One cheer for Gov. Schwarzenegger

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We must admit that we've been hard on California's Governator in the past. Arnold Schwarzenegger has done some foolish things, like the time he tried to mock Sarah Palin on Twitter and got mauled by the Mama Bear for his trouble. He's given us no reason to offer him any kudos. Until now.

Remember all the Democrat grandstanding by State Sen. Leland Yee and gubernatorial candidate/state attorney general Jerry Brown surrounding Gov. Palin’s speech at Cal State Stanislaus in June? Even though the appearance by the 2008 vice presidential candidate turned a tidy profit for the CSUS scholarship fund, Yee and other leftists made a mockery of the principles of contract law, all because they wanted to publicize the amount of her speakers fee for the event. Despite the fact the figure was, under the terms of the contract between the CSUS Foundation and the Washington Speakers Bureau, not to be disclosed, Yee introduced a bill in the California Senate to force private foundations associated with Cal State and UC to open their records, making such privileged contract information subject to public disclosure.

But when Yee's bill reached The Governator's desk for his signature, Schwarzenegger vetoed it instead. His reason? As officials for UC and Cal State correctly argued, some of their largest donors prefer to remain anonymous, and the bill would have a “chilling effect” on fundraising efforts by forcing the names of such donors to be made public. So one cheer for Arnold. He finally got something right as governor of California. Yee, Brown and other San Fran/LA-LA Land leftists did succeed in getting the amount Gov. Palin's CSUS speaking fee publicized. But all that accomplished, despite all the grandstanding and dumpster diving, was call attention to the fact that, after her fee and other expenses were paid, the university cleared a cool $200,000 for its scholarship fund, money that it wouldn't have drawing interest in the bank has she not appeared.

- JP