Political sex scandals have a way of captivating us and diverting our attention from the real issues-even before the days of TMZ, Big Government and the National Enquirer. The modern day celebrity news culture dedicates column inches, cable minutes and untold pixels to talking about shirtless congressmen, "Hiking the Appalachia Trail https: south.carolina.governor_1_jenny-sanford-south-carolina-gov-buenos-aires?_s=”PM:POLITICS”> ," and sexual braggadocio in the California Assembly https:> . It is good for ratings and is easier to convey than explaining the budget crisis or raising the debt ceiling. Reputations and careers built over a lifetime are ended in the amount of take it takes to hit "upload" or click "comment." Given that realization and thinking of Rep. Anthony Weiner’s Twitter travails, here are five rules for aspiring politicos-from Fort Dick to San Ysidro.

The Grover Cleveland. Political junkies and historians might recall the opposition slogan against our 22nd (and 24th) president of the United States, Grover Cleveland: "Ma, Ma, where’s my Pa? Gone to the White House. Ha! Ha! Ha!" In a pre-Lanny Davis https:> get-it-all-out-there move, the bachelor Cleveland admitted paternity and also to paying child support (in a non DNA-testing age). It was quite scandalous back for the 1880’s (and John Edwards might be today’s counterpoint) but he survived and so should the New York Congressman in the news so much in recent weeks-provided all of his electronic pen pals were not underage and government resources were not used.

June 15 is D-Day for the California Legislature. It’s the Constitutional deadline for passing a balanced state budget. And it is an opportunity to pull our State out of the financial and economic morass we find ourselves in today.

Financial deadlines usually force people out of their comfort zones and give them an urgency to act. Gov. Jerry Brown and members of the Legislature should use the June 15 deadline as an opportunity to put a financial workout plan into place for California.

In the business world, a financial workout plan is an agreement between a financially troubled company and its lender to alter the terms of repayment. Typically, the lender agrees to modify the terms in exchange for legally binding commitments from the company to fix the structural problems that got the company in trouble. That’s what California needs: a workout plan where taxpayers agree to extend temporary taxes on the condition that state government fixes the underlying conditions that got California in trouble.

I spent the last few days in the Bay Area, where it was
impossible to avoid conversation about Buster Posey. The nature of that
conversation has something to tell us about what’s wrong with California
politics and government.

For those
of you aren’t baseball fans, Posey is a young catcher and the best hitter on
the San Francisco Giants. They wouldn’t have won last year’s World Series
without him. But what people are talking about now is a ghastly injury Posey
suffered on May 25.

On the
much-discussed play in question, Posey partially blocked the plate as he
received a throw from the outfield. The base runner, Scott Cousins of the
Florida Marlins, could have tried to slide around Posey. But instead he ran him
over – a legal play in baseball. And in this case, an effective one. Posey
dropped the ball. Cousins scored the winning run. And Posey’s leg was caught in
such a way that his leg broke; he also suffered ligament injuries to his ankle.

Every time I turn on the news and hear how
"un-governable" Afghanistan is, I can’t help but think of the similarities
between that far-flung country and our own beloved, dysfunctional state of
California.  The similarities are striking, from their most basic level to
their more complex political geography.

Think about it.

In Afghanistan, poppy is the #1 export.

In California, poppy is the State flower.

According to the History Channel, Osama Bin Laden had
a wealthy powerful father but believed he should sleep on a mattress on the
floor every night.

According to the Capitol press corps, Jerry Brown had
a wealthy powerful father but believed he should sleep on a mattress on the
floor every night.

Assembly
Speaker John Perez assured attendees at California’s Small Business Day that he
was confident the legislature would meet it’s constitutional deadline to pass a
budget by June 15. Perez’s optimistic message was wrapped around a concern for
California’s fiscal woes. However, he did not get into the partisan bickering
that has gridlocked the budget debate.

The speaker
did acknowledge the state’s unemployment problem saying the legislature’s principle
task was to create jobs. He pointed to some tax credit legislation as proof of
that effort.

The speaker
said the recession has laid bare flaws in California’s economic system but did
not offer specific remedies. He simply said now was the moment to protect
California’s legacy of entrepreneurship that goes back to the Gold Rush days.

This is a shortened
version of an essay that appeared originally at The
American.

H. L. Mencken once said, "A newspaper is a device for making the
ignorant more ignorant, and the crazy crazier." The "Sage of Baltimore" knew whereof
he spoke, having infuriated many over four decades’ writing for the Baltimore Sun. From the invention of the
printing press to the advent of the web, the direction of communication from
writer to reader was essentially a one-way street. Now, the more creative
publishers are taking advantage of the Internet’s interactivity to develop
civic engagement tools that both educate and solicit the informed "voice" of
their readers. Because municipal governments have undertaken similar efforts,
relative strengths and weaknesses of government vs. newspaper-hosted online
engagement are emerging.

Well, they say even a blind squirrel can find a nut once in a while. No one has been more critical of the new Citizens Redistricting Commission than I have been. But now their first plans are out in “visual” form, with draft maps to be released on June 10. At first glance, the squirrel got its nut.

These appear to be good plans for several reasons. First, it is clear the Commission and staff listened to the community input they received. What different areas said they wanted are reflected in many of the new maps.

Second, they said they would not use political data and they did not. The maps are balanced in partisan terms; both parties have reason to be pleased and displeased. There is no partisan advantage in these first maps. And the maps draw a remarkable number of politically marginal districts. Naysayers criticized me when I said the objective should be to create competitive districts; well, whether by design or by chance that is what the Commission has done. Now the important thing is to retain that political balance in the final maps, especially when the Commission comes under assault from bruised incumbents who don’t like their districts.

San
Jose Mayor Chuck Reed, declaring his city is facing a state of fiscal
emergency, seeks powers to act quickly to solve the problem by amending pension
and public sector benefit packages. Some, such as Fox and Hounds blogger Joe Mathews
on another site, called Reed’s position a "kamikaze
maneuver, certain only to hurt himself and the city."

Reed
indeed has taken a gamble. Given the obstacles the Mayor faces, Mathews could
well be right about the outcome. However, Reed’s is a bold move and, under the
circumstances, worthy of consideration. If it pays off not only would he
succeed in putting his city’s fiscal house in order, he may have etched a
formula for other communities to follow. As the New York Times
noted, Reed’s approach "may become a test-case with national implications."

I rarely see movies in the theater these days. Between the
current pace of my life and an ever shortening grace period past opening
weekend that the cinemas provide us these days, I always feel like the moves I
want to see are already gone from the theater by the time I get around to
seeing them. This means that I’m almost always a bit out of those casual chats
among friends that inevitably feature talk of the latest film, the latest Big
Game or the latest whatever.

So, you’ll have to indulge me when I talk about the firm The
King’s Speech, which is probably, for most of you, ancient history. Anyway,
recently I watched the film on demand and found it to be full of lessons on
disruptive technologies and communications. A topic I love so much that I felt
compelled to write something about it.

Enough preamble, then.

If you’ve see the film then you may remember King George V’s
rant to his stuttering son, Prince Albert (later King George VI), about radio: