Bad Messenger

Can't really argue with the message, however:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger this afternoon said Assembly lawmakers “don’t have the guts” to make the cuts to the state prison system, criticizing them as politically motivated for stalling on a plan that would reduce the number of inmates in state lockups to save money.

“They don’t have the guts to go in there and to make the prison reform that they have been talking about for two decades, which we need to reduce the amount of inmates in there,” Schwarzenegger said in a webcast interview with the co-founders of Twitter at the company’s headquarters in San Francisco.

“The Assembly legislators, for them it was easier to go and make the $10-billion cut in education, but it is impossible for them to make the $1-billion cut” for prisons, he said.

I've been plenty vocal about the cowardice of lawmakers who actually voted for a sentencing commission two years ago, but who cannot do it now because of how it might affect them in their next election. But Arnold Schwarzenegger making this statement is RICH.

Has he ever signed a bill that the Chamber of Commerce told him not to?

Has he ever dealt with the prison crisis, which has gone on throughout his entire tenure, up until this point?

Has he bothered to lift a finger while the state truly tumbled into the nether regions, with its safety net destroyed, its economy in tatters and its outlook bleak, at best?

Has he ever even had a sleepless night while all of this happened, instead of laying back with a stogie?

Maybe those who want to see a smart prison policy should get someone who isn't as cowardly as the Assembly to make the message that the Assembly is cowardly.