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The most intriguing story of the day is Jim Rainey's inside the L.A. Times, quoting an unnamed confidant of Richard Riordan saying the ex-mayor was outside the loop and stunned by Schwarzenegger's announcement. If true, you have to wonder if there is a little bit of the conservatives' resentment of Riordan at play. A lot of them consider Riordan "Republican In Name Only," and his tendency to donate money to Democrats and hire a bipartisan staff must drive them up the wall. Dan Weintraub, who's pro-Arnold, also has this take:
[It] is a bad sign. If Schwarzenegger really expects to change the tone -- and substance -- of what's going down in the Capitol, he's going to do it not with Terminator-like force but with determination, persuasion and charm. The current occupant has no friends. But if this is the way Arnold treats his good pals, he's not going to be trusted any more than Davis....He couldn't have called the guy?
Time will tell if the story, based all on unnamed sources, is correct. Right now there seems no reason to think it's not.