EDITORIAL RESUSCITATE CPR GOVERNOR NEEDS TO PUT MORE ENERGY IN SHAKING UP CALIFORNIA'S BLOATED BUREAUCRACY.

ONE of the more bitter ironies to emerge from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration is that his beloved California Performance Review now risks becoming a monument to what it was supposed to counter - bureaucratic inefficiency.

Sacramento is home to many a needless commission, panels that publish reports that no one reads and that never amount to anything. Who would have guessed that the CPR commission and its 2,200-page treatise could become but one more exercise in futility?

To be fair, the CPR does have some worthwhile accomplishments to its credit: shorter lines at the DMV and reorganization at the Department of Corrections, to name just two.

But these efforts at tinkering around the edges of state government are a far cry from the sort of reform Schwarzenegger spoke about back when he boasted of ``blowing up boxes.''

Remember, the CPR came with the promise that it could save California $32 billion over five years. The original plan included slashing 12,000 state positions and eliminating 118 state boards - efforts that were never implemented or were quickly dropped when the special interests howled in protest.

But while Schwarzenegger sold the CPR with much fanfare, it hasn't come close to living up to the hype.

Not that the blame falls on the governor alone. He's inherited a spoiled bureaucracy that's used to getting its way, and whose members fight any effort to make state government leaner or more effective.

Schwarzenegger also has to deal with a Democratic legislative majority that takes its money and its marching orders from the state's public-employee unions.

Thus, state Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez's response to the CPR's disappointing results so far, which was nothing short of gleeful: ``This has been an utter failure on the part of the administration.''

Those are the words of someone more interested in preserving the status quo than in promoting good government.

To be sure, the CPR has been a failure. Sacramento's refusal to get serious about reform is hardly a ``positive.'' It's the ultimate indictment of the political class and its self-serving attitude - as exemplified in Nunez's gloating.

Partisan politicians might find joy in the apparent death of bureaucratic reform in Sacramento, but for Californians who pay for and rely on poor state services, it's no cause for celebration.

We can only hope the governor will give the CPR, which once seemed so promising, a second chance at life.