Given the fury with which many oppose the existence of a state
             governor who was once (perhaps still, depending on whom one talks to), more
             muscle than brains, one might imagine that it would be easy to blame the
             dreadful tardiness of California's budget on the buffoonery of the man at
             the top. Be that as it may, the record of the Legislature makes such a
             Yes, Governor Schwarzenegger does present a promising target for
             pundits and regular folks alikeâ€perhaps in some ways justifiedâ€"however as a
             fall guy for the state's budget problems, the terminator simply does not
             fit the perp-profile. Instead, one has but to shift one's focus toward one
             of the only state legislatures in this great union that takes a nearly
             impossible bipartisan cooperation to approve a state budget.
             You see, whereas a full forty seven other states pass budgets with a
             majority vote of the Legislature, California is one of just three
             hopelessly misguided states to require its legislature to approve the
             budget by a two-thirds vote of both houses. The problem with this is a
             simple matter of minority ruleâ€"that is in the California Legislature, it
             takes only one-third of its legislators to dig in their special-interest-
             heavy heels to hold up the entire process.
             All one has to do to appreciate the magnitude of the Legislature's
             role in the current budget crisis is to note its history of performance
             during the last twenty-eight years. During that time, the Legislature
             missed its budget deadline a full twenty-two times.
             The simple truth is that the current state of the Legislature is not
             only responsible for the current budget catastrophe, but it is only too
             likely to be the cause of the next one. If the Governor is to blame in the
             minds of those who have yet to separate him from his movie roles, it is
             only in his inability to terminate t
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