Arnold’s Gray Day – A portrait of a troubled term
by WILLIAM BRADLEY    
Los Angeles Weekly
   
More than a week after Arnold Schwarzenegger shocked the political world and enraged much of his own Republican Party by naming former Gray Davis official Susan Kennedy his chief of staff, his scene remains decidedly unsettled. Its disequilibrium was symbolically evident yesterday when the governor, fresh from a several-hour hospital stint for an irregular heartbeat, shared the spotlight with his former bitter rival, the recalled governor. The event was a packed gathering in the ornate state Capitol rotunda to unveil Davis’ portrait.

Schwarzenegger needs a new Cabinet secretary, the gubernatorial aide who coordinates agency and department heads and handles sensitive policy matters, as current occupant Terry Tamminen, an environmentalist disliked by Republicans, shifts to a senior adviser slot. He also needs a communications director to replace the departing Rob Stutzman, a right-wing warrior who oversaw relations with the political consultants on Arnold’s defeated initiatives and losing campaigns against legislative Democrats.

‘Meathead’ Is at It Again
By Shikha Dalmia and Lisa Snell
Wall Street Journal
December 8, 2005; Page A16

LOS ANGELES — Celebrities with a social conscience are a growing breed in Hollywood. But it would be nice if they’d stick to whales and landmines and leave our children alone.

Unfortunately, California parents have no such luck. Movie-director-turned-child-advocate Rob Reiner recently acquired a million signatures to put his Preschool for All initiative on the California ballot next June, his second attempt to launch a "universal" preschool program. The initiative would impose a 1.7% income tax on couples making over $800,000 a year ($400,000 for individuals) to offer three hours of free preschool for all the state’s 4-year-olds.

This soak-the-rich scheme would put $2.3 billion into the state’s coffers that Mr. Reiner might himself control if he unseats Arnold Schwarzenegger as the next governor of California. (The gubernatorial ambitions of Mr. Reiner — who once played Meathead alongside Archie Bunker in "All in the Family" — are an open secret in the Golden State).

But the people most dreading Mr. Reiner’s latest foray are not the super-rich, who would no doubt find ways to dodge — by moving out of the state if necessary — what would effectively be a 19% increase in their tax rate. The real victims would be low- to middle-income women who run nearly all private early-care centers that comprise 70% of California’s child-care industry. The onerous credentialing requirements and union mandates that the initiative would trigger would devastate the industry’s entrepreneurs without improving instruction one iota.