State’s bipartisanship can be a model for Washington

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger figures that Sacramento’s Christmas gift to Washington is a demonstration of how politicians can all get along and work for the common good.

The public’s common good, not just the politicians’. But that too. Everyone’s job approval is up at the Capitol because of bipartisan agreements in 2006 on several landmark bills, including a rare on-time budget, a record public works package and the nation’s first attack on global warming.

Sacramento stopped being dysfunctional.

It may resemble a schmaltzy greeting card, but the governor really does believe that the goodwill can continue beyond the holiday season and through the new year.

For one thing, he himself is a changed man, Schwarzenegger says.

“At the beginning” of his governorship, he told me last week in his office, “I just wasn’t quite tuned in yet. I was more attacking. But that is not the right approach.”

When his “reform” initiatives were soundly rejected by voters in a 2005 special election, he says, “it was an eye-opener for me.” Delivering ultimatums to the Legislature -- deal with me or I’ll go directly to the people with a ballot measure -- was “the wrong approach because it doesn’t really encourage anyone to work with you.

“If you use the right way of communicating, you can bring people in and inspire them.”

Schwarzenegger -- like an earlier actor-politician, Ronald Reagan -- loves to make analogies and tell stories.

Dealing with legislators, he says, “is like your relationship at home with your wife. It’s the same thing. You have to be very careful that you don’t miscommunicate.”

Schwarzenegger tells a story about once asking his wife, Maria Shriver, to make Wiener schnitzel for some visiting friends from Austria. “I told Maria I wanted to show off,” he recalls. He wanted his friends to call the Wiener schnitzel “the best,” and declared: “If it’s not, it’ll be a disaster.”

“Well,” he quotes her, “you think I’m motivated now?”

“And I immediately shifted,” the governor continues. “I said, ‘You make the best Wiener schnitzel in the world. I want to show off what a great Wiener schnitzel maker you are. I want them to flip over that.’ And she says, ‘Oh, really, you really think mine are the best?’ ”

Better even than his late mom’s, Schwarzenegger remembers answering.

“She was about to throw in the towel the way I communicated it originally, but she came through in a big way. She was all over the place for three hours, pounding away and doing the whole thing. All of those guys came over and they flipped over her Wiener schnitzels.”

The point, he says, is that whether it’s in home life or politics, “you can go much further by complimenting. Like my mother-in-law is an expert at that.”

His mother-in-law is Eunice Shriver, sister of President John F. Kennedy. Schwarzenegger often would ask her to critique his speeches.

“She would always say, ‘It was absolutely marvelous. Jack would be proud of you.’ Then she says, ‘The only thing I would do is make this little change.’ And by the time she was through she had picked it all apart and made a lot of changes. But Eunice has an inviting approach. So you do go to her always for an opinion. It’s all about communication.”

It took two years for Schwarzenegger to apply that lesson to politics.

Now, the bipartisan cooperation between the California governor and the Legislature could -- and should -- be a model for revitalizing polarized, gridlocked Washington.

“Everyone is looking at us and saying, ‘Let’s see if they can do it again,’ ” he asserts.

Schwarzenegger is feeling unusually generous for a politician. Maybe it’s the holiday spirit. But he envisions him and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (D-Los Angeles) sharing the spotlight on NBC’s “Meet the Press” selling bipartisanship and appearing with Senate leader Don Perata (D-Oakland) on, say, CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

“Mix it up,” he says, “and really make Americans say, wait a minute!” Bipartisanship produces.

Does the centrist governor envision personally taking his bipartisan message to the U.S. Senate in 2010, when he’ll be termed out? Top advisors are spreading the word that he might run against Democratic U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, who’s up for reelection that year.

I figure it’s all spin. The advisors fear that people will start regarding Schwarzenegger as irrelevant if his political career seems to be nearing an end -- as if anybody with the power to sign and veto bills can ever be irrelevant. Also, they want to keep those special-interest donations flowing into his political kitty.

Regardless, nobody I’ve talked to can picture Schwarzenegger as just one of 100 senators, and a junior member at that. Moreover, his wife wouldn’t be happy. Washington’s a long way from Brentwood.

When I asked Schwarzenegger, his answer didn’t alter my notion. His wife will have the veto power.

“My next move will be totally in Maria’s hands,” he says. “Not mine. Because I promised her the next move will not be without her having a big say. I think it’s incredible how much time and effort the family has put in with me doing this. So I’ve got to respect that.”

During his second term, Schwarzenegger says, “I want to chip away on those really big issues:” universal healthcare, prison reform, the budget deficit, rebuilding California, even restructuring the tax system to make it less volatile.

“I love challenges,” the champion bodybuilder adds. “It’s just part of my competitive way. Records are there to be broken, and challenges are there to be overcome. That’s what motivates me and brings me such joy.”

He’s much more joyful this holiday season than the last -- even, I suspect, with that broken leg he suffered while skiing Saturday.

His holiday message to fellow pols at the Capitol: “Let’s relax. All work together. We can have another great year.”

We can all wish them that.

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George Skelton writes Monday and Thursday. Reach him at george.skelton@latimes.com.