So, as part of a package of dishonest budget juggling and other spew, Governor Arnold wants to turn redistricting over to retired judges. That's a clever bit of politics, because it's absolutely true that California districts have been drawn for the protection of incumbents (not just Democrats) and probably aren't the best of all possible worlds.
I suspect our hack state leadership (we can't support the DeLay Rule because our own State Senate Leader is likely to be indicted for graft) will try to defeat this by mobilizing some idiot scare campaign about judges,
but really we are missing a great opportunity.
Democratic legislators in Texas, Florida, and Pennsylvania—which are gerrymandered pro-GOP more than California could possibly be gerrymandered pro-Dem—should immediately introduce word-for-word identical bills (except for the obvious place-name substitutions) and challenge Arnold to support them.
Nothing would make clearer whether this is a question of cleaning up government, or another round of the Republicans' favorite game: Heads We Win, Tails You Lose. And if, as I suspect, Arnold is forced to back nonpartisan redistricting in general, we might just gain seats overall.