The high priests of California politics have been thumping their desks this June with all the fervor of a Southern preacher at a summer revival meeting. The analogy here is purposeful, because the debate in the Capitol as California races toward financial Armageddon sounds increasingly more religious than political. It's not that the debate is about original sin, eternal life, redemption and salvation. Rather, it's that an increasing number of Democrats and Republicans have embraced their political ideology with the dogmatic zeal of religious missionaries. This is the reason why this summer's budget crisis -- a fairly regular seasonal affair...