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Arnold vows cooperation, denies he’s firing anyone

Offering a mea culpa, Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said he had been humbled by the special election and was eager to work with the Legislature’s majority Democrats to fix the state’s problems.

Despite the failure of his ‘reform’ proposals on Tuesday, he said he had no plans to fire any of his team. He then went back to making the kinds of references to his movie career that drive his opponents crazy.

“If I would do another Terminator movie, I would have the Terminator go back in time and tell Arnold not to have the special election,” the governor said in his quote-of-the-day line.

The governor, who leaves for China on Friday, had just come from the first post-election Big Five meeting. As has been the case since the election, Schwarzenegger made several comments that echoed points made recently by Senate Leader Don Perata, D-Oakland. While he did not mention Perata by name–as communication director Rob Stutzman did frequently at a press conference on Wednesday–the governor carefully noted the importance of several issues that are coming up in infrastructure bonds supported by Perata, including seismic retrofitting, levee repair and education.

Schwarzenegger also denied the rampant rumors of a coming shakeup on his staff, though he did not mention the names two staff members mentioned as likely candidates to step down, Stutzman and chief of staff Pat Clearly.

“I’m not that kind of guy. I don’t blame or point fingers

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