By ANDREW GUMBEL in Los Angeles
Arnold Schwarzenegger has refused to apologise for denouncing members of the California state legislature as "girlie men" and urging voters to "terminate" them at the polls if they did not go along with his latest state budget plan.
The celebrity Governor's blunt words - spoken in
tough negotiations over California's finances - provoked a furore from state Democrats, especially the party's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Caucus, which denounced his words as homophobic and insulting.
They also raised the eyebrows of commentators on both sides of the ideological aisle, who wondered if his language indicated the first signs of trouble for the movie star who has earned rave reviews since taking up elected political office last November.
However, the Governor's spokesman, Rob Stutzman, relished the thought of Democratic legislators "tasting steel" and suggested the tough talk might concentrate their minds enough to get the budget through - three weeks after the official July 1st deadline.
This is not the first time Schwarzenegger has made veiled threats to members of the state legislature.
On taking office, he warned them that if they did not co-operate he would consider reining in their powers and converting California's legislature into a part-time body.
Never has he been so blunt, however. He also said Democratic legislators were behaving like children, beholden to special interests that were "dug in ... like Alabama ticks".
The bluntness appears to be, at least in part, a sop designed to satisfy Republican legislators who have put up their own resistance to Schwarzenegger's budget. They rejected a first draft, arguing that the Governor had become too cosy with Democratic interests.
- INDEPENDENT
