REAGAN REDUX

In Fresno, Arnold Schwarzenegger fielded a question at a campaign event from a farmer wondering why California needed a state environmental protection agency when the feds already had one. Schwarzenegger had this to say: "What you just talked about is the waste -- overlapping agencies. They cost a fortune." He continued, "We have to strip that down and get rid of some of those agencies."

...Does Schwarzenegger mean the whole California Environmental Protection Agency, which is charged with upholding a variety of state laws to clean up the air and water? And how about another agency that Republicans in the state Legislature have been longing to gut, the California Coastal Commission? Would Schwarzenegger shrink this commission's budget to the point that it could no longer prevent development of the coastline?

These are among the questions that aren't getting answers these days. Candidate Schwarzenegger is refusing to directly engage the political press corps. It is left to his paid handlers, like Rob Stutzman, to later explain what the candidate actually said or meant.

So which agencies on the chopping block was Schwarzenegger actually talking about? "Not at this time," Stutzman told the Los Angeles Times with a laugh....

--from an editorial in The Sacramento Bee