Hasta la Vista, Baby

Memo to Gray Davis: Start packing.

It's about time. By now you've read the news of Arnold Schwarzenegger's smashing victory in the California recall election. The numbers are still coming in as of this moment, but the handwriting is clearly on the wall, despite any last-ditch dirty tricks courtesy of the DNC, ACLU or Gloria Allred.

Let's just say the voters were pissed.

The exit polls were telling. A snip from an AP story showed the depth of voter resentment to Gray Davis and his cold business as usual attitude:

"...Voters faced two questions - whether to recall Davis, and who among the other candidates should replace him if he was removed. They chose to get rid of the incumbent and put Schwarzenegger in his place.

Exit polling explained why: Many Hispanics and union members - two key groups in Davis' past electoral successes - deserted him as he suffered extraordinarily low job approval ratings amid widespread voter discontent about the state's economy.

Davis won election in 1998 with 70 percent support from Hispanics and a similar percentage of voters from union households, and he got about 65 percent of both groups in his re-election last year. But in the recall, about half of Hispanics and of voters with union members in their households voted to recall Davis, according to voter surveys conducted for The Associated Press and other news organizations by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International.

Seven in 10 voters disapproved of how Davis was handling his job. Nearly half of all voters strongly disapproved, and among them, nine in 10 voted for the recall and seven in 10 voted for Schwarzenegger, the exit poll found."

And this from msnbc.com:

"Even though 69 percent of voters described themselves as moderate or liberal, the voters of California told two quintessential moderate-liberal Democrats -- Davis and Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante -- to take a hike. Both men registered high disapproval ratings -- 72 percent for Davis, 57 percent for Bustamante.

The data suggested that Schwarzenegger's victory was set in stone some time ago, and nothing short of a complete meltdown by the candidate could have stopped it.

The Los Angeles Times uncorked an exhaustive investigation last week that documented allegations of sexual harassment by Schwarzenegger on movie sets for the last 30 years. Then, this week, he was hit by a report by the moviemaker who made him famous in the documentary "Pumping Iron" that he had spoken admiringly of Adolf Hitler.
It didn't matter. An astonishing 83 percent of California's voters said they had already made up their minds before those two bombshells were dropped. Only 5 percent said they waited until this week to decide, and they split 50-50.
Despite the sexual harassment allegations, as many women expressed a favorable opinion of Schwarzenegger as not -- 47 percent to 47 percent."

Voter sentiment is fragile at best. And Governor-elect Arnold will have a formidable opponent in a state legislature that collectively thinks the budget is their own personal ATM. I can only hope that the newly elected Governor can kick butt with the same gusto he has in his movies. Perhaps pushing a few legislators' heads in toilets might be a good thing. Or at least a thorough forensic audit of the state's books. That should get the rats to jump off the ship.

The night's winners:

- The people of California
- Arnold
- Mary Carey

The night's losers:

- Even more gray than Gray Davis
- Cruz Bustamecha
- Terry McCauliffe and the DNC
- The Los Angeles Times

It's a great feeling when the bad guys have their butts handed to them. If the Cubs had won tonight, it would have been perfect.