perfidy

So far I haven't had the most respect for Arnold Schwarzenegger as governer of California. Maybe it's having seen him in "Kindergarten Cop," or maybe it is his inability to singlehandedly lift the slcerotic legislature of our nation's most populous state out of its doldrums as he promised.

Or maybe, just maybe, it's crapola like this.

California lawmakers became the first in the country to approve a bill allowing same-sex marriages.....

The legislation could be vetoed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has expressed an acceptance of gay marriages but said it's an issue that should be decided by voters or the courts.

So, wait wait. Let me get this straight. The question of gay marriage, according to leading Republicans and sundry conservatives, is a matter that must be left to the people and their representatives and not imposed by fiat by activist courts, unless it is a matter that must be left to the people and the courts and not imposed by fiat by activist... people's representatives.

Right. So, activist courts are a threat to the republic except when they are defenders of our liberties and legislatures are the duly designated voice of the people except when they are loose-cannon petty tyrants who must be stopped by the courts (threats to the republic and defenders of our liberties, Amen) and the people (who, as we know, also buy Franklin Mint commemorative plates and Beanie Babies), which people are in turn morally suspect sheeple who (per Rick Santorum) must be protected from themselves by legislation (passed by loose-cannon petty tyrants or sacrosanct conduits to the Will of the Populace) and upheld by judges (threats to our republic or defenders of our liberty, yr pick).

Three thoughts spring to mind like Spaniel pups who've been into the Maxwell House tin again. Big thought the first: NO WONDER the Governator never gets a damn thing done! He doesn't even understand how his state's government works! And for a guy who could lift like ten thousand pounds in his prime, he sure has experienced some scary bone loss in the spinal region. Better get that checked out before he hurts himself.

Outsize mental bolus the second: ...or maybe he understands too well how his state government works in all its resplendent contraditions and is playing a deeper game, one that he and his friends at the Heritage Foundation call "freeze the beast" in which the size of state government is reduced by grinding the parts against one other, much like throwing a '65 Charger in reverse at highway speeds, causing the drivetrain to leap out of the car and onto the road, stopping the car's forward progress in a spectacular fashion. Rhetorical tricks like the one above amount to a dazzling shell-game of trickery and misdirection designed to confuse everyone - the citizens of the Golden State, its judges and legislatures, and even the big-government conservatives in the Republican leadership - long enough for Schwarzenegger to grind the gears, strip the transmission, and spirit California's government away to two cabins on a small ranch outside Fresno connected to the outside world by a single dialup modem. Brilliant!!

Johno's Brain Poop the third: While it is a little unfair to take Schwarzenegger to task as a spokesman for his party as a whole, I'm not above being a little unfair, and he is one of the most prominent Republicans in the country. The way I see it, either gay marriage is an issue better left to the people (and, dammit, their duly elected representatives who speak for them) than to a judiciary whose powers do not include drafting new law, or the people need to be saved from themselves by all-knowing judges and/or legislators. For the record, the second option there wouldn't pass the guffaw test if Moses (or Confucius, yr pick) were the judge and Solomon were Speaker of the Heezy, so let's focus on the first option, the one that Schwarzenegger has discarded.

Even though I am in favor of gay marriage, I'm not dumb enough to miss the fact that the Massachusetts decision last year set the cause across the country back about fifty years. So while some of the Republican party are all like "step off yo, courts!," Arnold seems to have strayed off the reservation far enough to send exactly the opposite message which, although possibly politically expedient in the very short term, is in the long term a maneuver of monumental stupidity. The Republicans can stay in power only so long as their main messages remain widely appealing, inoffensive, and not confusing. Two legged stools aren't so good for sitting.

In other news, it looks more and more likely that the Massachusetts State Legislature and voters will eventually end up endorsing the Commonwealth's Supreme Judicial Court decision from last year, thereby putting the cart back behind the horse where it belongs. Currently, there is a proposed Constitutional amendment before the State Senate which would ban gay marriage but uphold civil unions. That amendment is losing support from both sides as the dedicated opponents of gay marriage show their true colors and back a total ban on legal gay unions of any stripe, and as supporters of gay marriage abandon civil unions as a half-measure. Given the climate of the state now, I strongly doubt the opponents of gay marriage have a shot at getting a total ban into the Constitution. The so-called Travaglini amendment (after the Senator sponsoring) is, politically speaking, their last good shot. They will radicalize themselves right out of the argument.

[wik] In the comments, Patton points out that in the bizarro-world of California politics, the courts *really do* have to decide this issue. Because the in/famous Prop. 22 was a ballot initiative and not a piece of legislation, it is up to the courts to deal with it. Which, when you think about it is even more delicious... I now fully appreciate the rich irony inherent in the fact that in California, in order to satisfy the beautiful symmetries and patchwork of federalism, the courts really do have to decide the issue of gay marriage.