As a lifelong resident of California I’d be the first to admit that state politics on the left coast can sometimes be a little peculiar.

Last month with the Governor and the Legislature at their traditional impasse over the state budget, the Governor was threatening to veto the budget AND more than 900 other bills if the Legislature voted to over-ride his budget veto. Finally, on September 18 the governor and the legislature agreed on a budget (80 days late). With this piece of business out of the way, Governor Schwarzenegger turned his attention to processing the 896 bills passed by the legislature in the wake of the budget deal.

Unfortunately, this didn’t leave the governor enough time to do the standard due diligence on which bills to sign or veto. In California the governor must do one or other as we have a sort of “reverse pocket veto” law that...