Just another shade of Gray

Only a year ago, Gov. Schwarzenegger was telling us we were in good shape financially, with no need for a rainy day fund. Now he says the wolf is at the door.

He's planning to lock the gates at 48 California state parks and beaches.

And give get-out-of-jail-free cards to tens of thousands of prisoners statewide.

And slash school budgets.

These and many other draconian horrors have been proposed by the governor who rose to power on three main recall promises:

No more gaping budget holes. No more reckless borrowing. No more out-of-control fundraising and caving in to special interests.

Is it time for Total Recall: The Sequel?

Just as Gray Davis failed to anticipate the dot-com slump and its effect on the budget, Schwarzenegger has left us unprepared for the housing bust and the rest of the current slump.

And one of his solutions to a $14-billion budget gap is more borrowing on top of what was already record-breaking borrowing, which would mean years of debt.

Need I remind you this was the guy who promised to tear up the credit cards?

Some would argue that Schwarzenegger's threatened budget hacking was designed to prime us for tax hikes. Whether he's trying to play us or not, I've lost confidence in his ability to lead us past the wolf and out of the woods.

What choice did I have but to reach for the phone and dial three ringleaders from the 2003 recall of Davis?

Congressman Darrell Issa, who financed the petition drive to end "business as usual" in Sacramento, must not have gotten the interview request I sent to his flack.

Former California Assemblyman Howard Kaloogian, a self-proclaimed hero of the recall, did not return a call.

But Ted Costa, the anti-tax crusader and the man who drafted the Davis recall petition, was on the horn right away.

"We've got to get it going again," I told him.

Costa seemed confused.

The recall, I said. The recall.

All the same conditions are there again, I told Costa, and there has to be another "throw the bum out" campaign.

"There probably should be," Costa agreed, warming to the idea.

The beauty of a new campaign, I told Costa, was that he didn't even need to rewrite the petition that was signed by more than 1.3 million angry, not-gonna-take-it-anymore Californians. Just change the name on the petition and we're ready to roll.