Relax, It’s Just Mandatory Insurance

California’s favorite muscle-bound compromiser is at it again.  This time, the Governator is blasting his Republican colleagues for failing to support his plan to mandate that everyone in the state buy health insurance.  According to the L.A. Times, "Schwarzenegger said the GOP is losing voter support because it remains too ideologically rigid on issues such as healthcare and global warming."

In other words: Give up your principles and buddy up with the Left, you Republican meany-heads.

Look, there’s nothing specifically wrong with bipartisanship or cordial relations with your political opposites.  And there are sometimes political reasons to pick your battles.  But Schwarzenegger, along with a host of other Republican moderates, has shown far too much willingness to sacrifice principle for political gain.  That’s unfortunate enough, but now he’s laying into conservatives for refusing to give up on their beliefs.  He’s not even making the argument that they’re wrong–just that they are too "rigid" and perhaps, horror of horrors, unpopular.  You can never escape popularity battles in politics, of course, and I don’t think you’d want to–but as Arnie regularly shows, it’s too easy to make popularity, both with constituents and your political opponents, the sole goal–and in the process, completely forget about what’s right.