To hear Governor Schwarzenegger tell it, he didn't need any convincing by Democrats to support a separate bond measure for more affordable housing. And he wishes the infrastructure package was much, much bigger.

In one of the unreported tidbits from the Wednesday north state press bus interview (items that didn't appear here due to a really nutty day of tech problems), Schwarzenegger was asked why he didn't mention the $2.85 billion housing bond at his town hall event that morning in Redding.

He blamed it on a simple oversight, not having his notes in front of him. But he didn't stop there.
"To be honest with you," he said, "I don't even know why I didn't have it in my State of the State address. Because when Fabian [Nunez] and [Don] Perata brought it up, it was not even a debate."

That's interesting, if for no other reason than it was indeed a debate among his fellow Republicans in the Legislature, who balked for weeks at long-term borrowing for housing.

That wasn't the only revelation in Wednesday's discussion. Schwarzenegger said that he wished the infrastructure bond offering would have been much larger than the $37 billion agreed to... even bigger than the $68 billion in bonds he proposed in January.

"As a matter of fact," he told reporters, "I wanted $150 billion. I think we need so much to really, if you're serious about rebuilding." Schwarzenegger, however, said he also understood that some legislators were not "comfortable" with such a large proposal.