The likelihood is growing that the Democratic legislature, in a fit of partisan pique, will turn down Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s nomination of GOP Sen. Abel Maldonado to be lieutenant governor – at least that’s what the capital rumor mill says.

Maldonado was chosen in part because he was one of the few Republican legislators to work with the governor and the Democrats to solve the state’s fiscal problems – often joining with the Democrats to vote against his own party. But the fact that Maldonado could be found in the Democratic foxhole seems not to be sufficient to keep the Democratic leadership from shooting down the fellow that helped them the most.

It will be a long cold day in hell before any other Republicans crosses the aisle to work in a bipartisan way, and lots of luck to Senate Leader Darrel Steinberg and Assembly Speaker (enter name here) in getting bipartisan cooperation to close the next multi-billion dollar budget hole.

Recently a State Assemblyman proposed suspending AB 32 until
California’s unemployment rate reaches 5.5%.

Putting aside for the moment that AB 32 is not yet in effect and
therefore not responsible for our current unemployment and that
there’s no support for the view that an AB 32 implemented
intelligently would constrain job growth (indeed, there’s evidence
that many of AB 32’s efficiency measures in particular would likely
boost rather than retard profits and jobs), let’s first ask a
fundamental question:

Why has California’s unemployment rate exceeded the national
unemployment rate since 1991?

This article originally appeared at RonKayeLA.com.

It’s not been a good year for Antonio Villaraigosa.

His scheme to rip off the public with a phony solar energy plan called
Measure B was snuffed by voters. His stooge candidate for City Attorney
was beaten by outsider Carmen Trutanich. And now the compliant Chris
Essel got trounced by Paul Krekorian in the CD2 Council race in the East
San Fernando Valley.

It’s a new day in LA.

Community activists played the key role in all three humiliating defeats
for the mayor and the creaky political machine he heads. There ought to
be a law that bans three-time losers from serving in political office
for the rest of their lives.

With Jerry Brown moving inexorably toward a profoundly boring walkover win in the Democratic primary for governor, desperate political reporters are making the rounds of would-be candidates, shouting their traditional war cry:

“Why don’t you and him fight?”

The latest plea comes from Dan Weintraub of the New York Times, a former Sacramento Bee columnist who should know better. He’s pumping up former state Controller Steve Westly as someone with “a forward looking centrist background” who might be the Democrat “best positioned for a general election campaign.”

Not only that, the story added, Westly could “combine money, experience, high-tech roots and relative youth” into a package that could keep the 71-year-old Brown out of the November election.

Is there another Willie Brown in the house, a Democratic assembly member who can play political chess as adeptly as the legendary former Assembly Speaker? The ghost of Willie Brown-Past and his political maneuvering hovers over the current Assembly speakership fight.

Competing for the Speaker’s post are two Los Angeles Democrats—John Perez and Kevin DeLeon. Current Speaker Karen Bass believes Perez has the votes in the Democratic caucus to take the position but those votes have not been counted yet. DeLeon’s supporters think he can still prevail.

Another Democratic assembly member might seize the opportunity caused by the caucus split to sneak into the speaker’s chair with the help of unusual allies: Republicans. Nearly thirty years ago, Willie Brown rounded up Republicans to pull the speakership from under the noses of fellow Democrats Leo McCarthy and Howard Berman who were tussling over the post. Brown began his record setting fifteen-year run as speaker by persuading 28 Republicans to join 23 Democrats and put him in the speaker’s chair.

Last month, the Legislative Analyst Office predicted a budget
shortfall for California’s next fiscal year so large it shocked even
seasoned observers. The projected $20 billion shortfall is larger
than the entire state budgets of all but a handful of other states.
The LAO also excoriated the continued use of budget gimmicks,
including unrealistic assumptions of new revenue and accounting tricks
employed to effectively borrow from future years.

But it is not as though we didn’t see this coming. Try as they might,
our state political leaders simply cannot reduce spending to a level
equal with revenue. Instead, with the help of a few Republicans, last
February the state enacted the largest tax increase ever imposed by
any statehouse in the history of America. The results were
predictable: Like the tax increase of 1991, California plunged deeper
into recession and produced less revenue.

At last Thursday’s swearing-in ceremony for new Police Chief Charlie Beck, Angelenos were reminded of the enormous progress made by the Los Angeles Police Department since the 1992 riots. The atmosphere and speeches at this milestone event confirmed that the once maligned police department has regained the trust, confidence and faith of residents throughout the city. That’s good for our community and a very positive sign for businesses.

Beck’s 32-year professional career at LAPD embodies these changes, from his days in the notorious CRASH anti-gang unit to partnering with civil rights groups and community activists. We knew it was a historic day when former Chief Daryl Gates and former State Sen.Tom Hayden—one of LAPD’s fiercest critics, shared the dais in support of the new chief. Their presence was a reminder that Chief Beck’s tenure with the department links its history as the inspiration for the hard-nosed Dragnet television series and recipient of a federal consent decree to its reputation today as a model for community policing and data-driven crime fighting.

The California Tax Reform Association claims to have the formula to solve the budget crisis. The association issued a list of ten tax increases, which it claims will raise more than $20 billion dollars. According to the group, these tax increases will have little impact on economic recovery, so the governor and legislature should immediately go after the listed taxes, which the organization described as “low hanging fruit.”

The problem is this ”low hanging fruit” is rotten. Devouring it will lead to economic illness and the death of jobs.

The rotten fruit list includes tax increases on business property, oil, tobacco, alcohol, businesses, vehicle licenses, top income brackets and more.

All these tax increases and no damage to an economic recovery? These must be magical tax increases.

George Skelton and Dan Walters are terrific journalists who already have forgotten more than I’ll ever know about California politics and government. Which is why I was shocked to see the two columnists make the same false and highly irresponsible claim in recent weeks.

Their error? Suggesting that there’s a real risk of the state defaulting on its debts.
Walters went off the deep end first. Writing on Nov. 20 about the state’s persistent budget deficits, Walters predicted a bitter budget battle next year that would end in default: “This will be one of the bloodiest skirmishes the Capitol has ever seen – with the only option being that the most populous state in the nation defaults on its debts.”

Skelton has raised the specter of default twice — on Nov. 23 (“Be grateful if California can avoid defaulting on its state bonds for the first time ever”) and again last week, with a line in a column about Gov. Schwarzenegger’s failures: “For Schwarzenegger to survive his final year, of course, the state must survive. That means no more IOUs, let alone defaulting on bonds.”