During a tour of communities devastated by the rainstorms that hit California last week, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger stood atop a battered levee reinforced by stacks of sandbags and previewed his next crusade. He was preparing to ask the legislature to support a 10-year, $222 billion proposal to fortify eroding flood banks and other decrepit infrastructure. Surveying the swollen canal nearby, Schwarzenegger closed by saying, "I hope we can move forward with [the plan]. It's just the sandbags protecting us from a disaster here."
Schwarzenegger is crossing his fingers that the massive public-works plan will help rescue him from political disaster. His...