Opinion: Republicans at the Sheraton!

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May not seem like a big deal to non-Sacramentans, but it’s the world turned upside down! See, the Sheraton Grand in Sacramento, with its union labor contract, is the Democrats’ hotel--where they have their election night parties, where they stay when they come to do business at the Capitol, where they meet for drinks at the bar, where they commandeer cushy chairs and plush couches to see, and be seen by, other Democrats as they walk through the lobby.

Republicans simply don’t cross the threshold. Instead, they stay a block away at the non-union Hyatt where Arnold Schwarzenegger lives when he’s in town.

Until now, apparently. On Sunday night, the Sheraton was chock-full of Republicans. Their Assembly caucus had a big dinner there, sponsored by the California Tribal Business Alliance, on the eve of the oath-taking and the beginning of the two-year session.

Was it a symbolic distancing from Schwarzenegger? But no. The governor put in an appearance.

With puzzled Democrats gathering around the bar before taking off for parties around town, their GOP counterparts clustered in the banquet hall downstairs.

Then they went upstairs to a wine reception. Featuring, by the way, a special blend of Brutocao Cellars 2004 Cabernet for the Republican Assembly freshmen, ‘created specifically to honor their swearing-in.’

And they showed up again for a breakfast buffet the next morning. At the Sheraton! Didn’t anybody tell them they belonged at the Hyatt? Maybe it was the first tangible symbol of a new spirit of bipartisan cooperation!

Or not. Perhaps sometimes a hotel is just a hotel.