Oh shit! I’m busted!

Ever wonder what the legislators say when they have those little closed-door meetings to discuss tactics in the middle of a bill fight? OK, you probably haven’t, but this is the stuff that fascinates me, and we have a good example on Rough and Tumble today, thanks to a little Progressive Study Group faux pas in Sacrameno yesterday.

California law requires a two-thirds majority to pass a budget, and Dems would like to lower the threshold to 55% in order to free themselves of a reliance on Republican votes. In order to amend the constitution, they’re willing to extend the budget crisis indefinitely. This whole discussion, which they thought was secret, was broadcast throughout the Capital yesterday, thanks to a hot microphone in the hearing room they used for their plotting.

The best accounts are in the L. A. Times and in the Frisco Chronicle:

Members of the Assembly Democrats’ progressive caucus were heard making candid, if not intemperate, statements such as one by Los Angeles Assemblyman Fabian Nunez that they may want to “precipitate a crisis” over the budget this year. That might persuade voters to lower the two-thirds vote threshold needed to pass a spending plan, he reasoned.

“It seems to me if there’s going to be a crisis, the crisis should be this year,” Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg, D-Los Angeles, said during the meeting. “What you do is you show people that you can’t get to this without a 55 percent vote.”

The unintentional broadcast was interrupted when someone informed the group that a microphone was on. “Oh s–,” Goldberg said as the sound was cut.

The Mercury News’ coverage of the hot mike fiasco was bizarre, blaming it on unscrupulous Republicans:

Goldberg criticized Republicans for recording the session and alerting reporters. “That’s the kind of stuff that makes you think there are no ethics in this place,” she said.

See also: Evan Halper and Nancy Vogel in the Los Angeles Times Alexa H. Bluth in the Sacramento Bee David M. Drucker in the Los Angeles Daily News.