Sacramento Bee columnist Peter Schrag today reflects on four years of Arnold Schwarzenegger as California governor:

“Through it all, he understood one thing better than his critics: The voters will never build a monument to a governor for raising taxes and/or cutting spending, both of which he probably needed to do to if he was to get the state’s finances under control. But his whole career made clear that it’s monuments he wants.”

Hold on a moment. Rewind. “The voters will never build a monument to a governor for raising taxes” …. Huh, they won’t?

Let’s remember the Republican governor before Arnold Schwarzenegger, Pete Wilson.

Here’s what National Review wrote about Wilson in 1995 as he was prepping for a presidential run:

“He’s facing big obstacles, no question. Compared to Dole, Gramm, and Alexander, he’s gearing up late, with his official announcement expected later this month; he’s pro-choice in a party where lifers still do a lot of the walking, licking, and phoning; he raised taxes; he raised taxes; boy, did he raise taxes!”

And here’s the New York Times in 1999:

“His willingness to raise taxes to help close a crushing budget deficit when he took office in 1991 infuriated anti-tax crusaders while earning him little credit from liberals, because he insisted on cutting spending by a like amount.”

So did this tax-raising governor — egads, a tax-raising REPUBLICAN governor — get a monument?

You better believe it …

UPDATE: Peter Schrag e-mails this note:   “Tellingly, Wilson got the monument for his time as mayor of San Diego, not governor.”