Two things happened in California last night. The Governator told the Republicans that electing a new leader would not get them a new round of budget negotiations and Senator Maldonado - the guy with the small gifts - got his open primary proposition and a rollback of gas tax increases.

Now BP ARCO will get to keep 12 more cents on the dollar from the market determined price of gasoline which will no doubt encourage them to invest in valuable new productive assets, assets like Senator Maldonado.

At the same time Senator Maldonado no doubt hopes that numerous Democrats will cross party lines and vote for him in the next primary so that he can avoid losing his job to some ditto head.

If he wants reasonable voters he should join another party.