California sits at a crossroads. We’re there for many reasons, one of the most fundamental of which is water. 2007 has been a drought year here in California, and even though three Pacific storms are lined up to sock Northern California with rain, the fundamental problems of rising water usage, limited storage capacity, a stressed Delta, and climate change aren’t going away with just a few October rains.

So how do California Republicans respond to the water crisis? The same way they responded to the budget crisis: demand their way, or no way at all. Today they refused to support Sen. Don Perata’s water bond proposal, preventing this $6 billion package of Delta restoration and support for innovative, practical local water storage solutions from being submitted to voters on the February ballot.

At a press conference on Monday, Sen. Perata explained the Republicans’ thinking on the matter. As quoted by Frank Russo:

This feels a lot like what we went through this summer with the budget when we had a seven week delay because we couldn’t arrive at a conclusion. I don’t know how to solve the dams or us approach. We’ve been working on that. Maybe we could come to some conclusion on that. But my Republican colleagues have said very clearly, ‘It’s our turn.’ And by ‘our turn’ they mean to build dams.’

Republicans are willing to hold up the entire process because they feel “it’s their turn.” Forced to settle for only half the crippling cuts they demanded in the summer budget, they now insist that we break the state’s borrowing capacity for a $9 billion dam package simply to assuage their bruised egos.

This is par for the course with contemporary Republicanism. Whether it’s SCHIP, the war in Iraq, or California’s water crisis, practical and affordable solutions are rejected in favor of irresponsible, financially reckless plans whose only benefit is to reward Republican ideology and its narrow base of supporters. Doesn’t matter if the state, the country, or Iraq falls apart in the process.