Celebrity governor limps toward budget deal in capital he promised to change
By MICHAEL R. BLOOD and TOM CHORNEAU, Associated Press Writers
Last Updated: July 14, 2004, 02:25:18 PM PDT
LOS ANGELES (AP) - The Governator is human after all.
After stomping across California's political landscape with all the subtlety of one of his Hollywood action heroes, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has found himself looking short of invincible in the unruly statehouse he once vowed to bring to heel.
Passage of his $103 billion budget is more than two weeks overdue, despite his vow to produce an on-time spending plan - which would have been only the third time in 10 years. Schwarzenegger's predictions of a new era of cooperation and bipartisanship have deteriorated into flinty talk of a Legislature with "a certain arrogance" that "didn't see it our way."
The budget that bears his imprint, which increases spending and takes on hefty new debt, has been compared to those that contributed to the downfall of his predecessor, Democrat Gray Davis. And newly emboldened Democrats, and even members of his own party, have found common ground to grumble.
http://www.modbee.com/state_wire/story/8846338p-9734439c.html