GOOD LUCK TO THE LEMMINGS

Der Gropenfuhrer has assembled what columnist Jim Washburn calls a Dynamic Oligarchy to rule California's lemmings. "The beauty of Dynamic Oligarchy," Washburn writes, "is that it works where it's needed most. ... If you're an 'unfit' member of society struggling to meet your meek goals, it zeroes right in on you."

Washburn recalls seeing the Grope "crush a car with a wrecking ball" during his campaign for governor. "I'll never tire of his quote at the time, which ranks with Thomas Jefferson and Tom Paine's best: 'In movies, I played a character that if I didn't like something, I destroyed it! I viped it out!'"

That's just what he's doing to education, health care and social services. "How did we know that the special interests Arnold was complaining about were our kids and our poor and ailing elderly?" Washburn asks. Nobody says the Grope's job is easy. But his so-called solutions to California's fiscal problems are heartless and no better than those of his predecessor, Gray Davis.

And how about George Pataki, New York's governor? He doesn't want to be left out of the running for heartless. To save New York state all of $9 million, he plans to cut assistance to the poor who are physically disabled. "In a state budget of more than $90 billion, the total savings would be minimal but at least 26,700 families could be affected," The New York Times reports this morning.

The report noted that those households "would lose $90 per month on average, according to an estimate provided in the proposal. For a family with a fixed monthly income of only several hundred dollars, that loss could have a significant impact, advocates for the poor said."

Nice, huh? That piece of cheery news comes just in time to celebrate today's federal holiday honoring Martin Luther King, Jr.