California's conservative bloggers are in a frenzy. It seems Assembly Speaker Karen Bass has called conservative talk-show hosts terrorists.

In a wide-ranging softball interview, L.A. Times columnist Patt Morrison asked the speaker, "How do you think conservative talk radio has affected the Legislature's work?" (Oy! Leading question, anyone?)

Bass: "The Republicans were essentially threatened and terrorized against voting for revenue. Now (some) are facing recalls. They operate under a terrorist threat: 'You vote for revenue and your career is over.' I don't know why we allow that kind of terrorism to exist. I guess it's about free speech, but it's extremely unfair."

She's made this claim before, but at the risk of being overly hyperbolic and dramatically incredulous, may I ask rhetorically, "You're blaming conservative talk radio for California's budget morass?!"

Madame Speaker: I'm a talk-show host. I support gay marriage. I opposed invading Iraq. I don't think President Barack Obama's a socialist. But you're nuts! Conservative talk radio isn't the problem; the Legislature is the problem.

For those unaware, Bass, who's from Los Angeles, was referring to John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou, a popular talk radio duo in Los Angeles whose "Heads on a Stick" campaign prompted recall movements against some half-dozen Republicans legislators who directly or indirectly supported tax increases. Bass seems to think what's happening to these six individuals is intimidating other GOP members from voting for Democratic budget proposals. Because we know that certain labor unions would never pressure Democrats to do likewise. (Ahem!)

In truth, Republicans are indeed constricted but not because of Kobylt and Chiampou. Most have signed pledges to an anti-tax crusader named Grover Norquist. It's no secret in Sacramento. The pledge says, "I will oppose and vote against any and all efforts to increase taxes."

Now, no one likes taxes, and like many of you, I generally favor smaller government, but as a – I hope – rational human being I do not find irrationality attractive, and I do not know how, in a complex world, any human being can sign a no-tax pledge into the future when you have no idea what that future will bring.

It's no less irrational than mandating we spend 40 percent of our budget on education. Enrollment changes from year to year, but does our expenditure? No, because we made a pledge through mandated funding. There's no flexibility. Governing requires compromise; compromise requires flexibility. There's a reason the state is poorly governed.

Elected officials must be flexible in responding to changing realities, be they natural disasters like a flood or man-made ones like a recession.

But where lawmakers lack flexibility because they have no choice, they also lack flexibility because they have no courage. Handcuffed by mandated funding? Fix it. Get enough legislative votes for revisions that give you flexibility. Need to support a tax increase? Read Edmund Burke's "Speech to the Electors of Bristol," and then tell Norquist to go pound sand. And if you get recalled, so be it.

Sadly, politicians have one priority in office: To stay in office. It might save their jobs to sign tax pledges to a draconian lobbyist who would otherwise threaten their livelihood, and it might save their jobs to bow to unions that fill their campaign coffers for that next election, but those are acts of political cowardice.

Instead of making deals with political allies or proposing compromises with lawmakers across the aisle, how about making a deal with taxpayers? Show them you understand this isn't about taxes but about how taxes are wasted.

Voters will pay taxes gladly if they know their money isn't being spent on cushy commission jobs where ex-politicos get a six-figure salary to meet four times a year.

Voters will pay more taxes if you voluntarily take pay cuts and drop perks such as free cars and gas cards, rather than be shamed into it by media reports.

Voters will step up if termed-out lawmakers stop giving hundreds of thousands of dollars in golden parachutes to their employees – like your predecessor did, Madame Speaker.

Voters will cheer if we stop penalizing state offices, agencies and managers who don't spend all of their allocated funding in a budget year.

Voters will support anyone who nails a newly constituted school board that fires the district superintendent so it can bring in someone more to its liking, costing the district two leadership salaries and severance packages. That happened this past December in Los Angeles – your hometown, Madame Speaker – where they just pink-slipped 2,000 teachers.

But lawmakers aren't making those deals with taxpayers, so a media person complains, listeners get mad at their representatives and suddenly, conservative talk-show hosts are terrorists.

It's one thing for our elected officials to lack the creativity and courage to come up with a balanced budget, but it's pretty sad when they get so lazy they resort to nonsense that borders on desperation.

Heads on a stick? We need more sticks.

Bruce Maiman is a former evening radio talk-show host for KFBK who lives in Rocklin.