Simon Says Not All Democrats Are Created Equal

Those strange political bedfellows you’re always hearing so much about? Here’s another pair:

Bill Simon, one of the rich guys running for the Republican nomination for governor, sent out a news release bragging about how much a major California political leader agrees with Simon’s own budget ideas.

That leader is . . . state Senate President Pro Tem John Burton, the ultraliberal Democrat and mercury-witted phrasemaker.

It’s practically a Vulcan mind-meld (although Simon didn’t use that term). Simon says a dollar cut now saves two dollars on the deficit next year--then Burton says a dollar saved now counts as two out of the deficit later.

And it doesn’t stop with Burton. Simon says his task force figures the budget deficit at $13 billion . . . then the Assembly and Senate budget chairmen, both Democrats, estimated it at $11 billion to $12 billion.

Simon was not embracing the “great minds think alike” notion 10 days ago, when he gave a speech demanding that Gov. Gray Davis take immediate action on the budget.

Davis did, the very next day--although undoubtedly not because Simon insisted on it--requiring state agencies to post a 15% cut. That’s warp speed for government, but not fast enough for Simon, whose news release on the heels of Davis’ cut denounced the governor for doing “too little, too late.”

Burton and Simon do have one thing in common: Neither has much liking for Gray Davis.

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished, Chapter. . .

Assemblyman Tony Cardenas, the Sylmar Democrat, parted company with some fellow Latino leaders this year when he lined up with James Hahn against Antonio Villaraigosa in the L.A. mayor’s race.

That was the “quid” part; the “pro quo” part hasn’t happened, and it may not.

Cardenas is running for Los Angeles City Council in a special Dec. 11 election to replace Joel Wachs, who has moved to New York. Not unnaturally, Cardenas expected that Hahn would return the favor and endorse him.

Ah, but who else is running for the same spot? Wendy Greuel, a DreamWorks executive who enjoys the help of three of the deepest pockets in L.A.: DreamWorks founders Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen.

So Hahn will be staying out of this one. “He’s friends with both” candidates, said spokeswoman Julie Wong. “He thinks both would be excellent council members.”

Dollars in December: the DreamWorks set is loaded, but Cardenas enjoys the enthusiastic and potentially lucrative support of Native American gaming interests. Watch for the coming attraction: cinema cowboys vs. casino Indians.

Face the Music, About-Face the Music

The crowd awaiting President George W. Bush in Sacramento last week was serenaded for a time by a choir singing patriotic songs. When Bush still hadn’t shown up, the choristers took a break, and by way of vamping, someone put on a bit of recorded music:

“Cryin’ Time,” by Ray Charles.

In short order, it occurred to someone this was not the appropriate tune, and the needle was moved mid-song to Charles’ more suitable cut: “America the Beautiful.”

Paint the Capitol Dome Orange

What’s with Orange County, that so many of its residents want to move to Sacramento?

All right, three of them. A third has launched a campaign for governor: William M. Crosby, who now joins fellow Republican O.C. citizens Edie Bukewihge and Nick Jesson on the road to the governor’s ground-floor Capitol office.

“The perception of Republicans as anti-immigrant, anti-consumer and insensitive to the concerns of racial and ethnic minorities,” quoth he, “won’t be overcome unless Republican activists work to nominate a candidate with a demonstrated commitment to creative resolution of these issues.” Like Crosby, of course.

He does run a teeny bit against the GOP grain on at least one point: He doesn’t keep beating the party’s tort-reform drum. He wouldn’t--he’s an employment litigator specializing in defending workers against workplace abuses.

Dead or Alive, the Game Is the Name

A quarter-century on the job, a fellow can get something better than a gold watch. Ventura County Supervisor John K. Flynn got a health clinic named for him, in recognition of his work in raising the dough for the immunization center in the El Rio School District.

But there was enough resistance--in the political sense, not the medical one--to naming a place for a live politician that county supervisors made a new rule:

Naming something in honor of a dead politician requires four of the board’s five votes. Naming something in honor of a living pol? That has to be unanimous.

Flynn, who is 68 and quite lively yet, got his building named for him before the new policy went into effect. It wouldn’t have mattered, though, since all five supervisors backed the move.

But, Flynn acknowledged: “I would have had more flexibility if I was dead.”

Quick Hits

* MALDEF, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, has asked a federal judge to delay the March 2002 primary election until settlement of its lawsuit charging that the newly redrawn boundary lines of legislative districts weaken Latino voting power.

* The California Young Republicans’ Halloween party this Saturday is a $30, all-you-can-drink affair whose theme is “Garden of Eden,” although coming in Old Testament nudity is prohibited; any leftover money goes to Sept. 11 attack relief groups.

* The California-based Sierra Club Foundation is $10,000 to the good after actor Mike Lookinland, “Bobby Brady” on “The Brady Bunch” TV show, donated his winnings from “The Weakest Link” TV program.

* In winning the minority whip spot, the Democrats’ No. 2 power job in the House, San Francisco’s Nancy Pelosi defeated Rep. Steny Hoyer, all right--but although Hoyer was born in New York, he doesn’t represent the Empire State, as this space indicated; perhaps even more stingingly for him, he represents Maryland--Pelosi’s home state.

Word Perfect

“Of course--I’m just getting used to it.’

Former L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan, answering a reporter’s question about whether he knew whose seat he was taking. Gray Davis had just left the chair, marked “Governor Davis,” to go up to speak to President George W. Bush, who had just finished his remarks in Sacramento. Riordan, who is thinking of going after Davis’ job, went after Davis’ chair.

*

Columnist Patt Morrison’s e-mail address is patt.morrison@latimes.com. This week’s contributors include Mark Z. Barabak, Matea Gold, Dan Morain, Jean O. Pasco and Margaret Talev.