Act like a governor

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger won himself a lot of buzz with his statement Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that he would consider taking a post in a Barack Obama administration, perhaps as a Cabinet member focusing on climate change. It made for interesting chatter, given the fact that our Republican governor has endorsed the Democratic candidate’s GOP rival, John McCain. He got a second day’s worth of buzz with his follow-up statement that he had no intention of leaving Sacramento before his term is over.

The actor-turned-governor knows good box office. He’s not vice presidential material because his Austrian birthplace makes him ineligible to be a White House understudy, but he has the global warming issue plus the political and show-biz smarts to use it to keep his name in the thick of the presidential campaign.

One problem, though. He’s still governor of California, and his state is more than two weeks past the legal deadline for adopting a budget. Legislative Democrats have, predictably, come forward with a proposal that raises taxes on the wealthy, and Republicans, predictably, have promised to reject it. They aren’t meeting. They aren’t talking. And Schwarzenegger’s attention seems to be on his next sequel. Brokering budget solutions is so two years ago.

It may be that the governor was more willing to plunge into the 2006 budget debate because the state was awash in “extra” money at the time, and the hard decisions weren’t really so hard after all. Schwarzenegger was able to reinvent himself as a leader in the fight against climate change, especially after then-Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (D-Los Angeles) won him over to AB 32.

But this is the year, more than any since he was elected, in which he’s needed in the budget debate. The fiscal mess is so dire that the state could run out of money in August. Two months ago, Schwarzenegger offered some gimmicks warmed over from previous years, including borrowing against the lottery and automating a rainy-day fund. Then he disengaged.

It’s nice that the governor has committed to sticking around through 2010, no matter how exciting a position with a new presidential administration sounds. But staying on the job means more than leading the charge against global warming or offering words of comfort and encouragement to residents as the latest round of wildfires devastate the state. He also owes it to Californians to broker a workable budget solution, even if engaging in that mundane task risks some of his popularity and keeps him off the interview shows.