It's part of the Politician Rulebook that for Martin Luther King Day, the politician goes to find some civil rights type group, gives a speech in which they give a bunch of homilies in praise of the good Dr., says there's still a lot of work to do, then goes back to not doing anything to accomplish any of it. Which is what Herr Governator did this Martin Luther King Day: he gave a speech at a labor-sponsored Martin Luther King Jr. breakfast in San Francisco. It didn't go over very well.
Arnie decided to go at the behest of BFF Willie Brown, despite the fact a labor-sponsored event in SF isn't exactly a locale for Team Arnie. Why? Nothing like speaking in front of hostile audiences to appear like your doing some fence mending. And it also it's in keeping with his recent political jump to the left.
Unfortunately for the Governor, once San Francisco Labor Council head Tim Paulson heard that the Governor was going to speak, was all "well I'm not going if he's going" and then all his labor buddies heard that Paulson wasn't going and they were all "well, if he's not going, we're not going" and then they went into a stall at 111 Minna and wrote "Arnie's a Douche" in a stall with a felt-tip marker.
Anyhoo, after some negotiating in which Paulson was given the rite to speak after the Guv, Paulson and his labor buddies decided not to walk out on Arnie's speech. Which they didn't. The only person who did walk out, actually, was Fightin' Chis Daly, although we heard it was only so he could get ready to watch the second part of the "24" season premiere.
For all that trouble, Arnie gave his speech and got the San Francisco hello-- he was booed. All wasn't bad for the Governator, though, because according to the San Jose Mercury, they "laughed at his Terminator jokes." God, Arnie's Terminator jokes just never get old, do they?
We actually have to give the Governator credit for this one, actually, as it's not often politicians put themselves in a position where they could get booed and berated. Arnie did
Oh, one more thing. The Republicans in the state are about to hop on board one of Arnie's big spending measures, the one to rebuild all the state levees and dams. They have a price, though, which is that they have to be built with environmental measures relaxed or even eliminated. Which makes total sense if you think about it-- if you're going to build a bunch of things to make things safer, why not get rid of all the measures that will help make it safe?
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actually, the GOP is signing on to a budget-busting BORROWING measure. That means the state will borrow billions, then owe billions + more billions in interest, busting budgets in the future.
I guess it's ok since it's a governor with an R next to his name. Still, woulda thought the party of fiscal restraint woulda just said no to more credit card debt.
Oh wait! They already passed a multi billion dollar borrwing bond in 2004!
Arnold fan:"What do you call a mexican Terminator?"
Arnold:"The Tijuana 1000."