Arnold Goes To 'Frank Fats'!

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger campaigned as a political outsider, but he's made his way into the old heart of Sacramento's establishment: rededicating one of this capital city's most venerable after-hours political hangouts.

Arnold was at the famous Frank Fats on Wednesday, helping to light 10,000 fireworks in the street, which set off cracks and booms which could be heard from blocks away. Fireworks are a tradition designed to scare away evil spirits during Chinese New Year, which starts this year on Thursday.

Arnold then honoured the lore of Frank Fat's, renowned for meetings that sealed the deals of state policy, with a stunt. He pulled out a green cloth napkin with the faked signature of Senate leader John Burton agreeing to support the governor's budget proposals that will be on the March ballot.

"That's the deal we made in the back room," Schwarzenegger said.

The restaurant's owners quickly returned the joke, presenting the governor a new white napkin to write up a new budget deal for cash-starved California.

The banter was part of a street party during which the capital's political society reopened an establishment once dubbed by the press corps as the Legislature's "Third House." Fat's closed late last year for refurbishment in a refreshed downtown area where newer restaurants compete for expense account cash.

The late Frank Fat, a Chinese immigrant who arrived penniless in the United States, started the restaurant in 1939 and presided for almost 60 years over the state's after-hours politics. When he died in 1997, almost a thousand people, including Gov. Pete Wilson, attended his funeral.

The restaurant doesn't prefer customers from one party over another.

"This is the bipartisan hangout place, right?" said Schwarzenegger on his first visit to Fat's. "So I'm going to hang out more here."

Frank Fat's stands less than two blocks from the stately white-domed Capitol, but occupies a block of nondescript buildings and parking garages near the Greyhound bus station.

"Who's more important to this city, the governor or the Fat Family?" Burton called out to a crowd of Capitol faces before Schwarzenegger's arrival.

"The Fat family," he said.

The restaurant also testifies to the city's longtime Chinese influence. Thousands of immigrants
passed through on their way to the gold fields of the Sierra and construction of the Transcontinental Railroad.

In DVD news, TheArnoldFans.com posted the new cover art for The Running Man Speciial Edition DVD, due out March 16th.

They've also been sent in some screen shots from the new Conan box set. To read all of this and more, click HERE.