I spent Wednesday night in West L.A. at the Not-So-Great-Debate between California’s Democratic gubernatorial candidates, Phil Angelides and Steve Westly. I’m going to be writing in-depth about this race later this week or next, so…. your safe for now.

I will say this much, however. Following this kind of campaign, the word entropy takes on whole new dimensions of signifcance. Or, if you prefer, ennui. Mind you (as I have written before) I’m not referring to the candidates — both of whom are above-average as pols go. I’m talking about the whole moth-eaten system.

Remember that earlier this week I had written up some reflections on the California Democratic Party? Remember that I noted that the Speaker of the California Assembly, Fabian Nunez, turned out to be a no-show because he was tied up at an AT&T-sponsored golf tournament? Well, I was happy to see that the Associated Press, at least, got around to giving us more details on that little confab. They’re not pretty. And they go a long way in explaining at least my own deep cynicism about the Democratic Party. Here’s some of the poop:

– The Democrats raised $2 million at the so-called Speaker’s Cup tournament held at the posh Pebble Beach resort the same weekend as their party convention.

– Lobbyists and business execs paid  between $10,000 and $45,000 each to spend the weekend swinging the clubs with Speaker Nunez.

– AT&T has been sponsoring this event for a decade. This one comes, however, barely one month after Speaker Nunez introduced legislation that would allow giant telecom companies like AT&T to get into the cable business (without much of the regulation that already existing cable systems face) and make a couple of billion more.

– That there is any connection between the lavish event and Nunez’ lavish support for the company’s interest is a notion that is “absurd” according to the Speaker’s press rep.

– An AT&T spokesman adds that the timing of all this is only a “coincidence.”

The AT&T guy is probably right, by the way. As noted above, the incestuous relationship between the company and the party goes back more than a decade. Nunez’ support for the legislation is much more part of an ongoing relationship than it is that of a one-time act of pay-to-play.  But this is why the wailing about the Republican “culture of corruption” rings so hollow. At most, we are only talking about differences of degree.

Fore!

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