Breaking election news:
There's been a startling development in Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante's run for state insurance commissioner. My stern lecture to him about the sad state of California politics and his shameless fundraising, as reported in Wednesday's column, has led to an epiphany on his part. Or so he tells me.
But I'm going to hold on to the news until the end of this column for the sake of an upbeat ending. You'll be grateful, too, because what comes first is grim indeed.
Raymond Chandler had it wrong and so did Joan Didion. Sure, the Santa Ana winds can make your nerves jump and your skin crawl, but the true season of prickly dread is upon us now, as we inch ever closer to Tuesday's election.
California's Democratic primary for governor, in particular, is an affair so sleazy and vicious it would inspire revolt, except that no one is paying attention.
"I personally have been shocked by the number of people I know who are heavily politically active ... and would not miss an election if they were on their deathbed but are asking themselves, 'Am I really going to vote?' " said Susan Lerner of the California Clean Money Campaign.
This is the election Lerner has always dreamed of. She's hoping the stench is so bad, it might finally get people to vote for a reform initiative likely to be on the ballot in November.
I hope she's right, but I can't help but remember all those other foul-smelling elections that didn't spark change. Think Gray Davis in 2002; think Arnold and the 2003 recall. All that money spent on ads designed to insult your intelligence.
Have you seen the TV ads by Steve Westly and Phil Angelides?
If you got your hands around their necks, would you be able to stop yourself?
Experts love telling us that the reason we get negative TV advertising is because it works, but they don't know what they're talking about, and I'll rest my case when we see the numbers on Tuesday's turnout.
I'm three months and six blocks past prickly dread, my friend. I'm so jumpy I'm beginning to wonder if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is as bad as either of these guys.
Did I just say that?
I can't believe it myself. Schwarzenegger, who was supposed to represent a revolution, has turned out to be a blowhard for the ages, giving us three years of super-human money-grubbing and unabashed hypocrisy.
But who could love state Controller Westly and state Treasurer Angelides now that they've exposed each other as a couple of toadies from the same school as Arnold?
