Der Gropenfuhrer Muscles His Way Into Office -- So What Now?

CNN just said Jay Leno was about to make a victory appearance with Schwarzenegger.

Perfect. A campaign that began with the late-night comedian may be notarized by him. And so we've had our little revolution and the new emperor is Der Gropenfuhrer, which, in Austrian, means:

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

By the way, those who believed the L.A. Times was trying to knock out Schwarzenegger last week with stories about his groping proclivities overlooked two important points.

First, if the plan was to knock him out, the stories would have run much sooner than they did, when they might have done some damage. Second, any self-respecting hack would rather have Schwarzenegger to write about than Davis.

But let's give Arnold the credit he deserves.

If you can trample your own campaign promises, avoid talking about fixes for the state's problems, drive a Hummer in smog city, get accused of pawing 15 women, and still captivate an electorate in which Democrats hold a huge advantage, you deserve to be governor.

And the people deserve to have you.

I'm reminded of "The Candidate," the film in which Robert Redford plays a rookie who pulls off an upset and wins election to the U.S. Senate. In the last scene, Redford turns to his campaign manager and asks:

"What do we do now?"

Early in the recall campaign, I wrote the following paragraph about the lifecycle of the average eligible voter in California:

Pay no attention. Pay no attention. Pay no attention. Get hopping mad about what happened while no one was paying attention. Sign a petition. Skip the election. Complain briefly about the consequences. Pay no attention. Pay no attention. Pay no attention.

That's right. You're as responsible for the state's problems as anyone else.

Half of you didn't bother to vote in the 2002 election for governor. You probably still don't know who your state Assembly and Senate representatives are.

You were on siesta until a celebrity action hero threw his Mr. Universe crown into the ring. Then all of a sudden the nap was over, you were a student of state politics, and you bought into the idea that a recall could fix everything.