Remember the old pop tune "Everything Old Is New Again?" It's truly remarkable how many of the issues coursing through California politics these days are echoes of past conflicts.

Some matters, of course, never go away, even momentarily. They are the perpetual political squabbles that have spawned permanent "communities" of interest groups and lobbyists, and no matter what happens, the underlying conflicts never disappear.

The incessant bickering over workers' compensation among employers, labor unions, attorneys, insurers and providers of medical care and rehabilitation services is a prime example. There's so much money in the workers' comp system, well over $25 billion a year currently, that everyone involved has a huge motive to continue the battle, forever if necessary.

Other issues, however, seemingly vanished, only to appear again in slightly altered form. Two of them popped up this month in the form of bills -- one dealing with how much surgery podiatrists can perform on the foot and ankle, another that would alter the taxation of multinational corporations.

Podiatrists fought a years-long battle with orthopedic surgeons in the 1970s and 1980s over the former's quest to extend their "scope of practice" beyond the foot, culminating in a law allowing them to claim the ankle -- no small financial matter in an era of injuries from jogging, skiing and tennis. Podiatrists now want to expand their practices further and have worked out a political deal with orthopedic surgeons that allows a podiatrist who is "ankle certified" to, among other things, perform partial amputations of the foot. The Assembly ratified the deal this week.

Another nasty battle was waged in the 1970s over corporate taxation, with foreign-based firms trying to eliminate California's "unitary" form of reporting taxable income. It raged for years, consuming millions of dollars in lobbying fees and campaign contributions, forcing the state's chief tax collector out of office, and ending with a law allowing firms to use options to the unitary system. The issue has re-emerged in a bill purporting to crack down on American corporations that move their headquarters offshore to dodge taxes, but the Senate rejected it this week.

The revival of old political issues is not confined to the Capitol, however, as examples from Ventura County and San Diego attest.

The former is the proposed locale for a terminal that would handle large ships -- floating Thermos bottles, in effect -- bringing liquefied natural gas to California. A quarter-century ago, a fierce battle was fought in the Capitol over a similar terminal proposed for construction just to the north in Santa Barbara County. Eventually, the Legislature -- under pressure from then-Gov. Jerry Brown -- fast-tracked the LNG terminal project, but it died when deregulation of domestic gas produced a bumper crop of new supplies to offset a supposed shortage -- the same rationale being floated for the current project.

San Diego, meanwhile, is seeing the revival of a decades-old squabble over control of a shopping and dining concession in Old Town State Historic Park, a representation of what San Diego was like at its founding. Diane Powers has operated Bazaar Del Mundo for 32 years, and during the Jerry Brown administration, its terms, seemingly more lucrative to Powers than concessions at other state parks, came under fire because of her close relationship with Richard Silberman, a wealthy San Diego businessman and top Brown adviser. Critics in the legislative budget office urged that the contract be renegotiated or be put up for competitive bidding, but Powers survived the furor -- even after Silberman went to prison for laundering drug money.

Last year, however, the state Department of Parks and Recreation did put the concession contract, which expired in 1991, up for bid, and eventually selected Buffalo, N.Y.-based Delaware North to operate the popular facility. Powers has challenged the new contract, filed a suit claiming that she owns the rights to the names of two restaurants, and generated substantial local political support for her position.

The revival of so many old squabbles, perhaps, shouldn't be surprising. After all, bell-bottom pants and pedal pushers are trendy again.