The latest coiffure spill: Sen. Boxer's hairstyle

IN MY HUMBLE and imperfect effort to keep you up on the deeper issues involved in Political Planet 2010, I have assembled a few post-election tschotschkes for your scrapbook:

Three have become a crowd in the California political races. Carly is put off by Barbara's hairstyle, casually asking, "God, what is that hair?" Carly also thinks it was "bizarre" for Meg to appear on Sean Hannity's program. Carly (Fiorino) is the Republican candidate for the Senate against Barbara (Boxer), the Democrat. Meg (Whitman) is the Republican candidate for governor against a fellow familiarly known as Moonbeam (Jerry Brown), the Democrat. And this is only June.

Meanwhile, back in South Carolina, the fictitious Democratic Party is deservedly embarrassed that a mystery man on the party's ticket won the Senate primary. It was enough to note that Alvin Greene didn't campaign, nor spend any money, and has a felony charge pending against him. House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC) stormed that Greene was a "plant" and should be kicked off the ticket. "There were some real shenanigans going in the South Carolina primary," Clyburn said on a radio show. "I don't know if he was a Republican plant; he was someone's plant." Whatever comes of it in a state where shenanigans begin in the beleaguered governor's office, it won't make any difference. Republican Sen. Jim DeMint, who makes so many foolish statements sinply because he is foolish, is expected to win by acclamation.

Up in Connecticut, Joe Lieberman has created a mini-version of What-will-LeBron James-do?by telling the media that he hasn't decided on whether to endorse Republican Linda McMahon, the Midas-rich wrestling promoter whose pastime focussed on blood and gore. Joe, who remains an "independent" in a wiggly construction of the meaning, said he didn't want to consider her life before she retired from the ring six months ago. but will give her strong consideration for the past half-year of her life. Excepting for the tail-wagging media, Joe, nobody cares. (On the other hand, do you think LeBron will stay in Cleveland? Huh?)

Finally, there's Michael Steele, who is stilling hanging around, rushing to the defense of Nevada Republican senate wannabe, Sharron Angle. "I feel good about what Sharron Angle will bring to the Senate," he glows. What she will bring, Mike, are staunch endorsements by the newly minted Tea Party and an outfit called Oath Keepers, whose militant members vow to take up arms against the federal government on matters of their choosing. So now we can include Michael Steele, who has had problems advancing on his learning curve, and the Republican National Committee squarely behind an unapologetic extremist that supports anarchy - a condition that seems to affect the whole of the GOP today. She did, however, get more votes than another candidate who wanted to offer physicians chickens in lieu of cash to revive old-fashioned bartering.

Jarvis' California: Here you go...and go

REMEMBER HAROLD JARVIS? Hmmm...let's see. Harold Jarvis. Harold Jarvis. Was he one of the special effects in "Avatar"? Or maybe in the movie "Finding Shangri-La"? OK, that's awfully close. For those of you who loathe guessing games, I will tell you that Harold Jarvis was the brilliant conservative anti-tax guy who got the California voters in 1978 to pass a constitutional amendment to put a heavy lid on property taxes. It became widely famous as Proposition 13 and California hasn't been the same ever since.

Indeed, its financial misery, which is wiping out great chunks of the educational system as well as other tax- supported state services, has reached beyond a crises. Carly Fiorina (nee Cara Carlton Sneed), a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, has now gone so far as to conclude that the state should declare bankruptcy. Her understanding of the law reveals still one more flaw in her judgment, an ailment that got her booted out as Hewlett-Packard's top executive in 2005. Lest we forget: she was an economic advisor to John McCain in the last campaign.

The reality is that California is prohibited by federal law from declaring bankruptcy, which Fiorina describes as a mere technicality. At the same time, the state would find it quite difficult to change the picture. It would take a two-thirds vote in both houses of the legislature. A family source in California told me yesterday that, even the mere whisper that the system ought to change would mean sudden death - with no overtime - to the heretical politician.

Time magazine once observed that Prop 13 was so beloved that it "ignited the Reagan Revolution and the conservative era" - an unconditional stranglehold that is a fixture in the Republican delegation on Capitol Hill as well as with their ideological brethren in legislatures across the country. (In this context, Ohio gubernatorial candidate John Kasich's pledge to eliminate the state income tax is, to put it kindly, reckless political rhetoric.)

No matter that Jarvis' ill-conceived anti-tax curse on California has managed to haunt the state for 32 years, draining billions upon billions from that state's needs to serve its citizens. Even local governments were denied an opportunity to make up their losses, if possible. Want to know how inequitably drastic the effect? People who owned a home before Prop 13 were guaranteed a tax freeze forever. Pre-Prop tax on a ($700,000) home might be $600. A Post-Prop tax on a similar home next door that was purchased later without the amendment's protection: $10,000.

Fiorina: Meet Jarvis. Anybody else might want to take off for Hilton's Shangri-La . They say it's a peaceful paradise.

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