right, exactly.

MALE VOICE: Because these schools are going to be fixed, and these roads --

MALE VOICE: And the levees.

GOVERNOR: Yeah.

MALE VOICE: Now, one thing --

(Brief interruption in recording.)

GOVERNOR: -- from San Diego to San Francisco to Oakland, but also the roads

from here to Shanghai and all that. I think that's good, to put the

extra sentence in there about high technology, because -- and the

one guy that we should get -- what's they guy's name that is over in

Silicone Valley that speaks somewhat with a German accent

always? He actually leads the group when they have debates?

Who is this guy from the high technology over there, from Silicone

Valley?

MALE VOICE: Karl Berdino?

FEMALE VOICE: No.

GOVERNOR: That has the German accent, kind of? He was there in this group

when we met the last time in San Jose. He was sitting right next to

me on the left side when we met with all those high tech leaders.

And he's a really smart guy. Come on in, guys. Come on in.

(Brief interruption in recording.)

GOVERNOR: Kevin feels comfortable.

MALE VOICE: Yeah.

GOVERNOR: (IA) for them to see the bigger picture rather than to just see one

little issue and look too close, you know? It's like stepping back

and looking at the whole picture of what they have gained, and

what we all have gained, rather than just looking at the things of

what did you lose, or what did you expect to get that you didn't get?

MALE VOICE: Yeah.

GOVERNOR: That's their natural of way of looking at it, is always like -- you

know, we wanted to fight for water storage, and he wanted to have

a dam built in three days.

MALE VOICE: Right.

GOVERNOR: That's what we were waiting for, for the last three decades.

MALE VOICE: Yeah.

GOVERNOR: Now we expect all this to be perfect. So I tried to tell them, we

have gotten lots of --

MALE VOICE: Yeah.

FEMALE VOICE: When you see guys -- we've got three antelope in the other room.

GOVERNOR: (IA)

FEMALE VOICE: No, no. The antelope.

GOVERNOR: Oh, antelope.

FEMALE VOICE: So there's the one, the weak and the ugly?

GOVERNOR: Oh, that's right.

FEMALE VOICE: It's a kick-off strategy. So when you see Guy Houston --

GOVERNOR: Yeah?

FEMALE VOICE: Just say to him, "Nice quote."

GOVERNOR: Nice coat?

FEMALE VOICE: Quote.

GOVERNOR: Oh, quote.

FEMALE VOICE: Nice quotes in the paper.

GOVERNOR: Okay.

FEMALE VOICE: He'll pee his pants.

GOVERNOR: Why?

FEMALE VOICE: Because he got -- there was an article in some paper where he got

lumped in with the Democrats in terms of criticizing leadership and

it spilled over on you on stuff.

GOVERNOR: M-hmm?

FEMALE VOICE: I read it and I emailed Richard, "Who is this asshole?" And Richard

beat him up and said, "My pager started going off at 7:00 o'clock

this morning." And he said, "I was taken out of context, I was taken

out of context."

GOVERNOR: Yeah, sure.

FEMALE VOICE: Just say, "Nice quotes." Then watch the liquid go down his leg.

GOVERNOR: Okay.

FEMALE VOICE: Anyway, we've got three of them in the other room.

MALE VOICE: Oh, so they're waiting for you?

GOVERNOR: Does he want me to come back?

FEMALE VOICE: No, no. (IA) in here.

GOVERNOR: Okay. Got it.

FEMALE VOICE: So you let me know when you're ready.

GOVERNOR: I'm ready. We're just schmoozing. In a few minutes we can be

ready, okay?

FEMALE VOICE: Okay.

MALE VOICE: I can give you this and you can look at it later. This is kind of the

L.A. Times op-ed piece, if there's a deal.

GOVERNOR: Okay.

MALE VOICE: I just gave it to Adam, so tell me what you think, whenever.

GOVERNOR: Great.

MALE VOICE: I hope it's bold enough and grand enough, kind of a thing.

GOVERNOR: Yeah, exactly.

(Brief interruption in recording.)

GOVERNOR: It's saying in the end, in the last paragraph, it's almost like

something that you would begin with. It says, "If California is going

to remain prosperous, the state of great opportunity and promise,

we need bold vision and planning to meet our challenges and to

take full advantage of our opportunities. Our quality of life and

California's strong position in the global marketplace demands that

we do nothing less."

But it doesn't -- it seems to me that in the end you want to shoot up.

You say, "With this decision --"

MALE VOICE: We are moving forward --

GOVERNOR: (IA) in a more positive way.

MALE VOICE: Just --

GOVERNOR: "And now California is going to remain -- is going to continue to be

prosperous, a state of great opportunities." Kind of a more positive

way, rather than just making a statement, because I think that we

went after the vote, we went beyond the statements of warning

people. That's what we need, is kind of saying, with this --

therefore with this vote the legislators, Democrats and Republicans,

have decided that yes, we will move forward. Yes, we'll take on the

challenges, and we will educate our kids and we will provide these

facilities, and we will make this the place, continue keeping it the

place of the future and blah, blah, blah. It needs something, a good

ending. An arc, I think.

MALE VOICE: Just write it a little differently. Yeah, I understand. Okay.

GOVERNOR: Don't let Walter write it.

MALE VOICE: Now all we need is a deal so we can put it out there.

GOVERNOR: Exactly. So we can put it out there, exactly. Oh, you should have

heard it. It was just -- next door.

MALE VOICE: (IA)

GOVERNOR: They have (IA) Yeah, but how can we put the school in here? He

says that we cannot have the tools that we need to put that school

in. And I said, (IA) worrying about that the end of the road, or the --

instead of 211 bridges, 212 bridges that you can build.

MALE VOICE: Yeah.

GOVERNOR: It's like I said, "This is about rebuilding California. Don't you get it?

I said, "You guys look at this -- for the last three decades you guys

have been sitting and haven't built anything."

MALE VOICE: Four decades.

GOVERNOR: I said, "Now is when we have a chance here, and you want to have

it all perfect. It won't happen. You're not the majority." I said,

"When does that get into your mind? You're not the majority. This

is a great opportunity. Is it perfect? No. But it's a great opportunity

for us to move forward and to do something big, and to get us on a

roll that we are building California. This creates unbelievable

optimism in California, everyone likes to do it. So don't start

nitpicking here. This is not going to help you."

MALE VOICE: Don't they see that they can declare victory too?

GOVERNOR: Yes, but you know, when you are from a small place and you have

grown up in the political arena, then you think about like first, what's

in it for me? Meaning, what's in it for my district?

MALE VOICE: Right.

GOVERNOR: So that's the real question for them.

MALE VOICE: Yeah.

GOVERNOR: If it wasn't for my district, how can I go now to my constituents and

say, "Look what I've done for you. Look how I fought." How can

this help me get re-elected? How can I get more fundraising,

because this industry is liking what we have done here. So there's

a different thinking with politicians.

MALE VOICE: But then they have to look at the broad picture. Look at -- we're

protecting our drinking water.

GOVERNOR: I know. You don't have to convince me.

MALE VOICE: I know.

GOVERNOR: That's just the way they look at it. I just talked to my mother-in-law

right now, and she said to me that was the most frustrating thing for

Jack, to sit there and to do all this, kind of deal with that. You

know, when there was a big idea and you had to go and ask all of

those legislators, and the Congress. Think like me.

MALE VOICE: I'm sure that going to the moon was a big fight.

GOVERNOR: Trust me, how many people there were (SS)

MALE VOICE: How many people said, "You're an idiot, we're not going to spend

the money on that."

GOVERNOR: We cannot even have enough jobs for the people.

MALE VOICE: Right.

GOVERNOR: We still have so many unemployment, such high unemployment in

this state.

MALE VOICE: Exactly.

GOVERNOR: Our economy has to be stimulated and you're worrying about the

moon?

MALE VOICE: Yeah.

GOVERNOR: Take care of this country.

MALE VOICE: Exactly.

GOVERNOR: (SS)

MALE VOICE: Yeah.

MALE VOICE: You're right. As governor you have to look at the broad, big picture,

and they're looking at their district because that's their bread and

butter.

GOVERNOR: And the Democrats screwed us, they picked your pocket.

MALE VOICE: (SS) what do you say, what did you tell them?

GOVERNOR: I said, "This is a great deal. No one ever picked my pocket, trust

me." I said, "I always look for a good deal, and I always was a

Page 13

good deal maker." I said, "This is a good deal, because you always

look at what is reality, and what is perfection. And you can talk

about the perfect thing." I said, "The people talk about the perfect

thing but they will never get it because they are not willing to go and

settle for something that is great. They want to have the perfect

thing. Well, that's not what life is." So they're wrestling with that.

MALE VOICE: Do you make any kind of -- is it left unsaid that they can help you

get re-elected too? I mean, there's a political -- do they want to not

help a Republican governor?

GOVERNOR: No, no. I made that point also, that it also has to do with here we

are, and the governor, the head of the Republican Party, just

imagine what that victory will bring to all of us, because if I am

successful, then I will sit here the next four years and protect the

money.

MALE VOICE: Right.

GOVERNOR: To then make sure that we get our budget structure deficit down

and all of this. You have to look at the whole picture here, not just -

- and all this money that will be appropriated, I have to sign it. So I

will be here safeguarding all of those things. It's a very, very

important vote. I said, "You guys have to vote for it."

MALE VOICE: So what is the prognosis now with them? Do they go back and talk

to their caucus?

GOVERNOR: No. I mean, they go back and forth. It's not that (IA)

MALE VOICE: Immediately.

GOVERNOR: Sure. Ripping his ears off, and his eyebrows.

MALE VOICE: He's frustrated. He's frustrated.

MALE VOICE: I want to get on the road again and sell this, you know?

GOVERNOR: So anyway, that's what it is. And then we will bring more down and

more down, and eventually we will find six who --

MALE VOICE: Are you trying to pick off individual members now?

GOVERNOR: Yeah.

MALE VOICE: You have to.

GOVERNOR: Yeah.

MALE VOICE: How many do we have now, or does Richard have now?

GOVERNOR: I don't know. I don't know if Richard has counted. But that's what

we are trying to do now.

MALE VOICE: Will the Runner -- or will Sharon go with you?

GOVERNOR: I'm sure.

MALE VOICE: I would think that she would, for one.

GOVERNOR: I'm sure. And George Runner too. He maybe will not be --

MALE VOICE: Yeah, but that's the Senate.

GOVERNOR: -- the first -- well, but we need also over there too.

MALE VOICE: Yeah.

MALE VOICE: Do they have -- does somebody -- if I'm with you, then you do this?

I mean, are they asking for things in return, or just trying to get

comfortable with this whole package?

GOVERNOR: I think just to get comfortable with the whole package.

MALE VOICE: Yeah.

GOVERNOR: And Perata is trying to derail everything. He's still fuming, and he's

trying to be obstructionist.

MALE VOICE: It's interesting. You know, the press coverage on Saturday, when

you pick up the paper you look at and you think, "Oh, the

Republicans screwed you."

GOVERNOR: Right.

MALE VOICE: But it's really the Democrats who, by sitting on this stuff --

GOVERNOR: Perata is a very sick man.

MALE VOICE: Really?

GOVERNOR: Oh, yeah. Absolutely. He even throws off the Speaker. It's not just

me. It's like he all of a sudden on Wednesday basically shut down

his brain and he would not go and talk to anyone anymore.

Negotiations for him were over, and then he just put it up for a vote.

MALE VOICE: What's he trying to do? What's his (SS)

GOVERNOR: He just -- he's really weird. He went out there to collect money for

his campaign --

MALE VOICE: Yeah. He's running ads.

GOVERNOR: Then he started running for Boxer and for (IA) and he was doing

really weird things, and always keeping it secret from Fabian, the

language. He was hiding the language, and they were writing and

writing the whole thing without any consulting with us. And they he

just threw it out there. And then he was really pissed off because

he got so few Republican votes, and then he just --

MALE VOICE: But it seems to me he's doing that, and then he thinks -- you know,

so you've got 12 Republicans all voting against you, so the press

and everybody said it was the Republicans dragging their feet.

GOVERNOR: Right, right.

MALE VOICE: He planned that, he set it up, designed --

GOVERNOR: He set it up to make it --

MALE VOICE: By that time they're so pissed off they're not going to vote for

anything.

GOVERNOR: He's pissed off because apparently Fabian called him afterwards

and didn't console with him. He screamed at him. You know how

Fabian gets. He gets really --

MALE VOICE: Hot.

GOVERNOR: Tempered, yeah. And so he was kind of now the whole weekend

covering hurt feelings.

MALE VOICE: So you're getting along better with Fabian at the moment than with

Perata?

GOVERNOR: Well, it all depends on what the dynamics are.

MALE VOICE: Yeah.

GOVERNOR: Right now in this one, Fabian has just worked with me, because

he's not going to want to close the deal. He wants to just jam me

up with something.

MALE VOICE: In your past lives, did you ever deal with people that could be so

petty and so childish?

GOVERNOR: Yeah, in the movie business.

MALE VOICE: I mean --

GOVERNOR: It's the same thing.

MALE VOICE: No, this is unique. This is on a different level, almost.

GOVERNOR: It is a different level. But yes. In the movie business you get held

up with 100 million movie just because someone doesn't like one

scene. Some studio executive. So it's stupid things, the evils in all

of that stuff. But this is a very -- it's very similar to Prop 57 and 58,

that package. We had to negotiate this and that. But then in those

days you had leaders that could commit.

MALE VOICE: Well, you had strong leaders.

GOVERNOR: You know what I'm saying, Gary? In those days you had Burton.

MALE VOICE: Yeah.

GOVERNOR: And there was Herb Wesson.

MALE VOICE: M-hmm?

GOVERNOR: And Fabian together, kind of. And when they made a deal, it was

done. If they say it here in this room, it's done. Just go upstairs

and tell them. If it was Burton, that's how we'd do it.

MALE VOICE: That was the way Burton handled it, right.

GOVERNOR: Yeah. So that's the difference.

FEMALE VOICE: Have you talked to Perata?

GOVERNOR: No.

FEMALE VOICE: He just sent a memo out to his Democratic caucus. "Problems

with" -- this is the Senate Democratic caucus.

GOVERNOR: Right.

FEMALE VOICE: "Problems with SB 79 on the Assembly Floor: While we have not

yet seen all of the language that the Assembly will take up tonight

at 6:00 p.m., my staff and committee staff have completed a

preliminary analysis based on information available. They have

now identified a number of problems which I believe warrant careful

consideration by the Senate Democratic caucus.

New Dams: The Governor said he needed one new dam to be

funded under the bond in order to support it. The Senate gave him

hat dam, the reconstruction of Paris Lake in Riverside County to

provides up to 800,000 new acre-feet of water for the state water

project. Assembly amendments allow funding for two more dams,

the so -called the so-called Temperance Flat and Sykes Dams in

northern California, both of which are years and billions of dollars

away from feasibility. The previously proposed reconstruction of

Paris Dam in Riverside was not acceptable to Republicans without

at least two northern sites. Assembly amendments allow state

taxpayer dollars to be used to subsidize costs that should be borne

by private agricultural interests and other large water users to

mitigate the adverse environmental affects of their over-pumping

water from the Delta."

Remind me to tell you why that's a joke.

"Assembly amendments allow state taxpayer funds to be used to

subsidize the costs that should be borne by landowners for private

flood protection for new homes they build.

Urban parks for disadvantaged children: The Governor and the

Republicans oppose funding for urban parks, soccer fields and

open space because it's not steel and concrete. Nonetheless, the

Senate included 400 million for new urban parks and playgrounds

for disadvantaged kids. The Assembly is lowering the amount of

funding for local parks, including urban parks, and striking

guaranteed funding for specific local park programs.

Major new exemptions for the Environmental Quality Act: The

Governor and the Republicans have insisted on major new

exemptions from the state's basic environmental protection law,

CEQA, for transportation projects and levee repairs, even though

the administration's own agencies have testified that CEQA law is

not an impediment to getting projects built. Assembly amendments

to add language to exempt 211 local bridge reconstructions from

CEQA, even though these facilities have not been identified -- "

That's why there are exactly 211 of them.

GOVERNOR: He's lying. He's like unbelievable, this guy.

FEMALE VOICE: "This effectively provides state bureaucrats with a blank check on

the environment. Assembly amendments also expand levee

exemption that was limited to just emergency levee repair so that it

now applies to any levee anywhere designated by the state or

federal government over the next four years.

"Highway funding: Route 99." He goes into a whole thing about

Highway 99. "Power grab for MTA, LAMTA. Power grab for its

transit operators in Long Beach, Santa Monica, and Culver City,

among others. The Assembly plan includes language that allows

LAMTA to rewrite present formulas for transit fund distribution that

are provided for the entire region, thereby reducing the amount

available to other transit providers. Senator (IA) Senate Trans

Housing Committee opposes this provision which puts Long Beach,

Santa Monica and Culver City at a funding disadvantage.

Allows the administration to decide what levees warrant CEQA

exemptions regardless of whether the levees require repair, or

whether those repairs are urgent. The result is a blanket CEQA

exemption for every levee site in the state. The Assembly CEQA

exemption bill also provides a blanket exemption to all 211 local

unfunded bridges and removes any requirement that communities

be notified of impending work.

Finally, language from the Leg Counsel for bills proposed by the

administration for changes in design-build not yet available."

You should read this to Kevin McCarthy and Rick 'Fucking' Keene.

They're going to lose this.

GOVERNOR: (IA)

FEMALE VOICE: What makes me nervous is, what is Perata trying to do?

GOVERNOR: Well, Fabian, I just talked to Fabian just before, and Fabian told me

that he is just circulating a letter. It went out to the press.

MALE VOICE: Yeah, it went to Bill Bradley, because that's what he sent in his

update here in 703.

FEMALE VOICE: What's his spin?

MALE VOICE: Exactly what he said.

FEMALE VOICE: What's his opening spin?

MALE VOICE: "In addition, Senate Democrats are now finding fault with what they

understand to be Arnold's evolving deal. This includes concerns

about the exact number of dams in the current version of the deal,

which may now be three rather than the one agreed to by Senate

Democrats, and the two reported here earlier."

GOVERNOR: Which is not true at all. It's one out of those three.

FEMALE VOICE: Well, it's any eligible site. You could fund all three, but as long as

there isn't enough money to --

GOVERNOR: Exactly.

MALE VOICE: "An amendment which they say could allow public subsidies to

agriculture to make up for the adverse environmental impact of

over-pumping water from the Sacramento River, Delta, and public

subsidies of development interests to provide flood protection for

new homes.

Of additional concern are Republican amendments like park

funding, a broad scale exemption of levee and bridge projects in

the California Environmental Quality Act, an overemphasis on

Highway 99 as a beneficiary of transportation funding, and

supposedly allowing the LA Metropolitan Transit, MTA, to dominate

the distribution of transit funds in the region."

MALE VOICE: So he just took that letter and wrote it verbatim.

MALE VOICE: Yeah.

FEMALE VOICE: So while those girls are sitting around pulling their hair -- what did

Fabian say? He must be livid.

GOVERNOR: Oh, yeah. He is. But you know, that you always have to think on

two tracks, because, you know it doesn't mean -- is Fabian saying

to Perata to go out with that, to scare the shit out of the

Republicans and rattle their cage, and have them now come to the

table and say, "Oh, shit, this whole thing is falling apart."

FEMALE VOICE: Do you really think that they might actually be doing that?

GOVERNOR: Well, I always operate on two tracks. It is always A or B. So you

have to think that, because in the end you never know how much

they're playing a game, and what their dialogue is up there, I have

no idea. So --

FEMALE VOICE: Well, at least we have three more days, if we have to.

GOVERNOR: Well, exactly.

MALE VOICE: Oh, do you? Three more days?

FEMALE VOICE: Well, let me know --

GOVERNOR: Is Kevin still over there with the (IA)

FEMALE VOICE: I didn't see Kevin in there, but they're all in there.

GOVERNOR: Not Kevin. I mean Richard.

FEMALE VOICE: Yeah. They're going at it. I was actually going to read this to them,

but they were all --

(Brief interruption in recording.)

FEMALE VOICE: I stood in there, I was going to do it, but I was listening to the

debate, and it sounded like when I got to the MTA part I should

probably skip that paragraph.

GOVERNOR: Yeah, exactly.

MALE VOICE: Well, you're just scanning it, so --

GOVERNOR: I think you could just say, "Look, you guys, we think that you didn't

get everything that you wanted, which we of course we agree is

true, but let me just tell you how the other side feels. Perata is --"

FEMALE VOICE: The way it's shaping up.

GOVERNOR: Well, it's shaping up, so I think we've got to move quickly here.

FEMALE VOICE: Yeah.

MALE VOICE: So you think you have three more days to get this --

GOVERNOR: Two, in any case.

MALE VOICE: A couple days.

GOVERNOR: Thursday they have to go to the press.

MALE VOICE: Yeah. It's crazy, huh? It's crazy.

GOVERNOR: Exactly. It's wild.

MALE VOICE: So it'll take to the last minute of the last day?

GOVERNOR: Oh, yeah.

MALE VOICE: That's the way it is.

GOVERNOR: It's all about (IA)

MALE VOICE: Yeah. But they're blaming each other, they're not blaming you.

That's right.

MALE VOICE: Well, Perata blamed him Friday night.

GOVERNOR: Oh, yeah.

MALE VOICE: Right there in the Senate, he blamed him. "The executive branch."

GOVERNOR: But the problem with all of this is that as you can see -- and you

were part of the media -- the media has no interest in the

substance. None. To them it's just "The Governor's proposed

infrastructure, Democrats have given it to him, the Republicans

(IA)." But did anyone talk about how important the language is?

MALE VOICE: And what it means for your re-election.

GOVERNOR: And not only that, but did they also mention what it means to me for

the re-election, and all that. But instead of -- but no one ever talks

about to compare it like if you make an agreement with someone,

would you sign it, if you get it at just the last minute without having

any lawyer look at it? I mean, this is what they basically have done

on Friday night.

MALE VOICE: Well, that's why I said the coverage was so --

GOVERNOR: They have given it a minute before --

MALE VOICE: Two copies.

GOVERNOR: A minute before they have given in the papers, and no one had a

chance to really study it with their staff or anything like this. And

then supposed to vote.

MALE VOICE: So it's a fait accompli, and that's why the coverage Saturday was

so -- "The Governor's own Republican Party abandoned him when -

-"

GOVERNOR: Exactly.

MALE VOICE: It was set up to --

GOVERNOR: But instead of saying that even though they got the language at the

last minute, this is like a contract at the last minute, but of course

you have to study it, so they voted it down.

MALE VOICE: Right.

GOVERNOR: Nothing. It was totally irrelevant.

MALE VOICE: Yeah.

GOVERNOR: Or how important it is to what it says in the language, that you can

actually go here in this building and say that you fund 10 billion

dollars for this project, but then they put the thing on it, the two

thirds of the vote in order to appropriate it and all this, that it never

gets done.

MALE VOICE: Yeah, right.

GOVERNOR: Those things, no one knows and no one talks about. This is why

you have the Bay Bridge now that costs 5, 6 billion dollars, when it

normally is supposed to cost 2 billion dollars.

MALE VOICE: That's really just obscene.

GOVERNOR: It's all because of the way it's appropriated, and how many people

get included in the process, and how they complicate things. So it

never gets done. So now, in 1989, there was the earthquake, and

now, 17 years later, there is no bridge.

MALE VOICE: Yeah.

GOVERNOR: Because of the (IA) behavior. And the press never writes about it.

They will just let them go on, let them go on, and they just say so

and so didn't win, here so and so didn't win, here so and so beat so

and so. But no substance, because they feel like the people will

not care about it.

MALE VOICE: Well, they're hard stories to write, but that doesn't mean they

shouldn't be done.

GOVERNOR: Right.

MALE VOICE: Well, you'll have to do all that in your book.

GOVERNOR: Exactly.

MALE VOICE: That's why I'm asking you these questions (IA). People have no

idea of all the crap that goes on here.

GOVERNOR: Oh, it's amazing. That they even say it, you know, negotiations,

"Well, what we can do is write it this way so it doesn't come about

in the next five years, so we don't have to spend this, and we don't

have to spend that." And then where to go with the bond, over the

6 percent limit, then they go and say, "Well, the way it (IA) three

years from now we will be over the 6 percent limit." Or, "Let's just

put a restriction on it that two-thirds of the vote that it needs, and it

has to be approved by this and the CEQA and the this and that,"

they put so many things on it --

MALE VOICE: Nothing happens.

GOVERNOR: It will never get done.

MALE VOICE: Then it's just paper.

GOVERNOR: Yeah.

MALE VOICE: Is the 6 percent still part of the -- still in the --

GOVERNOR: No, we don't have it part of it. But they're aware of the fact that the

rating agencies look at it in a more favorable way (IA) 6 percent.

MALE VOICE: But it wouldn't be part of the --

GOVERNOR: No (IA)

MALE VOICE: So you've given on that?

GOVERNOR: Exactly.

MALE VOICE: And for Prop 42, still --

GOVERNOR: Prop 42, the reform, is in there.

MALE VOICE: Still. Okay.

GOVERNOR: Which the CTA is totally (IA) about.

MALE VOICE: Yeah, sure.

GOVERNOR: Because they say, "Well, what about our deal that we have only

once or twice in ten years to guarantee that you only can borrow

from us twice in ten years?"

MALE VOICE: So on the deal, it's the same as it is for local governments (IA)

GOVERNOR: Yeah.

MALE VOICE: And if you borrow you've got to pay that back first before you can

borrow again?

GOVERNOR: That's right.

MALE VOICE: That's good. A lot of pieces, a lot of moving pieces.

MALE VOICE: Yeah.

MALE VOICE: Do you ever sit and think, "What the hell did I ever do this for?"

(Brief interruption in recording.)

GOVERNOR: My thinking is always of what is the objective? The objective is to

build California. I ran because I wanted to fix the problem here and

start building. And that's the goal. So now, how do you get to that?

Well, that's irrelevant.

MALE VOICE: M-hmm?

GOVERNOR: Because I always say that aggravation and pain is temporary, but

that, of what you build, and what you accomplish, is permanent.

MALE VOICE: Sure, if you can there. Absolutely.

GOVERNOR: No one can take (SS)

MALE VOICE: It's worth fighting for.

GOVERNOR: It's like I was saying, that when John Millius' set on Conan, "Can

you do it again?" Crawling on the rocks with the elbows exposed

and no protection, the knees, and you're bleeding -- he says, "Can

you do it again?" And even then (IA) blood running down and all

this stuff. I said, "Hey, I'd do it 15 more times. It makes no

difference to me."

MALE VOICE: Yeah.

GOVERNOR: Because what is on the screen, that is permanent.

MALE VOICE: Yeah.

GOVERNOR: But this -- even if I have to get stitches afterwards, and clean the

wounds, and this and that, the more I laugh about it. (IA) So

you've got to always keep that in mind. What are you shooting for,

versus --

MALE VOICE: Oh, yeah.

GOVERNOR: -- how do you get there? Look at what women go through to have

a baby.

MALE VOICE: M-hmm?

GOVERNOR: (IA) carry this thing around, right?

MALE VOICE: And then go through the biggest pain, yeah.

GOVERNOR: And then the pain of getting the baby.

MALE VOICE: Yeah.

GOVERNOR: And they scream "Never again, never again." And then three days

later, "I think we should have another one, because it's so

fantastic."

MALE VOICE: Yeah, right. Yeah.

MALE VOICE: That's true.

GOVERNOR: Because women, their mind automatically focuses not on this, but

the baby. The child, you know?

MALE VOICE: Why is it, though, then, some of the actors that you deal with don’t

want to put all out, don't want to go all out?

GOVERNOR: Because they don’t think that, they think differently. Like those

people right now sitting at the thing, they just think about like this.

They think about this one little line here, rather than about

California.

MALE VOICE: They just have to -- they can't see that the public would feel better

about this whole place.

GOVERNOR: Right, they don't see it.

MALE VOICE: Everybody would be lifted up.

MALE VOICE: Oh, yeah.

GOVERNOR: I think that -- you know how big this is? This is so big that -- first of

all, everyone in California is going to be amazed about it, right?

They're going to say (SS)

MALE VOICE: Right.

GOVERNOR: But America, the other states, are going to use this as an example.

When a governor gives a speech about building a road or

something, they will say, "In California they committed 50 billion

dollars, and they're going to spend over 100 billion with the

partnerships they have and with the federal matching funds. Over

100 billion dollars. And you argue about a 2 billion dollar road

here? It's outrageous."

MALE VOICE: Sure.

GOVERNOR: "Why can't we be like California?" That's what will happen.

MALE VOICE: Yeah.

GOVERNOR: Everyone will be looking at this as like (IA) to do it.

MALE VOICE: But the jobs alone that it will create --

(Brief interruption in recording.)

MALE VOICE: No, it's not.

MALE VOICE: That's what's not being talked about.

MALE VOICE: Like the big public works projects, the WPA kind of a thing.

MALE VOICE: Yeah.

GOVERNOR: Exactly.

MALE VOICE: Well, you'll get it done, I hope.

(Brief interruption in recording.)

GOVERNOR: -- say if we get it done.

MALE VOICE: Right. Exactly.

GOVERNOR: Then what do we say to the press out there? Because we're going

to do a press conference.

MALE VOICE: Yeah.

MALE VOICE: Well, we'll prepare something that kind of plays off these --

(Brief interruption in recording.)

GOVERNOR: -- the whole thing, you know, compliments them, the negotiations

were really --

MALE VOICE: Right. The tough negotiations.

GOVERNOR: -- hard negotiations, and we worked on it for weeks now, especially

last week, around the clock, and all of those things. Say thank you

to so and so, and so and so --

MALE VOICE: Thank the leaders, right.

GOVERNOR: Thank all the different leaders. And then, you know --

MALE VOICE: That it could be a model for the country, other states. Every state is

behind in infrastructure, this could be an inspiration. Jobs --

MALE VOICE: This isn't for me, this isn't for the (IA) California.

MALE VOICE: Right, of course.

GOVERNOR: This means now we can move forward and build our classrooms,

build our roads, build our --

MALE VOICE: That's what I'm saying. It's not for me, it's not for the legislators, it's

for the people.

GOVERNOR: Yeah.

MALE VOICE: And what does that mean? That means building our classrooms.

GOVERNOR: But I don't feel that anyone is questioning (IA)

MALE VOICE: Because everyone is focused on you. All the articles are focused

on you.

MALE VOICE: Well, and everybody writes about this in terms of your political

situation, the re-elect and all that.

MALE VOICE: (SS) and your success or failure with it. So that's what they write

about.

MALE VOICE: That's why I think it's important to remind people, the press, that

this is consistent with what you've been talking about for a long

time. Recover, reform, rebuild, etc. It sells itself. It sells itself, it's

just putting the words down on paper that you want to say.

GOVERNOR: Right, right.

MALE VOICE: Because it's so big, and it's going to affect everybody.

GOVERNOR: Yeah.

MALE VOICE: It's not an elitist thing, we're just going to affect one small part of the

population. Anybody who drives will be affected, down the roads.

GOVERNOR: But like you were saying, the jobs. I mean, it's incredible.

MALE VOICE: The jobs.

GOVERNOR: Yeah. And when people get hired, you know what means for the

revenues. The more people work the more money they make, and

that's money that gets pumped into the economy.

MALE VOICE: Right.

GOVERNOR: People are paying taxes on that. Every worker that is receiving a

salary goes out and buys things. So it's (IA)

MALE VOICE: The number you used --

GOVERNOR: (SS)

MALE VOICE: I'm sorry, excuse me.

GOVERNOR: Go ahead. No, no.

MALE VOICE: The number you're using is 150,000 jobs?

GOVERNOR: Yeah.

MALE VOICE: I hadn't heard that number. That's a good number for us?

GOVERNOR: That's -- well, we have to just double-check with Sunne McPeak,

because it was reduced down to 68 billion dollars (IA) bond, if that

is the same number. But other than that -- but we just have to

double-check that.

MALE VOICE: Ballpark.

MALE VOICE: And then you want to acknowledge in those remarks that while we

had a bigger plan, we didn't get everything, but we're going to

continue to work on the other pieces, and blah, blah, blah?

GOVERNOR: Right.

MALE VOICE: No blah, blah, blah, but something more articulate.

GOVERNOR: Yeah.

MALE VOICE: (IA) the courts, prisons --

MALE VOICE: Nobody wants to hear about spending more money on courts or

prisons, right?

MALE VOICE: I think right now it's a victory.

GOVERNOR: Well, there are things that we can tie together with -- I question if

you should go there. But I think that --

MALE VOICE: Right.

GOVERNOR: What we're going to do is, we're going to talk about the retrofitting,

the seismic retrofitting at the hospitals --

MALE VOICE: Yeah.

GOVERNOR: -- building prisons, building jails, and then the private-public

partnership.

MALE VOICE: Right.

MALE VOICE: So I've got a question for you. My -- is this a fantasy? My

daughter's got a friend who works at a Hummer agency, and she

said you came in there over the weekend?

GOVERNOR: That's right.

MALE VOICE: And I said, "No." Looking at the hydrogen Hummer? Do they have

a hydrogen vehicle there?

GOVERNOR: No.

MALE VOICE: Oh. You were just --

GOVERNOR: There is only one, the one that I have.

MALE VOICE: Oh.

GOVERNOR: That is traveling around the world.

MALE VOICE: She thought that maybe there was one over there.

GOVERNOR: Oh, it could be. Maybe I missed it.

MALE VOICE: I don't know. She said, "Guess who just in here?" So I wasn't sure.

I figured she wasn't hallucinating.

GOVERNOR: No, no. Is she working there?

MALE VOICE: My daughter's friend works there, yeah. My daughter is 20, so the

girl is -- she's one of her best friends. She's 20 years old.

GOVERNOR: Right, right.

MALE VOICE: I don’t know what she does there, exactly. But she --

GOVERNOR: Yeah, we cruised around a little bit, saw the place.

MALE VOICE: Really?

GOVERNOR: Yeah. (IA) gone already.

MALE VOICE: Yeah, I was gone.

GOVERNOR: Yeah, when we went for breakfast.

MALE VOICE: Oh, okay.

GOVERNOR: We had breakfast out there with Fabian and his family.

MALE VOICE: Oh, okay. How is his wife feeling, better?

GOVERNOR: She was good, yeah. So then we saw that the Hummer dealership,

with at least 50 Hummers.

MALE VOICE: I know exactly where it is, yeah. I used to pass it on the way to

work.

GOVERNOR: And so we did that. Now the Hummer, the H1, costs 136,000

dollars.

MALE VOICE: Does it really?

GOVERNOR: That is without taxes.

MALE VOICE: Where did it start, when they --

GOVERNOR: Well, when we started, it was like 60,000 dollars.

MALE VOICE: And the H2 was about 50?

GOVERNOR: And the diesel was around 40, and the H2 was around 50.

(Brief interruption in recording.)

MALE VOICE: Wow. Are they still selling a lot of the H1s?

GOVERNOR: They always have sold consistently.

MALE VOICE: The H2 was a huge hit.

GOVERNOR: 2,000 a year, approximately. Of course the H2 sold huge.

MALE VOICE: Yeah. That one --

GOVERNOR: That was a huge success.

MALE VOICE: Huge success. Now there's an H3.

GOVERNOR: The H3 is also selling well. And then --

(Brief interruption in recording.)

GOVERNOR: In South Africa, I remember in the late '50s, visiting Reg Park, and

he would take me to the diamond mines and to the gold mines and

to all these different places. And I saw those people working down

there in those mines, for 1 dollar a day, sweating all day long,

struggling, slaving away. You know, those black guys down there.

And coming up only once a day to see daylight. Think about that.

MALE VOICE: Yeah.

GOVERNOR: Think about that. That's work.

MALE VOICE: I've heard you say that. So that's where that comes from?

GOVERNOR: Yes. I have seen that, and when you see that, then all of a sudden

you say to yourself, I have my movie trailer, 40 feet long.

MALE VOICE: Yeah.

GOVERNOR: I have my schnapps in there, my stogies. I have good food.

Anytime I want food, anytime I say I don’t want to work the next

hour I can walk away. It's embarrassing, but I could do it.

MALE VOICE: Yeah.

GOVERNOR: And so what are we talking about, that I have to run around until

3:00 in the morning and do fight scenes, or go in the harness and

be suspended and all this stuff.

MALE VOICE: Yeah. All right.

(End of speechwriting meeting.)

-- o0o --