Politics

Back in the late 1990s, I wrote a novel about horse racing. Though I portrayed an array of socioeconomic actors from horse grooms to multimillionaires, it was as easy for me to empathize with the industrialist building his engine-parts factory in China as it was to empathize with the Latino apprentice jockey. I didn't mind the inequities all that much, because everyone in the novel was engaged in a single enterprise, and therefore more alike, I thought, than different.

As Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger orders steep salary cuts for most of the state workforce, some Sacramento players are doing much better by him. The governor has added state legislators and former political aides to the state payroll, with six-figure salaries. Their positions: plum posts on the same state boards and commissions that the governor crusaded to abolish a few years ago, calling them a waste of taxpayer money.

Half a dozen Republicans decamped from Washington to Southern California this weekend to get away from the crowds, the cold and the Barack Obama bobbleheads. They've rented a house in Palm Springs with a heated swimming pool, a hot tub and an outdoor fire pit.

For generations, seekers have come West to find fortune and reinvent themselves. Now, it's the Democrats' turn. With an eye on 2012 and beyond, the party and its leader, Barack Obama, are working to fasten their grip on the White House and expand Democratic support by adding the Rocky Mountain region to the party's base, alongside California, Oregon and Washington. An important step is the Cabinet appointments of Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano and Colorado Sen.

For once-powerful Republicans, there were two ways to get through Tuesday's inauguration -- and neither was without pain. Some, such as former White House aide Suhail Khan, opted to stay in town and witness firsthand the historic transition, even though it meant hearing rebukes from the new president and worse from the inaugural crowd. "The one sorry note were the boos" for President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.

I hope Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger listened closely from his choice seat. Because President Obama's inaugural address was a stark reminder of what has been missing from political discourse in California: the notion of individual sacrifice for the common good. Not just share-the-wealth sacrifice. But share-the-pain across the entire economic spectrum -- the pain of sharply reduced public services for the poor, higher taxes for the rich and both afflictions for the middle-class.

The Senate overwhelmingly approved the nomination of Hillary Rodham Clinton as President Obama's secretary of State on Wednesday, after a one-day delay forced by Republicans who wanted to continue debating her husband's overseas fundraising activities. The delay had the effect of denying Clinton a confirmation vote on Inauguration Day, when six other Cabinet members were approved. But Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who sought the delay, praised Clinton's abilities Wednesday and voted in favor.

President Obama's economic sit-down with congressional leaders Friday ended with senior Republicans sounding less confrontational than they had in recent days. As they emerged from the White House, however, GOP leaders released a counterproposal to the Democrats' $825-billion economic stimulus package -- suggesting that although the gulf separating the two parties on economic policy may have narrowed, it has not closed.

President Obama, offering the first specifics on a key element in his $825-billion stimulus package, said Saturday that it would add 3,000 miles of electric transmission lines and double the nation's use of wind and solar power within three years. But he pressed ahead in the face of continued Republican resistance to his ideas.

President Obama's first week in power was a whirl of activity, but the orders and pronouncements flowing from the White House had little to do with the central mission of his presidency: overhauling healthcare, weaning the nation from foreign oil and fixing the economy. Obama's early moves carried huge symbolic value. On his first full day he called in top military advisors and pressed them for a faster timetable for withdrawing combat troops from Iraq. He announced that he would close the U.S.