Republican California Governor sent a bronzed metal sculpture of a pair of bull testicles to the California Senate President as a message to man up when it comes to budget cuts. The Senate President sent the gift back, unamused. Maybe he was waiting for Schwarzenegger's actual body parts instead of a reproduction of a bull's.
The gag gift from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a metal sculpture of bull testicles, came with a note suggesting the lawmaker would need them to make some tough budget choices, said legislative sources who were not authorized to speak publicly.
Schwarzenegger says he'll veto...An annoyed Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) returned the sculpture with a sober note on the fortitude needed to protect society's vulnerable from the budget ax. That prompted a verbal apology from the governor, the sources said.
Still, "we're not going to be upset" about a practical joke, said Steinberg's spokeswoman, Alicia Trost. In fact, she said, the Senate leader and Schwarzenegger "send each other gag gifts all the time."
Steinberg had earlier sent the governor a basket of garden-variety mushrooms, Trost said, after Schwarzenegger called Senate budget proposals "hallucinatory."
One lawmaker said the governor's gift was inappropriate and unhelpful at a time when he and legislators are clashing over keeping the state solvent.
"It's juvenile," the lawmaker said. "The timing is bad."
