EDITORIAL THE DEVIL'S DEAL GOVERNOR PUTS POLITICAL EXPEDIENCY AHEAD OF PRISON REFORM.

GOV. Arnold Schwarzenegger is the last person one might expect to be in the pocket of the prison guards union -- a spot traditionally inhabited by California's Democrat politicians.

And considering the campaign largess bestowed on them from the state's most powerful public employees union, it's a place they no doubt would like to keep.

Still, the charges leveled by prison reform Special Master John Hagar that the governor's administration has been backsliding on prison reforms and, worse, doing favors for the prison guards union to get campaign support, indicate that the prison guards have found a new friend in high places.

Hagar says Schwarzenegger's chief of staff, Susan Kennedy, a former Gov. Gray Davis aide, is chiefly to blame for opening the governor's office door to the influence of the California Correctional Peace Officers Association.

These are disturbing charges, made all the more so by the fact that Hagar is no ill-informed troublemaker. He was appointed by U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson to oversee prison reform.

His concerns are supported by the resignations of two prison officials who said their efforts at reform were thwarted by the cozy new relationship between the governor and the prison guards union.

It's an understatement to say these allegations reflect poorly on the ``people's'' governor -- who campaigned on reforming ``business as usual'' state politics.

Still, the situation has to be considered in the larger context of historic influence-peddling in Sacramento.

For two years, Schwarzenegger tried to fight the prison guards, but found that even trying to find a compromise with the union was like trying to make a deal with the devil.

That in no way absolves the governor from responsibility. But that responsibility is shared by generations of lawmakers who succumbed to the power, money or persuasive tactics of the CCPOA.

Hagar has asked for a full investigation of the governor's work on prison reforms and his relationship with the union. Henderson should grant it but insist that this investigation look even deeper into the CCPOA's connections and influence over the entire state political structure.

Undoubtedly, that would provide much richer -- and disturbing -- revelations about how Sacramento works on both sides of the aisle, for the benefit of special interests, and not the public interest.