by Scott Jordan** scott_c_jordan@yahoo.com A truism holds that wherever a candidate's starting position is in the political spectrum, as the general election approaches he should run to the middle. In California we are seeing this tiresome script played once more, as Republican Bill Simon strives to regain momentum lost to a bogus scandal and rebuild stature diminished by his opponent's well-funded assaults. Simon -- a photogenic and accomplished outsider with sterling GOP genes and a bracing primary-season message of limited government and individual liberty -- early on adopted a cash- conserving rope-a-dope strategy against the inept and unpopular incumbent governor,...