If the "three strikes and you're out" law applied to politicians, Gov. Gray Davis and the entire California Legislature -- lawmakers of both parties -- would be facing life behind bars for habitual dereliction of fiscal duty.

Capitol politicians committed fiscal mayhem for four straight years. In the first of those years, they eagerly spent most of a one-time windfall of income taxes on permanent new spending and/or tax cuts. And in the subsequent three years, they covered up that irresponsible profligacy with equally lavish borrowing, committing the state's taxpayers to tens of billions of dollars in debt that will take many years to repay.

Democrats, beholden to unions and other powerful interest groups, refused to eliminate spending that the state couldn't afford, while Republicans, locked into a rigid ideology, refused to give up tax cuts that the state couldn't afford. And the only way to satisfy both positions was to run up the credit cards even more, a textbook example of political dysfunction that has brought us to the brink of total financial collapse. We are operating on borrowed money, our credit rating has deservedly fallen into an abyss and Wall Street is growing visibly nervous about lending more. It's an embarrassment to the richest state in the richest nation.

When Californians finally awoke to the fiscal mess that the politicians had created, they took it out on the most prominent of those politicians, Davis. His popularity plummeted to record-low levels -- scarcely 20 percent -- and he became vulnerable to the recall drive that will culminate in a historic Oct. 7 election to determine his fate.

The Democratic governor is feeling the brunt of voters' anger and is more than likely to be recalled. In fact, however, voters are just as angry at the Legislature as an institution -- its popularity is even lower than the governor's -- and both branches of government are equally guilty of dereliction. The guilt, moreover, should be shared by members of both parties who, with few exceptions, insisted on fiscal policies that are staggering in their irresponsibility.

If Davis were to be recalled on Oct. 7, one of the 135 men and women on the ballot would inherit the fiscal mess, probably one of the four front-runners: Democratic Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante and Republicans Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tom McClintock and Peter Ueberroth. And if the state's fiscal disaster is a legitimate reason to dump Davis and put someone else in charge, voters have a right to expect that his successor would clean it up.

All four have had something to say about what they'd do about the fiscal crisis should Davis be recalled and they elected, but none has produced anything close to a comprehensive, rational and politically workable scheme. In fact, they've offered very little beyond repeating by rote the rigid ideological attitudes that got us into trouble in the first place.

Bustamante echoes Democratic dogma about soaking the rich. He would raise income taxes on the most affluent Californians, as well as property taxes on business and impose a series of specialized levies -- the total around $8 billion a year. The Bustamante plan might close much of the "structural deficit" that Davis and the Legislature created, but it stands little chance of garnering the necessary Republican votes, could make the state even less business-friendly and would make the state even more dependent on volatile income taxes.

All three of the Republicans have pledged, albeit some more vigorously than others, to avoid new taxes and to balance the budget on spending cuts, without offering more than generalities (such as "waste") about where the cuts would be made. Schwarzenegger, the GOP front-runner, has been especially vague about details, saying that he'd have to see what a special audit team found before making any decisions -- after he was elected. And none of the three has demonstrated how he would get a Legislature dominated by liberal, pro-spending Democrats to agree to billions of dollars in unspecified budget reductions.

In brief, none of the four is offering a tell-it-like-it-is, comprehensive and politically realistic plan for cleaning up the mess. Nor is any of them likely to do so by election day. This election is looking more and more like politics as usual, not the swamp-draining that is so sorely needed.