Is Arnold Governor of a Girly-Man $tate?

Arnold Schwarzenegger has been complaining lately about the fact that, for every buck we Californians send to the federal coffers, we only get back about 78 cents in federal benefits.

Now, this is not new or unusual. The disparity is sometimes cast in red-state, blue-state terms. Often, Democratic-voting blue states are "donor states" - they put more dollars into the federal kitty than they get back in benefits.

Who pockets that difference? Again, often, it's red states. Republican-voting, complaining-about-the-federal-government states such as Alaska, Mississippi, Alabama, North Dakota, Montana, Oklahoma. They suck a lot more out of the federal teat than some more azure states. They're surviving thanks to federal tax-welfare handouts courtesy of those lib'ral, anti-American, anti-capitalist blue states, a good number of which have somehow managed to be more prosperous than some red ones.

Now, with California's state budget in the tank, the governor thinks it's time for some payback - literally.

It occurred to me, if not to our governor, that California's 78-cents-back-per-buck difference is almost exactly the dollar difference between what women and men make for doing the same work.

Over the last couple of decades, it's a wage gap that has been as stubbornly resistant to closing as a pair of True Religion jeans would be over Alec Baldwin's belly.

So, governor, here's our entire state, inadvertently getting in touch with its feminine side. Believe me, we women know exactly how you feel.

If you find a way to close that dollar differential, let us know. Women have been trying to get our fair share for decades.

If it takes a macho guy's girlie-man epiphany to make it happen, for California and for women - we'll take it to the bank.