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Let's see if I have the facts straight. A republican senator has filed a lawsuit to void a contract negotiated by a Davis politically appointed consultant, who had a conflict with the SCE company he was negotiating with.

If the Senator wins, what is likely to happen is that SCE will file a lawsuit against the state and the consultant for damages. The consultant probably has some insurance but not enough to cover the losses, so the deep pocket is really the state. How could the state be liable? Because it did not properly enforce the conflict of interest rules or because it did not properly employ checks and balances in the contract review/negotiations process.

So, what is the outcome likely to be....damages filed against the state and more legal fees changing hands.

Now, from a political perspective, will this embaris the Davis administration? Not likely, Davis is beyond shame.

Not sure I see the value in the litigation, except for some republican to say "me too," when Davis talks about protecting the electric customes from profit gouging power companies (not!).

I think the key to McClintock's interest may be the discovery process conducted within the governor's office and SCE. If one is looking for campaign dirt that is surely one way to get it. The problem is that there is probably so much dirt one wonders if he is going to need an excavator. The chore will be sorting it into a coherent picture.

Consider how long Bryson, Peace, Harvey Rosenfeld, Nettie Hoge, and Davis have been in bed together, 20 years? Wouldn't YOU as a Republican love to expose this long standing gambit (extending over decades) of creating a shortage by funding NGO lawsuits against non-fossil fuel power companies and cashing in on the shortage to force "conservation" and play carbon credits to "help the underdeveloped countries"? Think of the NRDC shutdown of Rancho Seco, the Sierra Club nimby suits agains Diablo Canyon, the games being played by rafters over flow rates through hydro dams, the shutdown of forestry that could create biomass, the outrageous price that MUST be paid to wind and solar power generators, and the particulate and NOx regulations that concentrate virtually ALL electrical production into one resource: natural gas. Meanwhile they expand the demand for natural gas as much as possible by increasing the fraction of MTBE required in reformulated gasoline (it lowers mileage almost half as much as the amount that is added, so there has to be a net loss of energy by mandating it). Needless to say there are no new pipelines either. Viola! A shortage; and the price of gas goes through the roof. Souprise, sureprize, so prise!