California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger drew criticism following a recent speech by referring to California Democrats as “girlie men” for opposing his budget plan. The comment sparked a range of accusations from misogyny to homophobia on the part of the Republican “Governator,” to claims that his opponents should just lighten up.

Whatever the case, the “girlie men” comment originates from a couple of old Saturday Night Live characters named Hans and Franz, who were scrawny yet aspiring body builders who poked fun at the physiques of other people. Schwarzenegger knows this because their skit was a spoof of his former bodybuilder days.

The skit was supposed to be funny because Hans and Franz criticized others for a physical characteristic they themselves possessed. In light of that, Schwarzenegger could have simply been poking fun at himself. After all, California’s finalized budget is nearly a month overdue now, and the buck stops squarely on the Terminator’s shoulders.

His actual comment, made in the food court at the Ontario Mills Mall, could have been plucked straight from Saturday Night Live. Regarding the California Democrats, he said, “If they don’t have the guts to come up here in front of you and say, ‘I don’t want to represent you, I want to represent those special interests, the unions, the trial lawyers, and I want them to make the millions of dollars’ — if they don’t have the guts, I call them girlie men.”

Although the reflexive parody isn’t so blatant as in the skit, his remark does more to attack his own credibility than anything.

First, regarding the mention of “special interests”: Schwarzenegger himself has taken money from lobbyists and special interests. Some “donations” have even ventured into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Perhaps Schwarzenegger confused his mall food court crowd with the top 1 percent of the tax bracket. Hans and Franz indeed.

Second, his comment on labor unions is bizarre, considering his audience. Labor unions are intended to represent working people — those who are paid a typically fixed amount for their labor. Through the organization of labor unions, working people can gain a bargaining chip against their employers.

By contrast, employers have, by default, nearly all the bargaining chips and thus, nearly all of the power. They don’t primarily make a wage or salary — they reap the company’s profits. They are members of what is called the capitalist class — those on the other side whose personal profits are affected when their employees take a stand for worker benefits and workplace safety.

The vast majority of people are not business owners and are not members of the capitalist class, nor will they ever be — no matter who they vote for. But perhaps Schwarzenegger’s capitalist class, millionaire contributors were all in attendance — snarfing a chili cheese dog and shopping at Hot Topic.

Yeah. I bet that’s it.

Lastly, the ‘trial lawyers’ bit is a negative and subtle reference to Vice Presidential candidate John Edwards, who before joining the Senate, was a trial lawyer devoted to serving members of the working class (ordinary people, like virtually all of us, no matter what our political affiliation) injured in or out of the workplace.

Rather than attack nice guy John Edwards directly, many conservatives have begun to use the term ‘trial lawyer’ in a negative light, hoping to hurt Edwards by association.

And who can blame them? Before politics, Edwards represented people like 5-year-old Valerie Lakey, who had most of her intestines ripped out by a defective wading pool drain. After getting caught in the drain, most of her small and large intestines were sucked out of her body through her anus. She survived, but must be fed nutrients through a tube running into her chest for 12 hours a day.

Edwards was very good at representing ordinary people, and was once named one of the best eight lawyers in the whole country.

By contrast, “Hans and Franz” Schwarzenegger has failed to deliver a budget to the people of California — but that should come as no surprise. He parades around, dispensing famous movie lines and playing the role of Macho Tough Guy to the delight of his Hollywood fans. He engages in partisan attacks of other politicians unrelated to the subject at hand. He calls Democrats “girlie men” for not wanting to do it his way, yet lacks the wits to understand that name-calling won’t help him sell a budget to an already resistant legislature.

In other words, he is still living in his macho Hollywood past, unable to handle his important responsibilities as Governor. Hopefully, his awareness of his “Hans and Franz” incompetence will lead to a way out, for the sake of his constituents.