The good Governor Schwarzenegger is pretty fond of his own abilities. I mean, if it were all up to him, those boxes would have been good and blown up by now.  Yet that damned meddling legislature is always getting in his way.  Oh, and the people have the temerity to refuse his power plays.  

But that doesn’t mean that he’s given up on taking power for himself.  The most glaring example is the “seating Abel Maldonado” without getting confirmation thing.  We’ll see how this turns out, but at this point, he seems like somebody who wants to grow his power at every turn.  The courts have served the job of backstop for the separation of powers, but is this really where we want to be? A legislature that has to go running to the courts every week to get approval for its very existence?

The St. Abel issue isn’t the only one.  Take this instance of Arnold unilaterally deciding that a law is inconvenient:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had no legal authority to disqualify everyone with a felony record from working in the program that provides in-home care to 430,000 low-income elderly and disabled Californians, a judge ruled Thursday.(SF Chronicle)

The actual law states that felons are ineligible for ten years.  You can see why this regulation is in place. These are people who are vulnerable, and we want them to steer clear of possible con artists and all that.  But Arnold’s recent stunt of cutting off all convicted felons has nothing to do with that. Rather, it’s some sort of crazy budget issue. He’s trying to save money by firing any IHSS workers who currently have a client and have a criminal record, and then hoping that they won’t be able to find a replacement for a while.  You know, save a few bucks while the disabled person has no care and has to go looking.

It’s all about instability. Instability breeds confusion, which causes less people to take advantage of state services.  It’s a really crappy, and cowardly, way to try to save money. Arnold, if you’re going to try to make cuts, do them honestly, and let the people know what you are doing. Come tell the recipients of IHSS care that they are going to have to go to a more expensive residential facility. Oh, right those facilities don’t exist. So, how about this, Governor, why don’t you just go ahead and tell these people that you wish them well as they struggle to survive.

And maybe if you toss in a copy of Terminator 2, all will be forgiven.