Want the inside scoop on how the recall election will turn out?

Sorry, but your guess is as good as ours. Frankly, almost anything is possible given the flood of candidates (celebrity and otherwise), the lawsuits still pending in federal court and the breaching of the political dike that was supposed to keep prominent Democrats off the ballot.

But here's one thing you can count on: While everyone's attention is riveted on the spectacle of the recall -- Arnold's in! Issa's out! Cruz is in! The court will act! No, it won't! -- the state still has serious business at hand. How that business is dealt with is likely to have long-term consequences for California. And the public had better start paying attention to that business instead of leaving it to the special interests, which have never stopped paying attention.
Here are just three of the many things now hanging in the balance:

The state's workers' compensation system is on the verge of collapse. Any solution to this problem will be tough to craft, given the political clout of the interested parties -- labor unions and trial lawyers on one side, business interests on the other. In this case, it will be doubly tough because the Legislature needs to come up with some solution before it adjourns on Sept. 12 -- only 35 days from now.

In order to make next year's patchwork budget work, the state needs to negotiate new labor agreements with a number of unions -- the same unions whose political support helped Gray Davis win two terms as governor.

For the same reason, the state also must negotiate new compacts with Indian gambling tribes -- the same tribes that have millions of dollars to spend in elections and that claim to be exempt from state campaign finance laws.

There are dozens more such issues floating around in the Legislature. Many of them will wind up awaiting approval on the desk of the governor -- the same governor who is fighting for his political life.

If the public is totally absorbed by the recall circus, if the only folks paying attention are the lobbyists and their legislative cronies and a governor desperate to create a political base -- in such circumstances, you can be sure of one thing: The state will come out of the recall in worse shape than it's already in, no matter how the election turns out. Our suggestion is to let the recall take its course and tune into the action still taking place in the Capitol, before the professionals make off with the state while its citizens are entertaining themselves into a political stupor.