It’s kind of odd how big a role Der Spiegel is playing in the Presidential campaign.  First Nouri al-Maliki essentially endorsed Barack Obama’s plan for Iraq in those pages, and now Arnold Schwarzenegger explains how he was prepared to self-censor at the Republican National Convention before the budget crisis kept him at home.

SCHWARZENEGGER: The speech I would have given is the one that Fred Thompson gave. I gave him my speech because I did not go to the convention. It was a great speech because it talked in minute detail about McCain’s torture and his being a POW, and that’s the speech that the party wanted me to give. Why? Because this way I don’t go and talk about centrist politics and maybe rub some people the wrong way. That’s another stage.

We all know that there’s tight message control around these conventions, and virtually all of the speeches are written by the respective campaigns.  Still, it’s interesting that Mr. Post-Partisan Maverick McCain, who always puts country above party and who very rarely talks about his POW experience, was willing to go to these lengths to muzzle Arnold.

(Also, who else thinks it would’ve been a bad idea to have the guy you handpick to present the story of torture and prison camps do it in what amounts to a German accent?)

You wouldn’t think that anyone would look at the dysfunction that is the California legislature and use it as a model, but that’s precisely what the national Republicans have done in their party platform, as the eagle-eyed Matt Yglesias discovers:

Page 16 of the Republican Platform endorses a Balanced Budget Amendment “to require a balanced budget except in times of war” and then page 17 says that “because the problem is too much spending, not too few taxes, we support a supermajority requirement in both the House and Senate to guard against tax hikes.”

The next time you see some legislative Republican weeping crocodile tears about the impact of the late budget, understand that they consider it a success, all the way up to John Boehner and Mitch McConnell and John McCain.  They desire a balanced budget amendment and supermajorities to pass tax increases, so that no matter who holds the seat of power, spending cuts must be used as the only possible answer to any fiscal crisis or economic downturn, with no consequent way to reverse them after the downturn subsides.  This is what they want – they think a paralyzed government is the best possible solution.  In fact, if they could do away with the government itself – except for the cushy salaries for the lawmakers and their staffs, of course – then it would be absolutely perfect.

In practice, there aren’t enough votes to make the desired spending cuts, either, so the only recourse is borrowing.  So what the Republican wet dream really looks like is a perpetual mortgaging of the future, spending billions upon billions in taxpayer money for no material benefit.

When we do get the opportunity to overturn this at the ballot box, what has to be made clear is that Republicans want no part of governing.  They are hostage-takers, and far from this being a localized problem in California, it’s a national strategy to strangle government, and to lock in impossible burdens that constrain Democrats and Republicans alike.  There’s a name for professional hostage-takers, but I don’t think I need to tell you what it is.

Monday night.  Be there.

Maybe he can tell them all how they have to compromise and raise taxes and to stop with the nonsense right-wing Republican talk that lies to the people.

Somehow, I expect it to be more in line with the dogma.

By the way, aren’t the legislators not supposed to leave for their respective national conventions until a budget is signed?

I guess it’s OK if you’re Arnold.