Laying Back With A Stogie

by digby

Reader JW brought this story about California’s woes from last week-end’s NY Times Magazine to my attention. I think it says it all:

“Our wallet is empty,” Schwarzenegger said in a speech a few days before my visit. “Our bank is closed. Our credit is dried up.” He called for cuts that would, among other things, eliminate health insurance for close to a million poor kids, stop welfare checks for more than half a million families and close 80 percent of the state’s parks. Then he pivoted into empathy mode. “I see the faces behind those dollars,” Schwarzenegger said. “I see the children whose teachers will be laid off. I see the Alzheimer’s patients losing some of their in-home support services.” As I waited for Schwarzenegger in the lobby of the governor’s office, I studied the official portraits of former governors, including those of Ronald Reagan, Earl Warren and Jerry Brown (boldly colored and cartoonish and considered so bizarre at the time it was painted that the Legislature initially refused to hang it). Suddenly I heard Schwarzenegger’s unmistakable voice booming joyously as he led an entourage from his office.“We are going to da beh, we are going to da beh,” Schwarzenegger kept saying.

Schwarzenegger and I then repaired to a tent that he had put up in a courtyard next to his office, which allows him to smoke cigars legally at work (no smoking is allowed inside the Capitol). The tent is about 15 square feet, carpeted with artificial turf and outfitted with stylish furniture, an iPod, a video-conferencing terminal, trays of almonds, a chess table, a refrigerator and a large photo of the governor. Schwarzenegger reclined deeply in his chair, lighted an eight-inch cigar and declared himself “perfectly fine,” despite the fiscal debacle and personal heartsickness all around him. “Someone else might walk out of here every day depressed, but I don’t walk out of here depressed,” Schwarzenegger said. Whatever happens, “I will sit down in my Jacuzzi tonight,” he said. “I’m going to lay back with a stogie.

Maybe Arnold and Maria could invite all of those elderly Alzheimer’s patients who have lost their home health aides to come over and share his jacuzzi and his optimism. Maybe they can feel “perfectly fine” too.

JW points out that the article is a typical snotty hit piece on the California fruits and nuts, but that it does state one particularly egregious false equivalence:

Complicating matters further, the major parties in California are both effectively controlled by their most partisan elements, a bypro duct of gerrymandered voting districts that force lawmakers to appeal to their ideological bases. After many earlier failed efforts, a ballot initiative championed by Schwarzenegger finally passed last year that will redraw the districts. But that won’t take effect until after the 2010 census, so for now the two parties are largely controlled by what Bruce Cain at Berkeley calls “the Taliban.” The result? Gridlock in Sacramento, a standoff between the parties of “no more taxes” (Republicans) and “no more cuts” (Democrats).

There is no doubt that Democrats are dysfunctional. But they are not equivalent to the California Republicans who are completely insane. The “cuts” which don’t intrude on Arnold’s beautiful mind when he’s in the jacuzzi puffing on his Cuban, are going to affect real humans in ways that are devastating. Refusing to raise taxes on millionaires because they might get mad and move their companies to Samoa is not even in the same category.

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