More cracks in Schwarzenegger's facade

Today is the day that new nursing rules go into effect. As we mentioned before, the decision upholding the law increasing the nurse-to-patient ratio was a big defeat for the Governor. More importantly, however, it was a victory for patients in California's health care system.

The state's press continues to wake up to some of the more egregious examples of Arnie' s pronouncements, as a column in yesterday's LA Times shows:

Schwarzenegger raised $9 million to feed about 90 consultants last year, the Sacramento Bee recently reported. He hopes to raise $50 million to produce and promote this year's initiatives — selling "private briefings" for two with the governor for $89,200, seats at his dinner table with snapshots for $100,000….

He has been hitting up Wall Street interests and Washington lobbyists.

The going rate for petition circulators could reach $10 per signature. The signatures are being checked out by workers in India.

None of this has the look of the California people rising up to demand a special election for initiatives in November — at a cost to taxpayers of perhaps $70 million. It has the look of a governor promoting his own agenda with the help of favor-seeking corporate interests.

Even Schwarzenegger has been forced to back down, at least in rhetoric, from his unions=special interests line. On Hardball, the Governor was forced to admit:

Anyone that is putting a wedge between a legislator or a politician, that is supposed to make decisions on behalf of the people, and the people is a special interest. If it is a union or if it is a drug company, it makes no difference. All of them are special interests, because they‘re looking out for themselves.

Of course, he hasn't stopped taking money from drug companies, or any of the other big-business types who are funding his "reform," but as he gets wrapped deeper in his own hypocrisy, it might get harder for reporters to take his pronouncements with a straight face.

There's still a long way to go, but he's seeming less and less like the unstoppable robot from you-know-what-movie, and more like just another Republican hack with a big-business agenda and some good PR.