Your "Top Priority"

There is something magical about those words in politics--"top priority". Because every time a politician utters them, the opposition begins looking for ways to undermine that priority. Senate Leader Don Perata has put a large target sign on next year's "top priority," a massive multi-billion dollar infrastructure bond to upgrade what he says are the the state's woefully inadequate road, port and levee systems. But being top priority may be more of a burden than a blessing. (Perata, it should be noted, has in recent days been joined by Gov. Schwarzenegger in pushing for such a bond). Last legislative session, Assembly Democrats torpedoed one of the Gov's top priorities, SB 1, the million solar roofs initiatives. In the months leading up to the contentious special election, many Democrats did not want to give the governor a "win" at a time when he had, as they saw it, declared war on them. And so they saddled the bill with hostile amendments until it was too heavy to float. Now next year there is no special, but top billing also means top target. Let's see how Perata's bond turns out.