Carole Migden's in the news again, this time as the target of a lawsuit by the state Fair Political Practices Commission. It's a countersuit filed after Migden sued the FPPC for blocking her attempts to use old campaign funds in what I hope is her uphill fight to hold on to her state Senate seat.

It's not easy to feel Migden's pain. The San Francisco Democrat's been arrogant and abusive in her legislative career. Back in 2002, in response to a bill by then-Assemblyman Dennis Cardoza of Merced, part of early legislative efforts to clear the Valley's air, she offered this deep thought: "It's easy to gain political points in Ceres by saying the Bay Area elite are making your kids cough." Our editorial at the time said "It wasn't funny in a region where one in six children has symptoms of asthma." It still isn't.

In a radio interview she once blamed the Valley's air pollution on "tires burning down there and a lot of problems with junk heaps."

And in a classic bit of political slapstick, she once wandered over to the Assembly, which was considering a bill of hers, and pushed the "yes" button to record a vote for an absent Assembly member -- a Republican, no less.

The good news in that Migden's got a tough battle on her hands to retain her Senate seat, facing Assembly Member Mark Leno of San Francisco and former Assembly Member Joe Nathan in the June 3 primary. Good luck to both of them.