In semi-defense of Schwarzenegger

Fritz sees good things coming in Schwarzenegger’s likely veto of Assembly Bill 1987 — the anti-pension-spiking bill that has now become a pro-pension spiking bill — and in the governor’s refusal to strike a deal on this year’s budget unless it includes permanent changes to public sector pension structures.

“What happens in California is going to emanate throughout the country,” says Fritz, who has been a pension hawk for many years and is optimistic that the depth of the crisis creates room for change. “We’ve got the worst combination of everything. It’s not like Illinois where they mismanaged and overspent. We tried to manage and we still can’t make it.”

I will have more on all this in the upcoming print column. For now, while I can no longer say I’m a Schwarzenegger admirer, I’m still a fan. I have endured plenty of meetings with governors, generals, CEOs, senators and the current president of the United States, and by far the most engaging of them all — the only one of whom I can say “I’d still buy a ticket to see this guy” — was Arnold Schwarzenegger. In retrospect it’s stunning how little his charisma helped in his fights against the state’s political Integral. But I wish him luck in his last battle with the unions. It’s the right fight against the right enemy, and it may yet turn out to be happening at the right time.