TIME: The Governator II
As his second term starts, with visions of a possible Senate run in the future, California's Arnold Schwarzenegger is more likely to meet resistance from his own party
By SONJA STEPTOE/LOS ANGELES
Posted Friday, Jan. 05, 2007
....After being sworn in on crutches for his second and final term as California governor today, Schwarzenegger is scheduled to outline a legislative agenda that includes corrections reform and new prison construction, additional spending on infrastructure projects, tougher environmental regulation, and a universal healthcare insurance proposal that includes coverage for children of undocumented workers. And judging from the early reactions, the stiffest resistance to many of those proposals likely will come from members of his own party....
It's bad enough that Republican legislators have had to endure being the minority party in Sacramento for a decade. But it really stings that one of their own, who has been elected and re-elected to the state's highest office, sides with the opposition on so many issues. Last year, while powerless G.O.P. legislators quietly seethed, Schwarzenegger cut deals with Democratic leaders to push through laws raising the state minimum wage, providing low-cost prescription drugs to uninsured indigents and putting strict limits on greenhouse gas emissions. It showed voters that the Republican Governor could play well with Democrats. And after a stumbling 2005 in which he alienated voters on all sides of the aisle with his misguided government reform agenda, he subsequently sailed to re-election last November.
The Governor seems to mean it when he says he'll follow the same course this term. "He figured out that Californians want elected officials to cooperate, but this might also be the real Arnold Schwarzenegger," says Darry Sragow, a longtime Democratic strategist. One ceremonial move that has really irked Republicans: He tapped Democrat Willie Brown, a G.O.P. nemesis during his long reign as speaker of the state assembly, to emcee his inaugural festivities this weekend. His legislative wish list, particularly the tenets of his universal health insurance proposal, is a more serious sign. "It looks a lot like the plan I unveiled in December, so I'm thrilled," says Nunez, who wants to cover all children in the state and to ask employers and employees to pay a "fair share" of coverage costs....
....with speculation growing that Schwarzenegger has designs on a U.S. Senate seat after his term ends, observers say the Governor could have calculated that having conservatives balk at some of his more centrist policies isn't an altogether bad thing politically. "The next time his name will be on the ballot in California is going to be in a campaign for the U.S. Senate four or six years from now," says Dan Schnur, a former Republican strategist. "The more the conservatives do to push back at him, the more moderate he will look by comparison. As long as he doesn't raise taxes it's difficult to see a conservative candidate beating him in a primary, which means he's free to situate himself right at the political center."
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1574452,00.html?cnn=yes 
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