Grumpy old men...and women

This from a Sacramento Bee article today (my sides are hurting from laughing):

"Steinberg and Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D–Los Angeles, essentially asked Schwarzenegger to trust them. They promised the governor on Tuesday that they would work with him in the next two months on his proposals to change state government permanently if he'd back their stopgap plan.

Their concern was not only triggering the IOUs, but also losing the opportunity to cut the 2008-09 education budget. The deficit grew by $2 billion overnight when Senate Republicans and Schwarzenegger blocked their education cuts.

After Steinberg blasted Schwarzenegger's stance Tuesday as possibly "the most irresponsible act I have seen in my 15 years of public service," Bass was incensed Wednesday.

"He broke it, he should fix it," Bass said curtly after a meeting with Schwarzenegger. "I have nothing else to say."

The governor showed little love for Democrats on Wednesday, either.

He said they wasted the month of June – and then he tried to embarrass lawmakers for debating a bill that would prevent the amputation of cow tails. The governor not only highlighted the bill at his news conference but had an aide shoot video of lawmakers testifying on cow tails Wednesday, which he posted on YouTube.

"Right now, in the midst of a budget crisis, they are debating about cow tails, and I think that this is inexcusable," Schwarzenegger said. "I mean, how do they explain this to the California people, that in the midst of the biggest budget crisis we are having a debate about cow tails?"

Steinberg said Wednesday that "there have not been any breakthroughs, but there's certainly an urgency, and it's obvious that sides have put their flagpole in the ground."

In the absence of good will between the governor and lawmakers, all the state may have left is the sense of urgency created by IOUs.

"There was a certain amount of denial," said Assemblyman Jim Nielsen, R-Gerber. "Reality should have hit May 19th (after the special election), but if it didn't, the second train just smashed through the Legislature last night. I hope that gets everybody's attention."

Democrats felt the same way about their Republican counterparts and particularly Schwarzenegger. Assemblyman Alberto Torrico, D-Newark, said, "I hope the IOUs sober the governor up. He's going back to his old tricks, leveraging major policy changes into budget negotiations."

Karen "balding" Bass, according to her, "has nothing else to say"... really? you gonna shut your gaseous,lunatic hole? I'm crying. (in laughter)