And the Weiner Is...

Pass the envelope, please. Governor Davis has been recalled from office in an historic election. The new Governor of California is now the terminator himself, Arnold Schwartzenegger. True to form, the crackpot state has implemented voodoo politics in the most socially significant statement since the anti-war movement woke up last year. One wag called it the "off with your head" attitude many Americans are expressing in the wake of the revelations about the reasons for invading Iraq.

When I lived in Venice, where Arnold and Maria own a major gym, a restaurant and several business properties, I used to see Arnold tooling around in his Hum-V and once I saw both of them with their young daughters when I had brunch in the restaurant, Shatzi, that they own. In the loo at Shatzi, you'd hear taped Austrian language lessons as you tinkled.

Fasten your seatbelts and keep your hands and arms inside the car as we enter a year of a wild political ride.

And as for Arnold, as a friend and Californian expressed to me today, "What's the difference, one clown or another?"

I guess we're about to find out.