For a while there, it looked like Arnold Schwarzenegger was set to replace Social Security as the third-rail in American politics. If we’re lucky, Arnie’s honeymoon is about to end :

The state treasurer announced Tuesday the start of a statewide TV ad campaign criticizing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for “breaking his promise” to voters not to spend more than the state takes in.

Treasurer Phil Angelides, a Democrat, said Schwarzenegger’s budget policies have put the state at risk by relying too much on borrowing and spending cuts to close an $8.1 billion budget gap.

Instead, Angelides proposed a mix of spending cuts with a tax increase on the state’s highest earners to balance the books.

“What the governor promised and what the people expect is a balanced budget that protects education and health care,” Angelides said at a press conference. “The operative word here is fairness.”

Even if Angelides’ motives are all but transparent, it’s good that somebody is willing to take on our faux-populist, clich?-spewing embarrassment of a governor.

People ask me from time to time how I think Arnold is doing and to be perfectly honest, I don’t really know. I don’t cover California politics very closely, so I don’t think I can fully judge how successful he’s been. What I have picked up on hasn’t impressed me very much. Since he gave his State of the State speech tonight, here’s some random thoughts about his tenure so far :

I still really resent the way he came into office. His candidacy contained barely more substance than the pornstar’s or Gary Coleman’s. He avoided debates like the President avoids knowledge and when he finally did debate, he chastised the other candidates for addressing the minutiae of California’s problems, preferring to concentrate on the lack of “real leadership”. He stole the catch-phrases of people who were mocking him and finally fell into office with a handful of empty promises and few ideas.

It turns out, he’s not the one-man-war against “special interests” that he pretended to be. He’s as crooked as everyone else in Sacramento.

His insistence on a part-time legislature is a blatant power grab.

Has he done anything to get our money back from Enron??

His campaigning for Bush is an obvious sign that he’s as partisan as everyone else in politics. If he’s willing to be the public face on an extremist agenda, what does that say about his willingness stand up for what’s right?

Finally, if Schwarzenegger is really the straight-talker he pretends to be, he’d tell the people of California what they don’t want to hear : that the ballot initiative system borrows our way into deep debt that we can’t afford, that the legislature’s hands are bound by a constitution that has micromanaged our budget into worthlessness, and that you can’t have everything you want and still have the lowest property taxes in the nation. Perhaps our next governor will be able to pump up the people of the state enough to face reality.