According to the Associated Press (AP), Gov. Schwarzenegger said that lawmakers should act in a bipartisan manner and put the people's interests first. He charged that Democrats were holding up the budget by refusing to back down on issues favorable to trial lawyers and unions.

"If they don't have the guts to come up here in front of you and say, 'I don't want to represent you, I want to represent those special interests, the unions, the trial lawyers, and I want them to make the millions of dollars - if they don't have the guts, I call them girlie men," Schwarzenegger said at a shopping mall rally.

"If these guys won't do the job, I'm going to announce each of you a terminator," Schwarzenegger said, referring to his well-known action film. "November 2 is judgment day. That's when you go to the polls."

The "girlie men" line, the Sacramento Bee explained came from a comedy skit on the "Saturday Night Live" television show when Dana Carvey first uttered it in the 1980s, poking fun at the Austrian-born bodybuilder and movie star.

"Their approval rating is in the 30s," Schwarzenegger said of the Democrat legislators. "My approval rating is in the 70s, because the people know loud and clear they are obstructionists right now. They're stopping the budget. I am representing you, and the people know that they are representing the special interests and not the public's interests."

Although the governor won cheers for his "girlie men" remarks from those attending his rally, he drew howls of protest from Democrats, who said the remark was sexist, anti-gay and more characteristic of a bully than a Republican governor purporting to seek compromise and bipartisanship, the Sacramento Bee reported.

"About a fourth of the Senate are women," Sen. Gloria Romero, a Los Angeles Democrat who's been working with the Schwarzenegger administration on prison reform, told the Bee. "This is offensive for women. It is offensive to gays and lesbians in the Legislature because of the way that term historically has been applied. 'Girlie man' is a negative term. It is inappropriate for a governor or anybody to name-call someone who, whether he likes it or not, has been elected by a majority of people in a district to represent them."

Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco and chairman of the five-member Legislative Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Caucus, called the governor's remark a "third-grade insult."

"By playing to certain voters' discomfort with gender and sexuality, the governor has exposed himself as a divider, not a uniter," Leno told the Bee.

Pete Johnson, a teacher from Walnut, told the AP he strongly agreed with Schwarzenegger that trial lawyers and unions were having too much influence on the budget. He said he belonged to the teachers union but believed the governor, not the union, was responsible for getting him a raise this year.

"We got a raise this year because of Arnold, so tell those politicians to smoke it," he said.

Editor's note: