I have this weird daydream that investigators in some future California will discover high levels of lead in the peach and green designer paint in the state Senate and Assembly chambers in Sacramento, at last giving baffled historians the answer to the mysterious behavior exhibited by legislative leaders in the budget crisis of 2003. Then, we’d understand the refusal of Senate leader John Burton and Assembly Speaker Herb Wesson to do their jobs (the sick puppies had brain damage). If you hang around Sacramento, you cannot tell that California has an astronomical $26 billion to $35 billion deficit or that...