If by "getting good things done" you mean "embracing the policy priorities of any reasonable Democrat -- while also raising money for GOP infrastructure, supporting Republican candidates, and making palatable the brand name of a political institution which stands to destroy the successful function of government and everything we believe", then I guess that makes sense...

(I know how harsh that sounds. But that actually is what the Republican Party does. I can't conscion supporting it, any more than I could conscion supporting the Hell's Angels just because one of their members helped an old lady across the street.)

I would say two things in response. First, there are major advantages to having Arnold Schwarzenegger, rather than Phil Angelides, put this proposal forward. It helps bring on board (or at least neutralize) large numbers of people who would otherwise fight health care reform tooth and nail. Politics, especially in California, is messy and complicated. Arnold's plan is going to be hard enough to get passed--a partisan Democratic plan, even in a majority Democratic state, would be even more difficult to implement. (Aside from which, I'm not sure I would have fully trusted Angelides with a Democratic legislature to be fiscally responsible. Power corrups Democrats, too.)

More broadly, there are two ways we can approach the Republicans: try to marginalize and destroy them, as Tom DeLay tried with the Democrats, or help them grow into a party more ideologically to our liking. I choose the latter, because I believe the former will never work.

Here's an analogy that I think is surprisingly apt. Just as we can't win the war on terror simply by killing lots of terrorists, we likewise can't win the war on Republicans simply by trying to defeat them all at the polls.* (Though, of course, killing terrorists is a big part of the war on terror, and defeating Republicans at the polls is a big part of the war on Republicans.) You also have to have a strategy of finding and strengthening those within the opposition with whom you think you can work, because completely annihilating the opposition is an unrealistic option.

*The usual disclaimer applies here that I in no way mean to suggest Republicans are terrorists, or anything of the sort.  It's just an analogy for rhetorical purposes.