Stop jokes and negotiate, Assembly speaker tells Schwarzenegger
By DON THOMPSON, Associated Press Writer
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
(02-22) 18:49 PST SACRAMENTO, (AP) --
It's time for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to knock off the jokes from his old movies, get off the campaign stump, and start negotiating with lawmakers over what seems to be an inevitable special election this fall on issues as sweeping as redistricting and public pension reform, the Assembly's top Democrat said Tuesday.
"The time for name-calling and bad jokes is over," said Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles, referring to the actor-turned-governor who last year labeled lawmakers "girlie-men" when they failed to do his bidding.
Schwarzenegger's spokeswoman Margita Thompson responded that, "The speaker is an emblem for old-style politics that don't get anything done and don't reform the system."
The governor is preparing to collect signatures for a series of ballot measures to put before voters this fall, a process both sides say is now inevitable even as Nunez decried the estimated $70 million cost for a special election.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/02/22/state/n184933S97.DTL