(KOCI-FM (1o1.5) host Tom Johnson and Costa Mesa City Councilwoman Katrina Foley join me for a live broadcast at the Back Bay Bistro Sunday. photo by the indispensable Mona Shah).

Through much of last week I tried to recruit some state lawmakers or at least one wanna-be to talk about the state budget for my guest-hosting stint on KOCI-FM (101.5). For obvious reasons, they were willing but too busy to get down to the Back Bay Bistro Sunday morning.

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(That’s me talking to Costa Mesa Councilwoman Katrina Foley, with her phone in hand, after the Chat with the Editors)

You know how they usually include those web-cam or e-mailed questions in televised debates these days? Probably so the producers can look hip.

Anyway, we got our own version of that at our Chat with the Editors meeting with the public at the Newport Rib Company restaurant tonight courtesy of Costa Mesa Councilwoman Katrina Foley.

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Was it just three weeks ago that I asked our local state lawmakers what was new with the budget? Turned out they were tuned out of the process. You’d think they’d be more clued in by now, but nope.

Trust me, I’m not mocking them. They’re doing their best. But since they’re in the minority party and since Sacramento’s leadership (in other words the Big Five) still think it’s smart to negotiate in private and keep tossing out one crazy plan after another like that last scene in “Duck Soup,” then there’s no chance they’ll ever really know what’s going on until they’re called on to vote. Believe me, Freedonia’s got nothing on Sacramento. Likewise Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Rufus T. Firefly.

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