Meatheadgate

...He controlled the commission, so it is hard to believe the former...

...Reiner's problems soon compounded when it was revealed that his term as First Five chairman had long expired —and Schwarzenegger was free to name a replacement...

...Since then, First Five has spent some $230 million on advertising and public relations, with Reiner's friends and Democratic cronies being the chief beneficiaries...

...The other Democrat in the race, State Treasurer Phil Angelides, would certainly be out of the running by now but for a wealthy friend who spent $6 million on an "independent" expenditure to prop up his flagging campaign...

...82, which would guarantee preschool for every California 4-year-old by raising taxes on the state's top income-earners ($400,000 for individuals...

...82 defies common sense...

...The younger Reiner's mistake in allowing this "all in the family" approach to rewarding friends with taxpayer funds was compounded by his commission's use of those funds to advance the chairman's political agenda...

...If it was the latter, then Reiner didn't twist for long...

...He thought it was okay to use taxpayer funds to stimulate demand for more government spending...

...A mid-March appearance at the Sacramento Press Club meant to charm the political press corps and defuse the controversy instead backfired...

...In November 1998, Reiner spearheaded the passage of California's Proposition 10, which imposed a 50-cents-a-pack tax on cigarettes...

...Reiner was defensive and testy, didn't answer reporters' questions, and pleaded ignorance to the coordination of state resources and his own political ambition...

...one can hope so, at any rate...

...So what brought about this sudden reversal of political fortune...

...According to various analyses of the measure, the $2.4 billion tax increase would result in only an additional 4 percent of Bill Whalen is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, where he follows California and national politics...

...Or perhaps California Democrats have already figured this out...

...Twice, in his one-paragraph resignation, Reiner mentioned that his service was "voluntary...

...Today, a better description would be "albatross...

...82 may augur the return of a California politics that is less starstruck and less sentimental...

...Not once did he express contrition...

...The head of that firm, Ron Rogers, is the son of Henry Rogers, once described as the "father of Hollywood PR" and a friend of Carl Reiner, Rob Reiner's father...

...Meanwhile, only two initiatives will be on the ballot—an anorexic figure by California standards—and one of them now lacks its main champion...

...Two weeks after failing to stem the tide at the Sacramento press conference, he sent a resignation letter to Schwarzenegger...

...82, see an advantage in letting Reiner twist in the wind...

...In this, he became contro-versial—the one thing public figures who do good works can't endure...

...800,000 for couples...

...If Prop...

...State Controller Steve Westly, a former eBay executive and Democratic candidate for governor, has spent $34.5 million of his own fortune in hopes of earning the right to face Gov...

...As for the Governator, he's not exactly living on K rations: According to the Los Angeles Times, Team Arnold has spent nearly $145 million (including $25 million of Schwarzenegger's own money) on various campaigns over the past five years...

...preschoolers being enrolled...

...82 under the banner of "Preschool for All," First Five launched an advertising campaign to whet the public's appetite for preschool...

...In the Golden State, the predictable liberal bromide is higher taxes for expanded government, one example being Proposition 63, approved in November 2004, which raised taxes on millionaires to expand state mental-health programs...

...Or did the governor, who opposes Prop...

...Last November, Reiner was front and center in kicking off his initiative...

...That campaign's slogan was, oddly enough, "Preschool for All...

...While Reiner wants higher taxes for universal preschool, gubernatorial candidate Angelides wants to soak the rich to increase K-12 education spending...

...Reiner is Hollywood, not Sacramento, and the smart Democratic political consultants in this state—and there are a number of them—probably understood that long before the party regulars," claims Susan Rasky, a senior lecturer at Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism...

...Reiner's sudden exit from the debate and the possible defeat of Prop...

...Even special interests play this game: The California Nurses Association, which fought Schwarzenegger tooth and nail in last fall's special election, has planned a November ballot initiative that would publicly finance state elections by increasing California's corporate tax...

...While there's no denying the emotional tug of preschool, much about Prop...

...It's not...

...And, assuming that Reiner is too tarnished and Beatty simply too old (he'll be 73 in 2010), the rising stars on the Democratic side are likely to be actual politi-cos: Los Angeles mayor Antonio Vil-laraigosa and San Francisco's charismatic mayor, Gavin Newsom...

...The speculation then: Prop...

...That would be Rob Reiner, the movie director and left-wing activist who is responsible for Prop...

...However, the Republican governor refused to name a successor, which led to still another flap: Was Arnold dallying because of his longtime friendship with Reiner or because of first lady Maria Shriver's insistence that he be nice to Democrats...

...Credit it to dubious judgment and celebrity arrogance...

...Dionne extolled Reiner as "like Reagan, the opposite of a political dilettante...

...Reiner had momentum, as well as a fawning media...

...under Reiner's rules, three hours of preschool, three times a week, would cost $8,000 per child, with only 8.4 percent of the new program's funding going to high-risk children...

...Reiner's fall can be traced to a negative celebrity two-step—viewed as going from selfless to selfish," says Jonathan Wilcox, who teaches celebrity, culture, and public relations at USC's Annenberg School for Communications...

...It also created a state government "First Five" commission, chaired by Reiner, to spend the proceeds on public-awareness campaigns for early childhood development issues...

...Arnold Schwarzenegger this fall...

...Nor is Reiner's initiative a new approach to California policymaking...

...82 fails—and the latest polls have it barely above 50 percent— it will signal an end to Reiner's future as a candidate...

...He was either remarkably inattentive," surmises Bill Bradley, a Democratic insider whose New West Notes blog has been highly critical of Reiner, "or he was well aware of what was going on...

...With the primary days away, Reiner is nowhere to be seen—not on the campaign trail, nor in Tv ads...

...While Reiner and his political team gathered signatures for Prop...

...82 was a prequel to a run for governor, just as Schwarzenegger successfully campaigned for an after-school initiative a year before California's recall election...

...Because the initiative requires preschool teachers to obtain a bachelor's degree, Reiner himself couldn't work in a preschool, as he attended but never graduated from UCLA...

...That would include the Washington, D.C.-based GMMB agency, which also happens to be Reiner's political media consulting firm, as well as Los Angeles-based Rogers & Associates...

...A term-limited Schwarzenegger can't run for reelection in 2010...

...Thus began Reiner's second major mistake—a refusal to admit that his commission had overstepped its bounds...

...When you and I spoke over the weekend," Reiner wrote, "we agreed that we cannot let personal political attacks get in the way of doing the very best we can for California's children...

...As recently as early March, Washington Post columnist E.J...

...A Reiner departure from the political stage, coupled with actor Warren Beatty's decision to stay on the sidelines, may signal an end to California's latest experiment with celebrity politics...

...In other words, the show must go on— with or without Reiner or any Hollywood Democrats on the playbill...