Ana Matosantos has been around the Capitol for a few years now, and apparently she is a glutton for punishment.  Because how else could somebody stand working on the budget for all this time?

Yet, in another display of his “post-partisanship”, Arnold appointed Matosantos, a registered Democrat, to replace Mike Genest as the Director of Finance, otherwise known as the purveyor of bad news.

Matosantos, a 34-year-old Democrat, will become Schwarzenegger’s fourth budget director on the day her current boss, Mike Genest, a Republican who has held the post since late 2005, departs. Her appointment is subject to state Senate confirmation, but she can serve for a year without it.

A Stanford graduate originally from Puerto Rico, Matosantos received plaudits from Capitol denizens during last summer’s extensive budget hearings, as she endured weeks of grilling from frustrated lawmakers. She proved knowledgeable and steadily defended the administration’s controversial solutions to the deficit, including a significant scaling back of California’s welfare program. (LA Times)

So, sure it’s something of a feel-good story, yet the fact is that under her watch, the Administration is nearly certain to propose draconian cuts to all manner of programs and services. Democrat or not, she is now working for Arnold, and her job is to try to come up with something, anything, that gives him anything resembling budget solutions.

Good luck, Ms. Matosantos. You are going to need a whole heaping helping of it to accomplish anything to be proud of.