Legislators

California voters sent Sacramento a mixed and somewhat contradictory message Tuesday. But the politicians' response should be unequivocal. They should fix the budget themselves, right now, and not dither over any pain it inflicts. All those steamy summers of squabbling over unconstitutionally late spending plans without honestly making ends meet finally caught up with the policymakers when the electorate emphatically trashed their convoluted offering.

Alarmed that University of California regents have raised executive salaries while boosting student fees, a group of state lawmakers Wednesday proposed stripping the UC system of its historic autonomy and giving legislators additional control. A constitutional amendment introduced by Sens. Leland Yee (D-San Francisco) and Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles) and three others would give legislators the ability to set policy for the university, including limits on pay raises.

Key U.S. lawmakers whose support is crucial to the Obama administration's Middle East peace effort are showing signs of unease with the administration's aggressive approach to Israel. Though they strongly support the peace initiative, many say they want the White House to back off its demand that the Israeli government halt all growth in Jewish settlements on Palestinian territory. Some members of Congress are also unhappy that the Obama administration has gone public in its dispute with Israel.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger asked lawmakers to blow up the boxes of government, and on Wednesday they obliged -- though not exactly as he envisioned. A legislative budget committee delayed action on many of Schwarzenegger's proposals for cutting waste, and instead took an ax to operations managed by the governor. They voted to get rid of entire departments and agencies under his authority.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger invoked Winston Churchill on Tuesday in trying to rally legislators to mop up the state's gushing red ink. "Like Winston Churchill said," the governor told a rare joint session of both legislative houses as lawmakers sat passively and glum, "a pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. But an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty." Yeah, yeah!

Bill Lockyer has some simple, blunt advice for Democratic legislators struggling to make painful budget cuts: Just assume you're not going to get reelected. Then dig in and slash. Democrat Lockyer -- the state treasurer, former attorney general and longtime legislator who was Senate leader -- has experienced many budget brawls, but never a deficit hole as seemingly bottomless as this. Never before has the state staggered so desperately from crisis to crisis.

Nevada Sen. John Ensign, an emerging Republican leader who has been mentioned as a possible 2012 presidential candidate, apologized Tuesday for an extramarital affair with a former staff member but indicated that he had no plans to resign. "It's absolutely the worst thing I have ever done in my life," he said at a televised news conference. "If there was ever anything that I could take back in my life, this would be it."

Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) on Wednesday grilled Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. on why more than 100 federal agents were needed to round up two dozen suspects accused of stealing Native American artifacts from public land. The day after last week's raids, one of the suspects, Dr. James Redd of Blanding in southern Utah, killed himself. Residents and officials in Blanding, where 16 suspects live, complained that authorities used unnecessary force to arrest nonviolent offenders.

More than half of California's state senators have agreed to reduce their $116,208 salary this year, most taking a 5% cut starting July 1. During budget negotiations last week, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) offered up 5% of his $133,639 pay and he also urged his 39 colleagues to follow suit as part of a cost-cutting package he called "responsive to the state's current crisis situation."

A moderate assemblyman cut ties with the Democratic Party on Tuesday and became an independent, a move that could throw an unexpected curve into the state's budget fight. Fresno Assemblyman Juan Arambula, who has frequently clashed with Democratic leaders, re-registered as decline-to-state.