California Insider

Schwarzenegger has appointed Dennis Boyle as his director of Social Services.

Boyle has been director of the Riverside County Department of Public Social Services for the past nine years. Before that he worked as an analyst, manager and deputy director for 20 years in the California Department of Social Services.

UPDATE: He also named Greta Wallace, a social services lawyer, to head the Department of Child Support Services. Wallace has been an administrative law judge and counsel to the Department of Social Services for 13 years.

Schwarzenegger in a roundtable with foreign reporters in Hollywood, explains what he learned from his sexual harassment sensitivity training, according to this LA Times story:

In response to a question, Schwarzenegger said he had "learned my lesson" about groping women, an allegation that surfaced a year ago in The Times when he was running for governor.

Schwarzenegger admitted no wrongdoing, only saying "it is a totally different ballgame" now that he is representing the state of California instead of just himself.

The world "has changed so much that any kind of a comment you make to a woman now about her clothes or about this or that could be misinterpreted and could make someone uncomfortable and open the door to a lawsuit," he said.

Open the door to a lawsuit? Isn't the real lesson supposed to be that unwanted and unwelcome sexual advances -- or comments -- are simply wrong? Why can't he just say that?

Here is my column today on pundits in pajamas.

A new Field Poll shows Prop. 72 -- the health care mandate -- leading by a wide margin though still under 50 percent, with a fourth of the voters undecided. Props. 61 (hospital bonds) and 63 (mental health) are also leading, while Prop. 67, the phone tax, is trailing.