I don’t want to get into all the nitty-gritty details of California’s budget crisis and the state GOP’s epic meltdown in reaction to it, but it is worth noting the degree of craziness we’re dealing with here:
To be sure, none of the GOP lawmakers who demanded that the state close its $42-billion shortfall without raising taxes detailed the doomsday cuts that approach would entail, nor did the activists who lobbied against the tax increases. If the state had laid off its entire workforce of 238,000 — every prison guard, firefighter and clerk — it still would have fallen billions shy of a balanced budget.
And, yet, the Republicans and their activists are furious that the Governator broke his 2003 promise not to raise taxes, as if he had any rational alternative.
Add to this that the hardcore Republicans are convinced that the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (the stimulus package) is some kind of theft of their tax dollars even though the White House estimates that it will create roughly 400,000 jobs (.pdf) in the Golden State and that it appropriates nine billion dollars for their education system alone.
I mean, take a look at the lunacy.
Like the governor, the six Republican lawmakers who joined Democrats in approving the tax increases are also facing vitriol within the party. Chief targets include Sens. Dave Cogdill of Modesto, whose support of the budget led to his overthrow as Senate Republican leader, and Abel Maldonado of Santa Maria, who cast the deciding vote.
Conservative blogger Matthew Cunningham has started a Facebook group, “Never Elect Abel Maldonado to Anything, Ever Again.” More threatening, Ernie Konnyu, a former Bay Area congressman, has launched a campaign to recall Maldonado.
Efforts to recall other GOP lawmakers for their break with the party on taxes have sprouted. Conservative purists are pushing the state party to censure them Sunday.
Good luck getting the Republican base to nominate anyone reasonable to run for governor or U.S. Senate in two years. Why do I hear Pink Floyd playing in the background?
Crazy,
Toys in the attic I am crazy,
Truly gone fishing.
They must have taken my marbles away.
Crazy, toys in the attic he is crazy.
