Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (D-Los Angeles) and Senate President pro tem Don Perata (D-Oakland) have announced they will work together to iron out minor differences in healthcare plans they have been working on and then take the combined plan to the Legislature and the people.

The announcement is a bit of a slap at Governor Schwarzenegger who has been so caught up in talking about post-partisanship, that he has not moved forward with his universal healthcare plan. This is shaping up to be quite a battle. Still sitting at the little kids table and hoping their votes will matter are Sacramento Republicans. Unless they want to become even more marginalized, Republicans are going to have to do something other than try and remind us that they are still there and still important. How about an idea?