As many have noticed, the Leadership has moved on the offense in the budget fight.  They’re not negotiating with themselves, instead staking out a fairly strong position for changing the revenue model and rejecting a stop-gap, borrow-and-spend, cuts-only approach.  Media wags, who normally act like two year-olds and talk about “working together” as if this would solve the problems in Sacramento, are responding to the aggressive approach.  George Skelton writes today about how California voters “can’t handle the truth,” how they want unlimited services without paying for them, and how they need to face reality.  He also specifically cited the 2/3 requirement as crippling the state.  Dan Walters says it’s about time for a “budget cage-match,” the ideological battle to once and for all address the structural deficit and budgeting-by-catastrophe that has become commonplace.  

Yet at the same time, the California Democratic Party hands $250,000 to the Senate President Pro Tem to pay for his legal bills, causing oodles of outrage.  Over the last two days I’ve been given a lot of reasons for this.  “The money was earmarked for Perata,” they say.  Perata has his own campaign account already and he’s perfectly capable of raising his own cash.  If people want to hide their donations by legally laundering them through the CDP, that’s nothing the state party should involve itself with.  There ought to be transparency.  “He’s being railroaded,” they say.  That’s certainly possible in an era of Bush league justice, but nobody is making that case credibly, just talking about how long the investigation has dragged on.  

And then there’s this excuse.  “If the Senate leader is indicted, that will hurt downticket races.”  But the appearance of impropriety in the CDP legally laundering contributions and paying for Perata’s legal defense fund is doing the EXACT same thing, and at a crucial time.  The LAT op-ed that Bob mentioned is just the beginning.

Furthermore, I have no idea why Sen. Perata is still the leader.  Sen. Steinberg, who did a $10 fundraiser in Sacramento a couple days ago and who I feel represents a breath of fresh air, is perfectly capable of carrying out the duties, and having someone this tainted as the face of the budget fight is incredibly damaging.  It won’t be long before the press connects this story and the budget story, and then all the mostly laudable efforts to cast a stark difference between Democrats and Republicans on the budget will be compromised.  For the life of me, I can’t figure out why the caucus has not demanded immediate leadership elections.  I believe Steinberg is scheduled to take over on August 11, when we’ll already be down the road in budget negotiations.  It is the height of stupidity to thrust someone into the leadership at that late date.  He should have been in there a month ago.

At the least, Perata can return the money and throw himself fully into this budget fight as a means of preserving what’s left of his legacy.  The CDP can return to its core mission of electing Democrats, and if it has to give back this $250K to donors, so be it.  But at a time when the momentum is on Democrats’ side and the budget fight is going to consume all the oxygen for the next couple months, allowing a distraction like this is a huge mistake.

Today marks the launch of Health Care For America Now, a national coalition which plans to organize millions of Americans at the grassroots level to advocate for quality, affordable health care for everyone.  

We’re bringing together community organizers, nurses, doctors, small business owners, faith-based groups, organizations of people of color, and seniors who believe it’s time we had an American solution that provides quality, affordable health care for everyone.  

We’re offering a bold new solution that gives you real choice and a guarantee of quality coverage you can afford: keep your current private insurance plan, pick a new private insurance plan, or join a public health insurance plan.  

We’re also calling for regulation on health insurance companies. We need to set and enforce rules that quash health insurance companies’ greed once and for all.There is a huge divide between our plan and the insurance companies’ plan for healthcare reform. We want to make sure you have the quality coverage you need at the price you can afford. They want to leave you alone to fend for yourself in the unregulated, bureaucratic health insurance market.

Our plan is affordable for people and business. Their plan is profitable for them. With no regulation, health insurance companies can and will charge whatever they want, set high deductibles, and continue to drop coverage when you get sick.   Now is the time to pick a side. Which side are you on?

Elizabeth Edwards is one of the high-profile faces of this coalition, but it’s fairly broad, including AFSCME, Americans United for Change, Campaign for America’s Future, Center for American Progress Action Fund, Center for Community Change, MoveOn.org, the NEA, National Women’s Law Center, Planned Parenthood, the SEIU, the UFCW, and USAction.  Today they are running live launch events all over the country, including two in California.  One is happening at this hour in Los Angeles, featuring Lt. Governor John Garamendi.  There’s another event in San Francisco on the steps of City Hall at 11:30 featuring Mayor Gavin Newsom.  The names shouldn’t surprise you – they’re both two of the most high-profile advocates for universal health care in the state, and they’ll both use the issue as a springboard for their 2010 gubernatorial campaigns.

What I’m more interested in is HCAN’s strategy to work inside Bush Dog districts to hold them accountable should they prostrate themselves for the insurance industry.

The work of Health Care For America Now was first made public late last week. But the group, with Elizabeth Edwards as a figurehead, offered expanded insight into the details of its campaign during a meeting on Monday. In addition to spending $40 million — $1.5 million of which will be put behind an initial ad buy (national TV, print, and online) — the group will be sending organizers to 52 cities, blasting out emails to 5 million households, airing spots on MSNBC and CNN and submitting op-eds to major papers (officials hinted at the New York Times piece to come).

In addition, the campaign is going to take advantage of Moveon.org’s massive data files to reach out to like-minded supporters and officials promised to work in Democratic and Republican districts alike.

“We’ll have an organizer in the district of every Blue Dog Democrat,” said HCAN campaign manager Richard Kirsch of the conservative Democrats.

“The focus of the campaign,” he added, “is on national legislation. “This year, however, it is also a referendum: do you support quality, affordable, health care for all, or an alliance with the private insurance industry?”

Right on.  These Bush Dogs need constant pressure and the threat of job loss in order to do right by their constituents.  I don’t know how successful HCAN will be, but they certainly have the right strategy.

I happened to catch Which Way L.A., one of the few public affairs programs in California, and after about 20 minutes of listening I considered the unique method we have of running a 38 million-person nation-state with almost a total media blackout on government’s inner workings to be maybe a good thing.  Because this was the most fantastical 20 minutes of drivel you could possibly conjure, and I’m pained by the thought that anyone was exposed to it.

Warren Olney had his usual insider flaks on, with pollster Mark Baldassare, Fred Silva from California Backward Forward and Neal Johnson, Director of the “public performance” project at the Pew Center on the States.  You can listen to it here, but please, please don’t.  Let me summarize.  Basically the problem with state government is that nobody gets along.  If we’d only all pitch in as a team and work together to move things forward, everything would be dandy.  Also reviewing the performance of every single public program would eliminate the budget deficit, or something.

I don’t remember the words “two-thirds requirement” in the 20 minutes I heard, or “tax pledge,” or the sundry other characteristics that make California completely ungovernable.  The idea that you’re going to get people with the ability to hijack the budget with a tiny minority to willingly give up their power in the spirit of “working together,” when they’ve organized themselves around precisely the opposite circumstance, is so ridiculous and unserious that I’m surprised anyone can make the argument when they’re not teething.

Here’s the extremely simple point.  California isn’t allowed to govern itself, by its own rules.  If you want any possible solution without the same kind of gridlock and delays, CHANGE THE RULES and allow elected lawmakers to do their own jobs.  It’s not about being friendly or reforming on meaningless margins or “restoring voter’s trust” (whatever the hell that means).  It’s about allowing government to govern.  Talking about anything else is just verbal masturbation.

I mean, if Dan Walters can see the frickin’ light on this, it’s not locked away in some formula.

It is what those in the Capitol call – and what California Forward identifies as – a “structural deficit.” This is, in brief, a unique situation and what any governor did in the past means absolutely nothing today. Until and unless California resolves its underlying crisis of governance, the budget crisis, along with the crises of water, education, transportation, housing and everything else, will continue to bedevil us.

That’s the message that California Forward should be driving home.

No kidding.

The latest on the California wildfires is that Goleta has been saved for the moment.  Firefighters are diverting their resources to protecting the much larger city of Santa Barbara.

Fire crews, backed by 10 airtankers, will now concentrate on rugged terrain near Goleta to block a potential advance toward Santa Barbara, said Rolf Larsen, another spokesman for the multi-agency effort.

“The priority is to put a lot of resources in and order where there are homes and specifically to the east … where it could move toward Santa Barbara,” Larsen said.

The area’s steep slopes and canyons are filled with dry brush that in some spots has not burned for a half a century.

Weather is aiding the effort to protect Big Sur as moist air has rolled in for a day, but already 20 homes have been lost.

The real problem is that we have so many fires and scant resources to deal with them.  We need money, not just for more firefighters and planes, but to deal with the public health threat that arises from weeks’ worth of smoke   Over time we’re going to need to find a way, with the increasing year-round fire season, to provide more equipment and staff to attack what will probably grow as a problem.  It’s yet another constraint on the budget that conservatives in the Yacht Party will dismiss as unimportant.