Total Recall

It's bizarre to think that California goobernator Gonad the Bavarian was riding record approval polls a mere six months ago.

Ah, how the mighty fall, when they start believing their own hype just a leetle too much. Perhaps Karl Rove should take heed, or better yet not. The sooner he goes back to molesting collies, or whatever the fuck he did before he inflicted a terminal case of Harvard Yard Retard on this poor self-absorbed country, the sooner we can go back to watching Greg Kihn and Wang Chung try vainly to resurrect imagined lost glories on summer replacement dorkfests.

Anyway, where were we? Ah yes, Herr Gröpenführer. Seems the natives have grown weary of incessant "girlie man" schtick.

Less than a third -- 31 percent -- of the state's adults approve of the job the governor is doing in Sacramento, down from 54 percent in February. The numbers are only slightly better among registered voters, 37 percent of whom are happy with Schwarzenegger's performance and 53 percent dissatisfied.

It's gotten to where the mostly Democratic California State Legislature has such contempt for the guy, and such a lack of fear, they made him take his outdoor cigar-smoking tent down, just to fuck with him.

And now it's budget season, and these guys made Gray Davis' life miserable. Wait and see what they do to the star of such beloved cinematic triumphs as Twins and Junior. Who's the "girlie man" now,schmuck?

Now, if Schwarzenegger really wanted to reform things for the good of the average Californian, I'd support him in spite of his constant cartoonish antics and warmed-over script lines. But he doesn't -- he's been passing around the collection plate in Texas and Florida for this big bucks special election, because he just wants to be seen appearing to be a reformer.

Folks, welcome to the era of meta-governance.

Schwarzenegger's approval rating among registered voters is lower than any number recorded by the Field Poll for governors Ronald Reagan, Jerry Brown and George Deukmejian. He now ranks fourth in unpopularity, behind Democrats Gray Davis and Pat Brown and Republican Pete Wilson.

Yeah, you wait. He won't be able to resist running his mouth at the budget game the legislature pulls on every governor. And people -- other than the mall-zombies he trolls for -- are just tired of that shit, the endless script-laden hyperbole. It's become clear to all but his most blind acolytes that he has no real ideas, this was all just Act I of Arnold's would-be magnum opus.

The governor's numbers haven't sunk to the dismal levels of former Democratic Gov. Gray Davis, who was recalled in October 2003 and replaced by Schwarzenegger. Davis's 22 percent approval rating in August 2003 was the lowest ever recorded by a Field Poll, DiCamillo said.

Besides Davis, the only governors to fall below Schwarzenegger's current 37 percent approval were Pete Wilson, at 33 percent in September 1992 and May 1993, and Pat Brown, at 35 percent in October 1961. Despite those low numbers, both won re-election.

"We've seen these type of reversals and downturns before, but almost always because of an external event, like the declining economy for Wilson or the energy crisis for Davis,'' DiCamillo said. "But here, almost nothing has changed. It's almost a self-inflicted thing.''

There's no "almost" about it. It's entirely self-inflicted, and was entirely avoidable. Indeed, he had a starfucking media lapping out of his hand for the first 18 months, scarcely bothering to mention his trips to New York to host $5000-a-plate fundraisers at the home of his buddy "Wood" Johnson, Band-Aid heir and owner of the NY Jets.

But once the novelty wore off, it was only a matter of time before Schwarzenegger's sheer inexperience and off-putting bravado wore thin. It's just happened faster and harder than anyone could have anticipated. Perhaps it's because, aside from the occasional social issue for him to showboat his differences over, Arnold has cast his lot with the increasingly unpopular Bushies.

And he's really stepped on his dick with this special election -- nobody likes the idea, because it's the "answer" to questions that nobody outside his big-business buddies were asking. But he can't back down now, because he loses the remainder of his rapidly evaporating juice. He seems to think it will come down to some big scripted showdown at the election booth in November, mano a mano, and this time it's personal. But a thousand cuts will be inflicted throughout July and possibly August, in the budget process, exposing the inherent weaknesses in his budget plan, which still has yet to make up any of that shortfall that cost Gray Davis his job -- a shortfall, incidentally, that would have been recouped a year ago just by leaving the car tax alone.

I hate paying registration fees too, but I hate seeing all these schools and firehouses across the state closing down even more. But hey, the people spoke, even if they were mostly mumbling drunkenly.

Welcome to your hangover, folks. Vielen Dank, Scheißkopfen!