Doing away with the California Legislature

I've had a huge response today to my suggestion that the Legislature has done so little to solve the state's problems that we might as well get rid of it. Most e-mailers like the idea, although at least one thinks it's a dumb idea. One e-mailer offered this assessment: "You're too stupid to dress yourself, let alone have a job, let alone have a job INFORMING the public. Stupid shit."

But most writers agreed with this e-mailer: "They (the legislators) have proven for decades that they do not care what the people want, only for their own careers and memorialization, passing session after session full of crap bills to benefit special interests of all stripes."

Here is the opening to my column, which lays out my reasons for dumping the Legislature:

The only thing the 52-day budget stalemate proved is how irrelevant the California Legislature has become. Change a few laws and we wouldn't need them at all.

State Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata wants to reform the state budget process. I say reform the whole bunch out of business. Nothing the legislators have done over the past two months -- maybe the past several decades -- has made life better for Californians.

They have not fixed health care or made our public schools better. Our freeways are parking lots and they've done nothing. We're running out of water for a growing population and they're calling for another study. They use our most vulnerable citizens as pawns to leverage goodies for their rich pals. The prison system is about to explode and they wait for the courts to fix it. They drag out the budget and still can't balance it.

If this is what representative government in 21st century California has become, I'll pass.