Recall Schwarzenegger!

Turnabout is fair play.

And where Davis was gamed by Enron energy traders, Ahnold has nobody to blame but himself. Sweet.

[ ] Very tepidly voting for Obama [ ] ?????. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.

These are the same arguments that got Davis out in 2003. It was unfortunate that we did it then, and I'm not sure I see reason to do it this time. If you recall someone just because you want certain legislation passed, then you are asking for trouble in the long term.

I've been critical of Schwarzenegger from day one--even calling him one of the biggest threats to 21st century liberalism--but because I disagree with him does not justify a recall. If he abuses his power, then yes. If he deliberately thwarts legislation on a repeated basis using questionable tactics, yes. But as a recently former CA resident who lived through the 2003 recall, I can say this is a stupid idea with not real basis.

Anyone familiar with CA politics knows that the supermajority rule for budgets is one of the biggest problems the state faces, not the governor. This is the same argument they used to recall Davis and it is based on ignorance of the system. I don't like Schwarzenegger, but from a purely process standpoint, a recall is wrong. Are Dems really going to go the way of the GOP in everything?

because of the supermajority rule. Its a stupid, stupid law that needs to be changed. It even hurts local funding efforts as well.

For the record, I've been a pretty strong and consistent critic of Schwarzenegger and worked my tail off to keep him from winning reelection in '06. I've also opposed almost everything he's done as governor, including his stupid bond measures that were popular. (They ignored the long term structural deficits by borrowing money; since it was bonds that didn't have to be paid back for a while, the deficit was masked unlike the federal deficit which is well known.)

than to see Ahnold stripped of any semblance of success and utterly humiliated by recall. As a Californiano, native born, I'm proud of our rough and rowdy ways with politicians; we don't need any reason to kick a scalliwag out of office other than that we want to. More messy directness and hands-on civic involvement by the citizenry than some sensitive transients can bear to witness, apparently.

Schwartezenegger has eyes on the US Senate, so a recall successful or not would helpfully put the skids to that idea. Otherwise, he's going to spend the rest of his time as Governor just like this; a long, slow, agonizing public humiliation by the legislative Democrats as they undercut every initiative while shifting the blame onto his Republican allies. The budget upheaval is worth every penny, for the damage being done to him.

Recall is where I split with the original progressive movement, and I don't apologize for it. I've seen it abused just one too many times for me to believe that it is anything other than a net loss for the proper functioning of government. Hell, our Democratic speaker of the house, here in Michigan, is the subject of a recall effort simply because he voted to raise taxes, last year.

The prison guards have their own beef with Schwarzenegger surrounding his efforts to reform the California prison system. One of the very few good things Schwarzenegger tried to do when he entered office was to reform the prisons by placing an emphasis on rehabilitation rather than punishment. It would be better policy (California has one of the highest imprisonment rates and also a very high recidividism rate) and would do a lot to relieve the pressure on the budget. All those prisons aren't cheap. The prison guard union has hated him ever since. From 2005:

But the prison guards union loses if Schwarzenegger's reform agenda of lowering the prison population and decreasing costs takes hold. Contractually, there is one guard for every six new prisoners. The more prisoners, the more guards and money and power for the union. It's as simple as that. Union leaders are determined to throw a monkey wrench into the governor's grand scheme. They've unleashed their creature, "Crime Victims United" (heavily subsidized by the union) to oppose reform, and the corrections department's decision to rescind the parole plan was their first success.

For more than 20 years, the prison guards have kept Democratic and Republican governors and state legislators - be they Bay Area liberals or rural archconservatives - obsequiously grateful for their big campaign contributions and petrified, at the same time, that the union would oppose them. If Schwarzenegger is to make fundamental change, he will have to spend a lot of political capital fighting the union. So far he's talked a good game, but actions speak louder than platitudes. He had no problem dampening his reform urges in 2004, for example, when he succumbed to pressure from the criminal justice and political establishment and opposed softening California's draconian three-strikes law - a law that was sending thousands of people to prison for 25 years to life for small-time drug possession and petty theft. Many of these third-strikers were ripe for rehab, but Schwarzenegger conveniently ignored that fact and starred in fear-mongering television ads that crushed the initiative.

Now Schwarzenegger's efforts faltered after his propositions went bust and after he alienated a lot of other public unions during that fight. Instead he struck a much more modest agreement with the legislature last year that some have criticized emphasizes building prisons more than reforming them.

I'm not sure the guards going to do anything to follow through on their recall announcement, but if they got the Governor recalled, then I suspect we could kiss prison reform goodbye. The policiticans are already scared of them, this would make them terrified.

If you're interested in reading more about the battle between the Governor and prison guards, Berkley did a report here.

I should say that some of the issues raised by the guards about working conditions, staffing, etc., are important issues, especially so long as California keeps imprisoning so many people. But that doesn't mean the guards haven't been a serious impediment to fixing the overall system. They have been.