EDITORIAL ARNOLD'S NEW POLITICS GOVERNOR INVITES EVERYONE TO JOIN HIM IN THE CENTER.

IN his inaugural address Friday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger spoke of a ``road to Damascus'' experience he had after the recall debacle in 2005.

He claims he saw a light, ``a new kind of politics'' the people of California have demanded.

That kind of politics is one of pragmatism, the sort which Sacramento delivered in 2006, and which Schwarzenegger promises more of over the next four years.

``We must think of ourselves as belonging not just to the Republican Party or the Democratic Party,'' Schwarzenegger said, ``but to the Party of California.''

Let's hope he holds true to that vision.

As Schwarzenegger noted, support for the two major political parties has waned, and for good reason. With the hopeful exception of the last year, over the past few decades, we have seen the parties grow increasingly ideological -- convinced that the solution to every possible problem lies within a narrow set of political axioms -- and ever more petty.

It is, as Schwarzenegger aptly described it, ``a mind-set that would rather get nothing done than accomplish something through compromise.''

That mind-set has served only the politicians, who use rhetorical scare tactics to rally their political and financial bases, and thus stay in power. But it has dreadfully underserved the public, which is left with the worst of the liberal and conservative ideologies -- big, expensive government and pitiful public services.

What Schwarzenegger said Friday -- indeed, what he's said throughout the past year -- was, no thanks to all that. And in 2006, his Democratic counterparts in the Legislature largely agreed.

Maybe they've also seen the light. And perhaps a new kind of politics truly is at hand.