We don't need no Lt. Gov.

By a 4-0 vote, the Senate Rules Committee approved Abel Maldonado to be California’s lieutenant governor, which means he’s almost certain to get the job. He’s Gov. Schwarzenegger’s nominee to replace John Garamendi, who was elected to the U.S. Congress.

But why do we even have a Lt. Gov.? Arizona doesn’t have one. When Gov. Mecham was impeached and removed from office in 1988, he was replaced by the Secretary of State. Same thing happened this year when Gov. Janet Napolitano was appointed  head the Cheka, and was replaced by Sec. State Jan Brewer, now the Gov.

A year ago, Arnold cut Garamendi’s Lt. Gov. office budget from $2.8 million to roughly $1 million. Too bad he didn’t cut it to $0.00.

Although he sits on a couple of boards, the Lt. Gov.’s only real job is to get up each morning and see if the governor was rushed to a hospital cardiac unit. The post isn’t even much of a springboard to the governor’s office. In recent decades, the only Lt. Gov. to become Gov. was Gray Davis — who was then recalled.

Maldonado isn’t even being considered for the GOP governor’s nomination this year. He’s getting the job as a reward for selling out his constituents — and all California taxpayers — by backing Arnold’s tax increases last year even though he once took a solemn pledge never to increase taxes.

The betrayal won Maldonado the Richard Rich Backstabber Award from Americans for Tax Reform.

— John Seiler