X gets the state

Okay, read this. The whole thing. I'll wait.

I hope I wasn't the only one to notice this but: If you lay out Arnold, Darrell Issa, Larry Flynt, Arianna Huffington, Peter Ueberroth, Gary Coleman, D. L. Hughley, Angelyne, and Gallagher, doesn't this less resemble a political race than a really bad week on Hollywood Squares?

I'm half inclined to think that, with the number of candidates fighting for recognition, this would be the most effective method of processing them all: nine at a time. Everybody can do their little shtick for the voters: "Whatcha' talkin about, Willis", "Protected by VIPER", smashing a melon painted to look like the State House Rotunda... They then get their question and the voting public gets to agree or disagree.

At this point, I think we've officially reached the point where a candidate from the Official Monster Raving Loony Party would be seen reasonable.

Meanwhile, the budget crisis in Pennsylvania just got more tragicomic. If you remember me mentioning Mike Fisher's campaign suggestion that he'd lock the legislators in to force them to pass a budget (if not, here's me mentioning it.) Well, yesterday, Ed Rendell took a page from Fisher's playbook and suggested this as a method he'd like to try. Ah, bipartisanship.

[Update: Okay, Issa's out, so I don't get to use the Protected by viper joke.]