a "phenomenon of anger"

I missed this the last few days, but apparently the LA Times listened in on a call between Arnold Schwarzenegger and some big Republican contributors. As you might imagine, there was some fairly candid talk about strategy.

Schwarzenegger's media expert, Don Sipple, outlined a strategy "based on a lot of polling" to create a "phenomenon of anger" among voters toward public employee unions. Firefighters, police officers, teachers and other state-paid workers have become the governor's harshest critics this year.

"The process is like peeling an onion," Sipple said, describing a multi-step plan for persuading voters that public-worker unions are "motivated by economic self-interest" instead of "doing the best job for the state."

So don't be surprised if in the next few months you start to hear some orchestrated campaigns about "greedy state workers" and the like.

And when a CalTrans worker gets run over by some road rage case, do not expect our press to look back on the Republicans' plan to demonize state workers and make the connection. I have an uneasy feeling that we'll see a higher fatality rate for state workers for the rest of this year.

And it must be nice to be on a call where you can assume that everybody is in the very top state tax bracket.