Dan Walters

A batch of amendments to a massive water bond bill was submitted to the state Senate's clerical desk Monday, and one, as it turned out, had nothing to do with water.

Winston Churchill paid tribute to the young fighter pilots who staved off Nazi Germany's aerial assault on England during the Battle of Britain with characteristic eloquence: "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."

Scott Pattison, executive director of the National Association of State Budget Officers, testified at a recent legislative hearing on how California might improve its bollixed budget process by emulating other states.

Exactly one year from today, California voters will pretend that electing a new governor will somehow improve their chronically ineffective state government.

When Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and political reform groups enacted a ballot measure to shift legislative redistricting from the Legislature to an independent commission, they purposely left congressional redistricting in lawmakers' hands.

One of the more obscure – and probably more important – of California's many political conflicts pits an organization called EdVoice against the California Teachers Association and other school unions.

They're fighting over water in the Capitol, but lurking just below the surface is the real issue – how and where California develops land in the years and decades ahead.

The "Steve Peace death march," so-named for the state legislator who pushed a massive overhaul of the state's electric power system through the Legislature in 1996, occupies a special niche in Capitol lore.

Remember the old saying, "Once burned, twice shy"? It's supposed to mean that when one has a bad experience, one should be more cautious in similarly dangerous circumstances.

For decades, Stockton has been pumping money – often taxpayers' money – into its moribund waterfront/downtown area, hoping it would become an entertainment destination that would recapture its 19th century prominence as a portal into California's gold fields.

Widespread public disdain for a dysfunctional Legislature – just 13 percent of voters approved of the job it was doing in a recent poll – has spawned a rhetorical game in political, academic and media circles that goes something like this:

Ironically – or perhaps prophetically – the California High Speed Rail Authority's Web site bolsters the economic viability of a proposed statewide bullet train system by quoting an official of Lehman Brothers.

Much has been made in the media – certainly in this column – and in civic and academic circles about the Capitol's wheel-spinning on the budget, water, education and other high-profile issues.

When California's government employees gained collective bargaining rights three-plus decades ago, thanks to then-Gov. Jerry Brown, it was depicted as merely giving those on the public payroll equality with private workers, but in fact it went way beyond parity.

California lost one of its Fortune 500 companies the other day when Science Applications International moved its headquarters from San Diego to McLean, Va.

Campaigns to overhaul a self-evidently dysfunctional state government – particularly California's first constitutional convention in 120 years – have drawn much attention in civic and media circles.

Three months ago, as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature enacted a much-revised state budget, this column pointed out that the state was seemingly operating on a five-month budget cycle.

As Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders were staging their comic opera showdown over water policy and the fate of 707 bills last week, the venerable Field Institute was conducting its latest poll on their standing among California voters.

The 1998 campaign for governor of California was one of the oddest in the state's history, centering on what came to be known in political circles as the "murder-suicide pact."

By its nature, politics is -- alas -- a short-term business and seemingly becoming more so, driven by 24/7 media cycles.