Which hasa longer life expectancy, a house fly or a Republican legislative leader in California?
Republicanleaders, but not by a lot.
First theSenate ousted Dave Cogdill after a longpainful weekend of budget talks that includeda lockdown. He'd lasted less than a year.
NowAssembly Republican leader Mike Villineshas taken a "you can't fire me, I quit" position, stepping downamid continuing party dissatisfaction with the February budget deal that led tothe tax proposals on this month's ballot. He'd lasted a little more than twoyears.
Cogdill,who had nothing left to lose, and Villines, who did, have campaigned with Gov.Arnold Scharzenegger and Democratic legislative leaders in recent months asofficials have toured the state in favor of the ballot propositions.
In thecase of Villines, it further angered party conservatives who were steamed atthe deal to begin with.
"Republicanshave one job and one job only: keep taxes low and keep the budget undercontrol. And frankly if we aren't willing to do that job, we should allresign," said Michael Der Manouel Jr., president of the conservativeLincoln Club of Fresno County told The Fresno Bee. "We never wanteda compromise on the budget in the first place, and it was done without (our)input."
The menwho replaced Cogdill and Villines - Dennis Hollingsworth and Sam Blakeslee -are willing to toe that party line. Ironically, it might not matter now.Assembly Speaker Karen Bass told The Sacramento Bee she doubts any newtax proposals will be on the table.
It willmatter, though, if they adopt the unwillingness to compromise that seems toaccompany the vow of tax chastity.
It's anunwillingless Cogdill believes hurts the party.
"WeRepublicans don't seem to be able to deal with incrementalism," he told TheLos Angeles Times. "Democrats have proven to be masters.It's something we rail against. If we don't get it all and exactly the way wewant it, then we reject it out of hand. This is the most recent example.
"Democrats,with incrementalism, can ultimately get to wherever they want to go. It's theway they operate."
And it'san unwillingness Villines has said could become further entrenched if thepropositions fail,
"We'regiving voters a chance to say, 'Get together and compromise.' If they rejectit, what they're saying is, 'We don't want parties working together. We wantpartisan warfare,' " Villines said in that same Times column.
A pollthe Public PolicyInstitute of California released this week shows that rejection is indeedlikely on five of the six measures. The only one voters like is the one thatwould cut legislators' pay in times of crisis.
"Thevoters who are really tuned in are really turned off," institutepresident Mark Baldassare said in a news release. "They see thestate's budget situation as a big problem, but so far, they don'tlike the solution."
Meanwhile,the LegislativeAnalyst's Office says that if the Legislature and/or the voters don't dosomething - and do it quickly - the budget situation will continue todeteriorate.
"If therewere to be a prolonged impasse, the treasurer and controller could be preventedfrom borrowing sufficient funds to allow the state to pay its bills ontime," the nonpartisan LAO warned.
Rememberthat cliff everyone kept talking about in February? We're nearing the brinkagain, and this time there will be even less inclination to work things out.