THE RISE AND FALL OF THE CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR.

The article focuses on the decline in the approval ratings of California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The governor's public approval ratings have plummeted. More than 60 percent of voters say they think he never should have called a special election for November 8, 2005. The turning point might have been a summer 2004 rally at a Southern California shopping mall when Schwarzenegger described Democratic lawmakers as girlie men for refusing to part ways with their supporters in organized labor. The governor said he was willing to negotiate with the Legislature on all of those issues, but if he was not satisfied with their response, he warned, he would call a special election and ask the people to do what their lawmakers would not.