Two comments: 1) Here’s another entry in The Handbook of Political Writing Cliches: You’ll never see the phrase public employee unions without the adjective “powerful” in front of it. Why is it that you never see “powerful” identifying the anti-tax groups that have tied our legislature in knots, or the business lobbyists that get tax breaks in the middle of budget crisis, or the oil companies that keep California from doing what every other state does–tax oil production?

2) Speaking of which, here’s a deal: Democrats support offshore drilling with environmental safeguards and Republicans support a tax on oil production.